Mapping Religious Affiliation

The Washington Post had an interesting article on religion in America yesterday.

Some of the pattern seems clear. The old Confederacy has many counties with Southern Baptist pluralities. The northeast that had many decades of immigration from Ireland, Italy and other Catholic countries has many counties with Catholic pluralities, as do many counties in Florida and the southwest (which have large Hispanic populations). I think of areas that are marked with large Lutheran populations as also having received large immigrant inflows from Scandinavia. Mormons are famous for their migration to the Great Basin.

I guess there are a couple of thoughts that come from the map: 1. maybe the USA is not the melting pot that we have thought it was, and 2. religious affiliation is an aspect of culture that does not change all that quickly in America.