I come from a small dot on the bottom left hand corner of the Missouri map. It was not until I had been away from my hometown for quite some time that I realized the irony of its name, Liberal. The majority of its 780 residents are about as far from being liberal as many of Austin's residents are from being conservative. However, this was not always the case.
My map dot was actually founded in 1880 by a liberal attorney named George H. Walser, who wanted a place free of religion and, believe it or not, alcohol. In an effort to rid southwestern Missouri of Walser's dream town, a group of Christians bought a small plot of land adjacent to the godless community, named it Pedro (no longer in existence), and tried to proselytize the heathens of Liberal, MO. They must have succeeded as the town now has at least four churches within its 0.8 square miles, and several more within the farming community's zip code.
If you are interested in knowing more about my "Liberal village", just look it up on your favorite search engine; there isn't much out there, but what is available is quite interesting. And for those of you interested in visiting the lost atheist's "heaven", let me know; I'll give you the grand tour.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Christy. And I didn't know there was an atheist's heaven to lose, but it doesn't surprise me that if we had one, we lost it.
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