Grievances of the Civil War Made the Bible Belt

It's often said the defeat of Germany, and the humiliation that followed, led to the rise of Hitler. There is a narrative also that defeat of the South in the U.S. gave rise to the Bible Belt.

I can't remember the last time I heard any news person, preacher or politician utter the phrase, "The Southern way of life." I heard it often a few decades back. What did it mean? My interpretation was it meant white people could rightfully not send their children to schools where there were black children. Interracial marriage was not "The Southern way of life." In short, practicing racial segregation and discriminating against black people was "The Southern way of life."

According to the link, "The Southern way of life", if the phrase was used before the Civil War, did not include the notion of a Bible Belt. The South was about segregation and slavery.  From evidence available today, church membership and attendance was lower in the South than in the North. The Bible thumpers of that period in history were in New England. 

By the time Atlanta fell and the Civil War ended, the South had seen huge losses among its young men. With them gone and the humiliation felt by the defeat, a feeling of devastation fell across those states. The defeat was not rationalized by concluding the South was wrong. Instead, preachers and politicians told people the war was lost because the South was right. It was the side of idealism and nobility. The belief was the South would rise again and this time defeat the North. The North had won, not because its cause was just, but because is used wealth and unfair battle practices. A few decades ago, my wife and I were strolling through a park in Savanah, GA. A plaque read, "Here, 300 brave sons of the South died at the hands of an underhanded army with no morals (paraphrased)".

Just as Hitler told the defeated and demoralized Germans it was they, not the victors, who were the superior race and must rise to show the world. Preachers and politicians told the demoralized Southerns they were the true children of God. The more God, the more Southern was each person, community and state.

While I don't claim to understand such things, it seems like humiliation and what is called "loss of face" is a great force in driving events. Perhaps what drive Putin in the humiliation of a lost powerful Russia. The large male vote for Trump is thought be some be the result of the rise of women in society. If eventually the Bible Belt is no more, we will be better off.