Inside Religion

“Catholics,” Abe announced as they were hunched over their lunches in the conference room in response to Stuart’s question about the largest religious group in the wider metro area. “…then protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindi, then Buddhist. I guess we can group all Christians together but it might be worthwhile to write about Catholics and protestants separately.” They were meeting again two weeks after the initial launch and had already gotten a hundred places of worship committed to advertising on their Saturday religion page. It took some convincing on Stuart’s part to include free online ads. Ether space is much cheaper than paper space and it didn’t hurt that Jennifer was influential with her father in making the decision. As it was, the hundred entries would take up half the page once the revenue started. It would be a worship directory containing the name, address, phone numbers, and service times of each faith. “How does that compare to the US national affiliations?” Stuart asked. “Flip the Catholics with protestants and the others fall into about the same order,” Abe responded. “I wouldn’t publish any firm numbers as we were looking at reports from various years. We’ve got a pretty good idea on the city’s religious views. Some of the data was rather surprising in that it showed the younger the population, having more ‘none’ responses as to religious affiliation.” “How are you doing on setting up meetings with the clergy, Jen?” Stuart asked as he sat down next to her with his sandwich and cup of coffee. “Well,” she answered. “I’ve made about a dozen calls to date and no one has called me back. I’ll try again. We have a Rabbi right here. We can start with the Jewish faith and interview Abe. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. Would that be okay, Abe?” She asked. “Fine with me,” Abe replied, “but I’m not really a scholar. You may want to interview someone more familiar with Jewish history.” “You would make a better subject for what I am trying to achieve because you are with your ‘flock’ so to speak,” Stuart interjected. “I want to write about what people believe about their faith. I’m putting the finishing touches on my initial article introducing the updated religion section. Anyone want to read it when I get it done?” Stuart asked. Everyone stopped eating and looked at Stuart. After the silence stretched to an uncomfortable interval Stuart said, “What?” “You’re the editor, Stuart,” Enid told him. “You should be reading our work not the other way around, but I would be happy to read it if you like.” “Ah, well, it’s just that I want it to be effective. The readership probably will pass it by and head for the crossword anyway.”