Hi everyone! My husband and I are considering moving to NWA in the next couple of years, and we have two little girls. What I most want to know is how much the culture there creates/condones religious pressure, especially on kids.

We are atheists, but quiet ones. We don't pick philosophical fights, don't have any problem with other people believing as they choose, etc. But we don't want to lie to our kids about what we believe or ask them to lie to others to be accepted and treated well.

I grew up in central and western Arkansas, and it was NEVER acceptable to admit you didn't believe in God or weren't a Christian. People (esp other kids) would ask 9 or 10 year old me whether I was saved and what I believed about x or y, and when I didn't answer as they wanted, lots of kids AND THEIR PARENTS either set out to "save my soul" or shunned me outright. The (big, public) schools I went to were also blatantly pushing a Christian agenda - our sex ed segment in health class was taught by a youth pastor they brought in, church youth group leaders came to school to eat lunch with us every week, and many of our science teachers told us they didn’t teach evolution because they believed it was a lie.

We are determined not to let our children experience the same things I did. Would our kids likely still have this problem in NWA? How different is the culture there from other parts of the state?