Places in the Heart

[sandnsea]

Psychologically - just what does sitting through a tornado or hurricane do to a young person. For those who have been through it personally. I always wonder if there isn't something about living in tornado and hurricane country that causes people to become more religious.

Or any other Places in the Heart commentary that might be of interest.

[David Zephyr]

1. The great John Wilbur Cash dealt with this subject in "The Mind of the South" in 1940.

No one ever asked that question and answered as Cash did in his brilliant and insightful book "The Mind of the South". Check it out. It reads as well today as it did 30 years ago when I first read it.

[sandnsea]

6. Thanks

I will do that.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I have a feeling that we're watching the same exact thing.

The teacher seemed to be much more traumatized than the kids... :-( And the blind man rescued the little girl.:-)

But that's a good point. Since there's nothing to prevent them, even now, people turn to the only place that they can for help. :shrug:

[sandnsea]

7. Great movie

Haven't seen it in a long time. Seems to me there has to be some reason those areas are more religious. It's also possible they were settled more by the Scottish and lean more towards Calvinism in their roots, I don't know. I also wonder if a certain social philosophy is passed down, whether a person continues to practice religion or not. Or how much the religious backround of a state's founders affects the philosophy the state has towards government and labor, etc.

[Rhiannon12866]

13. I agree. With quite a stellar cast...

I know that I must have seen this before, but didn't remember most of it. There are a whole lot of messages there and the story is timeless, since it was set in the '30s. :-)

I think that the South tends to be somewhat more religious, and you may have hit on the reason, the folks who settled there. My grandmother retired to NC, so I spent a lot of time there, and they were very big on the Bible, though where she was (Western NC, beautiful country) had really great weather... :shrug:

And the only time I remember communion with those little individual cups, it was when I went to the chapel service with my grandmother at her retirement community. It's definitely a Protestant thing, though her chapel service was supposed to be non-denominational... Tradition? :shrug:

BTW, the mayor of her small town was a Democrat, a black woman. :-)

Rhiannon:hi:

[babylonsister]

3. It's not just tornadoes or hurricanes.

I have some 'young' people in my life who have been born again because of 9/11.

I think the lack of control is worrisome to these folks.

[auntsue]

5. exactly

when things are out of control people need to think there is some "higher power" who can control everything and will do so if you pray hard enough.

[TomInTib]

4. For me, just the opposite

Growing up Southern Baptist on the Coastal Bend of Texas, I often wondered why God would bring down such destruction on the very people who loved Him with all their hearts and 10% of their income.

I soured on that crap pretty quick.

Merry Christmas

Tom

[Idealism]

8. I sat through Hurricane Andrew

It made me realize at a young, impressionable age that God helps those that help themselves. Plenty of people die believing that they will be protected by their faith. Millions have died in the name of defending that belief. Ever since that realization, I've been pretty turned off to the Church.

[sandnsea]

9. What's your family's belief system

Was there anything that you saw in people with faith vs people who depended on their own ingenuity. If you don't mind my asking.

[Idealism]

10. It wasn't so much faith vs resourceful

It was more like the ambivalence in which people died. Take Hurricane Katrina for example, over 1200 dead. Most were African-Americans, which percentage-wise, are among the most active church-going Americans. There was no life sparred on the basis of belief.

My family is Italian, and Roman Catholic by nature. They do not share my beliefs. I do think Hurricane Andrew shaped my religious view, Katrina perhaps just reinforced those ideas. You may always ask me anything you wish to know, as Jefferson said "Truth between candid minds can do no harm." :)

[sandnsea]

11. Like "learned helplessness"

kind of, is that what you mean? That sort of acquiescence to "God's Will", to the point where a person's fight or ingenuity is pretty much gone?

I was raised Catholic too, and I don't think that's part of Catholic doctrine. We're required to think, or at least it was a requirement for a couple of decades there. Until they put invisible cells over real people.

[Idealism]

12. Yeah, something along those lines

God's will is given as a reason why every natural disaster has occurred since the beginning of history, it seems.