Date of Award
12-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Thesis
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Brent Hege
Second Advisor
Jason Lantzer
Abstract
America is known for its Bible Belt, a region known for conservative, fundamentalist Protestantism in the southeast portion of the United States. Though this conservative culture is often associated with the south and their history of conservative politics and racial discrimination, there lies a question of if the Bible Belt is geographically limited or dependent more on culture, history, and the politics within this setting. The Indiana Southern Baptist Convention holds a highly conservative viewpoint on Christian religion, similarly to the southeast portion of the U.S., as well as a controversial history with racism and politics that is linked to religion. In this thesis, I seek to prove that the Southern Baptist Convention of Indiana adheres to the cultural, historical, and religious aspects of the traditional Bible Belt and deserves recognition as part of the region. Through analyzing the Southern Baptist Convention's intersection of politics and religion, voting history, and migration patterns to the State, it becomes that the Southern Baptist Convention of Indiana and the Bible Belt are more similar than previously thought.
Recommended Citation
Fulton, Abigail N., "Where Does the Belt Belong? Examining if the Indiana Southern Baptist Convention Belongs in America's "Bible Belt"" (2025). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 758.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/758