Just blindly faithful to the inerrancy of the Bobble and waiting for Jesus to come take them away to Beulahland. Hell, if I had to live among that population, I’d probably welcome death’s comforting arms, myself, because the promise of oblivion is that it frees you from the hatred and stupidity of these “true believers."
But there are also a goodly number of Mississippians who aren’t on board with Governor Reeves, who are, in fact, compassionate and intellectually thirsty people trapped by unfortunate circumstance in one of the most intellectually backward places in America. They hope, I guess, that things will change. But things won’t change as long as the “faithful” have their own hands on the reins of government and “acceptable” local culture. And they tend to procreate more prolifically than thoughtful, educated people.
However, I disagree completely with Farron Cousins’ suggestion that the Bobble Thumpers are encouraged to “live it up now.” He misses an important and central point to all this. These yokels aren’t living it up. They view heaven as a reared for putting up with all the pain and sorrow they have to face in life. This faith is not “eat drink and be merry” it’s more “just take the ugliness of life because god will replace your misery on Earth with happiness in heaven.” The serious perversity of Reeves’ comments is that it suggests that god actually visits us with pain and sorrow because, well, that’s what god does.
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