Keeping the Covenant

In this upscale Dunwoody (Atlanta) neighborhood, covenants ban pickup trucks, Peterbilts, drag racers, farm wagons, and horse trailers. And the neighborhood association is very active in enforcement. But friends of your correspondent decided to see if a paint job on a horse trailer might prompt an exception. Sure enough, the busy little bourgeois housewives charged with enforcement have not yet found it in themselves to ask for its removal.
In our next experiment we airbrush a portrait of Jesus on the side of monster truck...

Religion

Southerners have a unique view of the role of religion in public life. Most are devoutly religious, or pretend to be. A frightening number are opposed to the separation of church and state.

And while you might expect people who are so devout to be pious and humble, quite the opposite is generally true. Many Southerners have a real sense of superiority when it comes to their religious beliefs. Many Southern Baptists believe non-Christians are incapable of exercising moral judgment.

A police officer was killed in the line of duty here recently, and the chief announced it was a tragic loss "because he was from a Christian family." As if the officer's death would have been less tragic had he been Jewish.

A woman whose infant died in a hospital here told the news media that her child's death was such a sad event that "even people who aren't Christians were crying."