As long as this response made sense to you. ;)

Good. :)

Yep. I clarified several times. Glad that's now been observed.

I did laugh a little when I read this. FWIW, until the last two elections, North Carolina was basically a blue state, except in national elections. NC has tended to vote Republican for president and perhaps Senate, with the rest of the congressional delegation being somewhat evenly divided. That changed when the state went for Obama in '08.

At the state level, there have only been two Republican governors in the last 140 years, and the last one was elected in 1980 and 1984. That only changed with the last election, when Republicans took control of the state Senate for the first time in over 100 years and took control of the state House for only the second (I think) time in as long.

As for Charlotte, it has always had a stronger Republican presence than much of North Carolina. Raleigh (which is growing faster than Charlotte), Durham and Chapel Hill form a much more Democratic area.

Compared to other Southern states, NC has always been more progressive -- I certainly won't say liberal --and somewhat less conservative politically. What we're actually seeing in NC now could be a rise in conservative influence.

This may or may not be true for North Carolina, but Georgia as a whole is much more socially conservative than it is fiscally conservative. The Democrat/Republican divide within the state has been along completely different lines than the national debate. Not until recent elections (the past decade or so) has that started to align more, and you've seen things like Republican governors elected that previously would have been unimaginable.

I've just caught myself up in this thread and I still don't understand your point. What was your intention in pointing out this type of cultural pressure only in the South?

That was not what I pointed out.

To be honest, the point you were trying to make was never really clear to me. Sorry.

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...C6vE2Tz_uDvi3g
It had something to do with a map. :p

Yesterday, I thought about the difference between Christian GLOs and GLOs in which the majority of membership is Christian.

In hanging with my friends who are also Sorors, I have always noticed that the majority are "devout Christians." We could attend church together; make faith-based references in casual conversation; and Sorors would (in what could be perceived as crossing the line) apply aspects of religion to Delta chapter/committee meetings. That happens in many BGLO chapters across the country and is also one component of Black American culture (and the culture of other groups) across the country. Well, yesterday we were hanging out and attending different events. Throughout the day I asked myself "what if I was a Delta who isn't Christian or one of many people of the African diaspora who isn't Christian...would I feel left out by this?" It also reminded me of my Jewish family members' facial expressions when we always prayed in the name of Jesus when I was younger.

We just had this conversation at our chapter meeting today. Except on the opposite side, those of us that are devout Christians outnumbered by non devouts. When the issue was brought up it was immediately recognized.