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==Geography==
The name "Bible belt" has been applied historically to the South and parts of the Midwest, but is more commonly identified with the South. In a 1961 study, [[Wilbur Zelinsky]] delineated the region as the area in which Protestant denominations, especially Southern Baptist, Methodist, and evangelical, are the predominant religious affiliation. The region thus defined included most of the Southern United States, including most of [[Texas]] and [[Oklahoma]] in the southwest, and in the states south of the [[Ohio River]], and extending east to include central West Virginia and Virginia south of Northern Virginia. In addition, the Bible belt covers most of [[Missouri]] and [[Kentucky]] and southern parts of [[Illinois]], [[Indiana]], and [[Ohio]]. On the other hand, areas in the South which are ''not'' considered part of the Bible belt include heavily Catholic Southern Louisiana, central and southern Florida, which have been settled mainly by immigrants and Americans from elsewhere in the country, and overwhelmingly Hispanic South Texas. A 1978 study by Charles Heatwole identified the Bible belt as the region dominated by 24 fundamentalist Protestant denominations, corresponding to essentially the same area mapped by
According to Stephen W. Tweedie, the Associate Professor Emeritus at the Department of Geography in the Oklahoma State University, the Bible belt is now viewed in terms of numerical concentration of the audience for religious television.<ref name=Carney_Fast_Food>{{cite book|last1=Carney|first1=edited by George O.|title=Fast food, stock cars and rock'n' roll : place and space in American pop culture|date=1995|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Lanham|isbn=9780847680801|page=131|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aJnNasHzjN0C&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref> He finds two belts: one more eastern that stretches from Florida, (excluding Miami, [[Tampa]] and South Florida), through [[Alabama]], [[Tennessee]], Kentucky, [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], North and [[South Carolina]], and into [[Virginia]] (excluding [[Northern Virginia]]) ; and another that concentrated in Texas (excluding [[El Paso]], and [[South Texas]]), [[Arkansas]], [[Louisiana]], (excluding [[New Orleans]] and [[Acadiana]]), Oklahoma, Missouri, [[Kansas]], and [[Mississippi]].<ref>Tweedie, S.W. (1978) Viewing the Bible belt. [[Journal of Popular Culture]] 11; 865-76</ref> "[H]is research also broke the Bible Belt into two core regions, a western region and an eastern region. Tweedie's western Bible Belt was focused on a core that extended from Little Rock, Arkansas to Tulsa, Oklahoma. His eastern Bible Belt was focused on a core that included the major population centers of Virginia and North Carolina.<ref name=About_BibleBelt>{{cite news|last1=Rosenberg|first1=Matt|title=The Bible Belt Extends Throughout the American South (And Perhaps Beyond?)|url=http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/fl/The-Bible-Belt.htm|accessdate=11 June 2015|agency=About Education|publisher=About.com|ref=Rosenberg}}</ref>
[[File:Bible-minded Cities map.PNG|thumb|Bible-minded Cities map]]
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