Recently I was speaking with a new friend and she made an odd comment to me. She was surprised that I am a Christian because I am kind of earthy, granola-crunchy. I told my sister-in-law about it while were on vacation and she was surprised. She is from the Mid-West and Christians there are commonly granola-crunchy people. The difference in the South is that being a Christian is traditional. They aren't often life-changing Christians. Christianity is just something they do, like changing your oil every 3,000 miles or going to Grandma's for Christmas. The first question you are asked in the South is for your name. The second question is where you attend church. It was just in a book I was reading about bread. There was an article on Southern Biscuits and the author was on a plane with other Alabamians who would ask each other where they go to church. I think that makes it extra difficult to attract people to Christ. It is assumed that if you name a church of attendance, then you must go there regularly and be in a "saved" condition. It doesn't so much matter that your speech is smattered with profanity, that you are living with your boyfriend, that you get drunk on the weekends; what matters is that you can answer the second question of the South, "So, where do you go to church?" My husband and I were walking on the beach and a woman stopped to chat with us. The first question was do you have a church. She didn't even bother to get our names. We didn't go into detail about my husband's pastoral position or his education, we didn't even get asked a thing about Christ. As long as we had a church she was happy. I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to be a Christian in the North, where being a Christian means something, even if it is distasteful to many.