Keeping the faith: Religious diversity flourishes in the mountains
One need look only to the hundreds of churches in Western North Carolina to see that the people of Southern Appalachia are especially devout in their religious practices. But those houses of worship don’t necessarily paint the whole picture.
Not long after the turn of the 20th century, naturalist/adventurer Horace Kephart made a series of observations on religion in his seminal 1913 book, “Our Southern Highlanders.”
“The mountaineers are intensely, universally Protestant,” Kephart writes. “You will seldom find a backwoodsman who knows what a Roman Catholic is.” Indeed, Kephart’s words still ring true today.
The overwhelming majority of churches in the region follow Baptist or Methodist theology, however as population demographics change due to the influx of new residents from other parts of the country or world, so too change the nature of the denominations.
Now, there’s a surprising array of religious diversity in these mountains, often hidden in plain sight. Jewish and Islamic congregations, both from the Abrahamic tradition that includes Christianity, are thriving. Orthodox Christianity is also represented, as are non-western and new-age faiths.
It’s not that these congregations are without challenges — attracting new members, engaging with their communities, even ensuring the security of their congregants during worship — but as they continue to establish and expand their presence here, they’re also redefining what “keeping the faith” means to modern mountain folk.
