Britain and the Bible Belt

My brother's favorite show at the moment is a British car show called "Top Gear".    Every once in a while I'll join him to watch the three funny gentlemen discuss the latest car crazes, most of which is beyond me.  But atleast it's funny and entertains me for a short time before hitting the hay.

The other day, the show focused in on the three gentlemen taking a trip over to America to see if they could survive a few days trekking across the southern states in crappy cars (this is an old episode but what can I say, I'm late for everything).  So they purchased their barely-held together vehicles for under $1000 and began their journey.

 The episode weaves in and out of a storyline focused on British humor and the longetivity of older American cars. But the story took an unexpected twist when the men decided to push their limits and paint offensive remarks all over their cars.   I'm talking about straight out insults for people of the more isolated regions of the South, like "Country Western Sucks" and "Man Love Rules".  It was quite funny at first, seeing them get stared down on the highway.  Not too comfortable, but safe.  However, when they stopped at a little country gas station, the full-out Southern fury I've heard about came gushing forth.  The inhabitants of the little country gas station that day were not too open-minded when it came to different lifestyles or opinions.  Although the comments were slightly forced upon them by the blatantly painted car, it was still quite interesting to see the outright hatred and misunderstanding confronting the well-dressed, British gentlemen. 

To make a long story short, they fled the scene before a truckload of big, burly men kicked their behinds, making for quite entertaining television; on the other hand, it also made for quite disturbing stereotypes of the deep South.

So I started thinking, why is the Bible Belt the way it is?  Is it only because of the religious fervor that seems to accompany almost every individual?  Or can we blame their way of life on isolation (the country vs. the city)?   Another good reason may be their less stressful lives, thereby warranting more time to focus on every little detail including their religion.  I think another perfectly legitmate argument would be that the episode seems to unfairly portray the American South, since any city would take offense to certain ideas/comments brightly painted on a car (try driving through Pittsburgh with "the Steelers suck" painted on your car door.)

So in particular avoid painting any sort of offensive remarks on your car when traveling to the southern neck of the U. S. of A.  Why you would paint on your car in the first place for any reason other than a wedding/graduation celebration or British car show is again beyond me.