Inside Oklahoma: Welcome to the Most Conservative Bible State | ENDEVR Documentary

Jun 27, 2025 | Located in the heart of the Bible Belt, the most religious area of the United States, Oklahoma is considered to be among the most conservative states in America. Home to the highest number of prisoners sentenced to death in the country, Oklahoma also has some of the strictest abortion laws -and there are more women in prison here than anywhere else in the USA. Furthermore, a great deal of the residents in the state are sceptical of climate change – and they are mostly white, rural and Republican. It is also in Oklahoma, where you can buy a gun at the supermarket.

In the last Presidential election, Donald Trump acquired more than 90% of the votes in various counties in Oklahoma. Travelling across the state, we met a sheriff who calls himself the toughest in the state. For him, strict punishments are the only course of action, even for minor offences. We also followed anti-abortion activists, some of whom advocate the death penalty for women who have abortions, and who also campaign to ban books which promote the rights and representation of the Black or LGBTQ+ community.

We met with staff from the last clinic practicing abortion in Oklahoma – forced to close its doors following the latest anti-abortion laws after being open for fifty years. Now, women seeking an abortion have to drive hundreds of kilometres to neighbouring New Mexico, where it is still legal.

Southern Baptist Father's Reaction to His Gay Son

Apr 3, 2014 • “My father, a Southern Baptist deacon, shares his experience in dealing with the knowledge that I am his gay son in a room of gay men and supporters at a fundraising event. In his speech he talks about how he came to understand what unconditional love really is.”

Bible Belt Atheist | Op-Docs | The New York Times

In this short documentary, a former Pentecostal preacher starts a secular congregation in the heart of the Bible Belt.

Why a Bible Belt Conservative Spent a Year Pretending to Be Gay

THE OBSERVER: Timothy Kurek, a graduate of the evangelical Liberty University, decided to 'walk in the shoes' of a gay man and emerged with his faith strengthened

Timothy Kurek grew up hating homosexuality. As a conservative Christian deep in America's Bible belt, he had been taught that being gay was an abomination before God. He went to his right-wing church, saw himself as a soldier for Christ and attended Liberty University, the "evangelical West Point".

But when a Christian friend in a karaoke bar told him how her family had kicked her out when she revealed she was a lesbian, Kurek began to question profoundly his beliefs and religious teaching. Amazingly, the 26-year-old decided to "walk in the shoes" of a gay man in America by pretending to be homosexual.

For an entire year Kurek lived "under cover" as a homosexual in his home town of Nashville. He told his family he was gay, as well as his friends and his church. Only two pals and an aunt – used to keep an eye on how his mother coped with the news – knew his secret. One friend, a gay man called Shawn – whom Kurek describes as a "big black burly teddy bear" – pretended to be his boyfriend. Kurek got a job in a gay cafe, hung out in a gay bar and joined a gay softball league, all the while maintaining his inner identity as a straight Christian.

The result was a remarkable book called The Cross in the Closet, which follows on the tradition of other works such as Black Like Me, by a white man in the 1960s deep south passing as a black American, and 2006'sSelf-Made Man, by Norah Vincent, who details her time spent in disguise living as a man. "In order to walk in their shoes, I had to have the experience of being gay. I had to come out to my friends and family and the world as a gay man," he told the Observer.

Kurek's account of his year being gay is an emotional, honest and at times hilarious account of a journey that begins with him as a strait-laced yet questioning conservative, and ends up with him reaffirming his faith while also embracing the cause of gay equality. » | Paul Harris, New York | Saturday, October 13, 2012

Insights: Evangelicals in the South

Evangelicals in the South from Chris on Vimeo.
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover (US)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US)