(ANALYSIS) I thought the Google Maps website could provide me with crucial information for this post. Alas, that was not the case.

I thought that I could call up a map of Burnsville, North Carolina, and then, after enlarging it, I would be able to count all the Baptist churches between I-26 near Mars Hill and Burnsville on U.S. Highway 19 — but very few of them showed up.

In this week’s “Crossroads” post, I put it this way:

Faith is a major force in a region in which almost all of the essential two-lane roads are next to rivers (since the rivers cut through the mountains), all the towns are next to the roads and most of the Baptist churches (there are hundreds) are next to rivers that are often used in baptism rites.

Life in the Southern Highlands is, for the most part, squeezed into the water-cut folds in these granite and basalt mountains, which are among the most ancient in the world. Building roads on the sides or the ridges of these mountains is almost impossible, which is why the Blue Ridge Parkway (parts of it wrecked by Helene and closed indefinitely) is so spectacular.

I would say there are at least seven, eight or nine on that highway or visible from it, in a mere 18 miles. Two of those Baptist churches are on the same corner, separated by a two-lane road and, one must assume, doctrinal nuances.

Basically, you will find one or two Baptist congregations (in a variety of Baptist “traditions”) wherever the road crosses a creek or comes really close to one. Eventually you reach the Cane River and Burnsville.

Why do I bring this up, attached to a weekend think piece?

In the week-plus since the Hurricane Helene disaster began — stress on the word “began” — I have had a few people outside this region ask me why so many mountain people live along creeks and rivers. Don’t the folks in the mountains know that they are asking for trouble?

To read the rest of this post, please visit Terry Mattingly’s Substack at Rational Sheep.

Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.