Fuck the Bible Belt (and wear a condom when you do); Why can't we learn from their mistakes?

As you can see from this Wikipedia-borrowed map, if Florida is America's dick, the Bible Belt is like our very own version of the clap.

In what began as a passing effort to back up my long-held belief that America's Bible Belt represents a haven for ignorance, intolerance, and backward thinking*, a few weeks back I casually searched the internet for the rates of STIs in the U.S. by state.

This seemed like the perfect starting place to see how strongly the numbers showed the logically-obvious correlation between the Christian fundamentalist stance against contraception and comprehensive sex education and potentially higher rates of sexually transmitted infections. Here's what I found:

As of 2009, the top 5 states by rate of infection by STD (Source)

Syphilis:

1. Louisiana

2. Georgia

3. Arkansas

4. Alabama

5. Mississippi

Chlamydia:

1. Mississippi

2. Alaska

3. Louisiana

4. South Carolina

5. Alabama

Gonorrhea:

1. Mississippi

2. Louisiana

3. South Carolina

4. Alabama

5. Arkansas

As you can plainly see, I was not off the mark. In fact, if you combine these 3 lists into a composite of the top 5 most-infected states, you come up with this:

Most STI-ridden States

1. Louisiana

2. Mississippi

3. Alabama

4. Arkansas

5. South Carolina

Using polling data from Gallup from 2008 (as close in date as I could conveniently find to the 2009 U.S. STI data), I now present you with a list of the top 5 most religious states in the U.S. from the same time period:

"Most Religious" States

1. Mississippi

2. Alabama

3. South Carolina

4. Tennessee

5. Louisiana & Arkansas (tie)

Look familiar? Tennessee is the only of these five "most religious" states that does not also appear in the top 5 list for rates of sexually transmitted infection (though they did crack the top 10 in both syphilis and chlamydia).

None of this was at all shocking to me, of course, but it's always nice to see the data back you up. So why, then, do I feel worse than when I first thought about this? Why, instead, am I just pissed off?

I'm pissed because, rather than heeding the warnings stats like these provide, or listening to the experts who analyze them for a living, in 2012 some states are STILL pushing for abstinence-only in their schools. My home state of Wisconsin, for one, took a massive, Bible-Beltian step backward, spurning its progress-minded citizens and passing legislation instituting abstinence-only sex education in its schools.

I first read about an abstinence-only bill that was moving forward in Utah, posting the article on Facebook and commenting that I was disgusted to see such a thing even being discussed in 2012. This is not to say I don't expect this kind of bogus shit from Utah. Mormons are as anti-progress (at least in the social realm) and shortsighted as their born-again and Baptist brethren in the Southeast, but their governor vetoed the bill.

A day or two later I learned this was also going on in Wisconsin, and Gov. Scott Walker is likely to sign the bill (already passed by the state Assembly) into law soon. I had no idea this kind of thing was on the radar there, and it made me nauseous. Despite knowing things had gotten pretty fucked up since Walker and the Republicans in the state senate took over, I clung to some naive notion that somehow, in Wisconsin, even religious Republicans weren't that fucking stupid.

I found out the goings-on in Wisco from my brother's facebook status, some of which I pasted below.

ABSTINENCE ONLY? DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT'S GOING TO FLY? NOT EVERYONE SUBSCRIBES TO YOUR RETARDED RELIGIOUS BELIEFS! GOD ISN'T REAL! HE IS A JOKE, AND THEREFORE HIS IDEAS SHOULD NOT INFLUENCE THE GOVERNMENT OF ANYONE. IF YOU COULD PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR SELF-RIGHTEOUS HYPOCRITICAL ASSES FOR ONE SECOND YOU'D SEE HOW STUPID THAT IS, AND AGAINST THE VERY NATURE OF HUMANS. YOUR KIDS ARE GOING TO HAVE A SEX DRIVE, AND IT IS MENTAL ABUSE TO MAKE THEM THINK THAT THERE IS SOMETHING SHAMEFUL ABOUT IT. ABSTINENCE ONLY IS GOING TO LEAVE OUT CRITICAL PIECES OF INFORMATION THAT YOUR KIDS NEED, BECAUSE THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE THE DESIRE FOR SEX WHETHER YOU MAKE THEM THINK IT'S SINFUL OR NOT. YOU ARE STUPID PEOPLE

Granted, this is a rant, but you won't find me criticizing any of it. He's spot on in his points, if over-the-top in tone, and he cuts to the heart of solving this as a social issue. Stop pandering to religion.

We need to come together to see that science, logic, reason, and facts are made the basis of our public policy, rather than the dusty, inapt pages of the Bible, Koran, Torah or any other antiquated, mystical text. And no, there is not room for both. In the public realm, in order to continue improving rather than stagnating and falling backwards, we can't waste time by coddling religion, especially ones that would have us unhealthily ignore and repress our sexuality**.

J. Scott

*- By no means do I wish to suggest these qualities are absent elsewhere in the U.S. or abroad, but I find this region particularly representative of the greater worldwide problem of religious zealotry.

**- To say nothing of the many other ways religion holds us back.