Don’t move to Portland! That’s Glenn Beck’s advice…. Avoid it “like the plague,” he recently warned. Why so down on Portland, Glenny? I mean, what’s wrong with rain, excellent public transportation, white people with dreadlocks tossing beanbags in the streets, apple pancakes, green vistas, and great beer? Why avoid a city regularly ranked…as one of the best in the nation for seniors, best for foodies, and best in terms of safety for families with children?… [A]ccording to Rabbi Beck, Portland is to be avoided because it is possibly the most secular city in America. That’s right. According to a recent report…by the Public Religion Research Institute, Portland is the top major city in America with the highest percentage of religiously “unaffiliated” adults. Not all unaffiliated men and women are atheists or agnostics, of course. But a significant chunk of them are. And they tend to not go to church. Essentially, the unaffiliated are just not that into religion. And according to the report, 42% of Portlanders are religiously unaffiliated.
This isn’t the first time I’ve come across a reference to Glenn Beck’s disdain for the Rose City. Speaking for myself (and, I suspect, many Portlanders), I’m pretty OK with him avoiding Portland due to our heathen ways. I kinda like it that way, and it seems 42% of Portlanders feel the same way. Besides, if Glenn Beck hates something, it’s a pretty safe bet I’m going to be all over it…and so it is with my adopted hometown, which I love with a passion I’m not certain I possess the vocabulary adequate to the task of accurately describing.
Whether you’re “good without God” (my thing) or simply ambivalent to the whole Superior Being/Invisible Sky Friend idea, no one here gets too worked up over the absence or presence of religion. Portland may not be the most ethnically/racially diverse and tolerant city in the world (It puts the “White” in “white bread”), but when it comes to religion, the prevailing ethos is definitely “live and let live.” No one who calls the Rose City home seems to be able or willing to claim that living here has irreparably damaged their immortal soul.
Beck probably may well hate Puddletown because his brand of hyper-religious pious authoritarianism doesn’t sell well here. We don’t hold rallies to protest same-sex marriage or gay rights, we don’t believe abortion or homosexuality to have the power to cause natural disasters, and we tend to reject those who claim the imprimatur of the Almighty. In the aggregate, Portlanders have a low tolerance for hateful dogmatic bullshit. It’s the anti-Texas, which is one of the reasons I feel so comfortable and at home here.
According to Wallethub’s 2015…best and worst cities to live in America, highly secular Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco make the top-ten. None of the most religious cities do. Portland comes in at #12. Highly religious Atlanta comes in way down at #27, Houston at #29, Nashville at #34, Dallas at #50! Pretty crappy rankings for cities with so many religious folks, no? According to Numbeo’s 2016…Quality of Life Index, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, and Portland are among the top-20 best cities to live in the USA. Atlanta makes the cut as well (coming in at #19), but none of the other highly religious cities in America do.
Hmm…could it be that religiosity isn’t a valid indicator of quality of life? Could it be that dogmatic religious faith negatively impacts quality of life? Perhaps a population not mired in dogma and willing to allow others to believe as they see fit might be a better indicator? Perhaps godless heathens and idolators Portlanders just innately understand that religious faith is not a requirement for leading a moral life?
The news only gets better for denizens of Stumptown:
How about this: according to the FBI’s 2014 uniform crime report…the violent crime rate in Portland was 472. That means that for every 100,000 citizen, there were 472 violent crimes that year. In Tampa, the violent crime rate was 582, in Denver it was 598, in Seattle it was 603, and in San Francisco it was 795. But in Nashville, the violent crime rate was 1,122! In Atlanta it was 1,227! In Charlotte it was 589, in Dallas it was 664, in Houston it was 991, and in Pittsburg it was 798 - got that? Violent crime rates were way higher, on average, in America’s most religious cities than in America’s least religious cities.
Interesting. So the argument that a belief in the Christian God is a prerequisite for leading a moral life turns out to be pure, self-serving propaganda with no basis in reality? Whodathunkit??
The same holds true for determining America’s best cities to retire to and America’s fittest cities (Portland’s #1). The data holds true for other factors as well, but why would I bury my gentle reader in data points when the trend is quite clear.
Truth be told, in a global sense, highly religious cities are some of the worst places overall, and most secular cities are among the best. The conclusion that I believe could be drawn is that religious faith- or perhaps more accurately, the dogged, inflexible attachment to it- has far more potential for making things worse than creating a superior quality of life.
As for us godless reprobates here in Portland, most of us are pretty OK with the idea that Christians consider our hometown to be a den of iniquity, licentiousness, and immoral earthly pleasures (Hey, we have TWO vegan strip clubs!). That may irritate those who believe a lack of faith in the Christian God can only mean being stuck in the fast lane on the expressway to Hell, but Portlanders generally don’t focus on faith in an artificial invisible concept. No, we’re generally far too obsessed with our Portland Timbers to concern ourselves with ecclesiastical concerns. Soccer may not seem to some an acceptable substitute for accepting Jesus Christ as one’s personal Lord and Savior, but we have Caleb Porter…and he’s proven to be a pretty serviceable substitute.
Besides, how many MLS Cups has God won?
