There is something about the South that accepts the supernatural. If you don't accept it and you're having a conversation with someone who does it's just one of those polite things where you don't question their belief in ghosts. You just go 'Oh yeah okay.' It's amazing to be able to have conversations like that.
When theology erodes and organization crumbles when the institutional framework of religion begins to break up the search for a direct experience which people can feel to be religious facilitates the rise of cults.