Source: The Huntsville Times
I've been thinking about the spiritual demographics of our area since a woman wrote a letter to the editor stating that the diversity included in this section is not representative of the area. She implied the section includes too much on non-Christian or unconventional Christian faith.
Her letter arrived the same week that I received many e-mails lauding the variety included in the section.
We reporters and editors talk about these issues a lot. We are always looking for that elusive balance between being an accurate mirror of the community but also of giving an outside perspective, a context for our life together.
Once a friend asked Henry David Thoreau if he'd been anywhere lately. Thoreau said, "I've traveled a good deal in Concord," his hometown. At their best, newspapers can help readers travel widely in their own backyard. And the Tennessee Valley area provides rich terrain for exploration.
I haven't made up any of the more unconventional people and events we've featured in these pages. But, inch for inch, news about the Protestant Christian community still owns more of this section, as it probably should. My own sense of who we are here is that I've barely begun to scratch the surface, either about complexities of what is perceived as conventional Christianity or about other, less common spiritual paths.