Day 2 - Note on Making Religion Accessible

When I was considering what religions to explore, I decided to go with the largest six religious groups in the US. It seemed the only fair thing to do, considering that we in the US have at least 313 religions actively practiced, according to an independent study performed by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (the study can be found here: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris.pdf) . 85% of households identified themselves as religious. Of those 85%:
more than 90% identified themselves as Christian (including Catholic, Mormon, and Jehovah's Witness)
1.7% suscribed to Judaism as their religious preference
0.7% were Muslim
0.6% were Buddhist
0.5% were Hindu
and 0.4% were Unitarian

Those were the top 6, and definitely the most prevalent accross the nation.

I set out to find out some information about these religions, and, because I really prefer books, I went online to see what I could find. I wondered how these religions get their information out there: is it purely online? Can I order materials from their websites? And will it be free or inexpensive? Because this could get expensive.

The first one I went to, even though it wasn't on my list, was Scientology. Scientology had a bad rap, from what I could tell - full of "crazy people who do bizarre things and believe in aliens." Their book had to be pretty good.  The scientologists did offer one free book on their website: A catalog, out of which you can order their extensive library. Must reads for beginners: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, the flagship book of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. $20 on the scientology.org website. There were 8 more books on the beginners reading list for Scientology. Thats...$140 to be a beginner Scientologist.

Mormonism was my second stop, and they offered a free book of Mormon, which I quickly signed up for. They also offered personal delivery of the book, which I wished I could opt out of, but didn't have the option.

Interested to see if my own religion offered any free books, at least a free Bible maybe, I searched for a Christianity website. I found an article on about.com titled "How to get a free Bible" (without stealing it from a hotel room). There were a couple websites that offered copies of the Bible for free including freebibles.net  and freebiblesociety.org. The website also suggested hitting up a local church for a free Bible. I didn't need a Bible, since I have a few around, so I moved on.

When I arrived at why-islam.org, I found to my delight a completely free welcome-packet for new or prospective Muslims. I signed up immediately. A few days later, I recieved my packet, and it was in a huge box. My box included: 7 books on Islam, a Qu'ran, a prayer rug, a head scarf, a magazine, and some other handouts. WOW. I was overwhelmed and I hadn't even started!

I think marketing the religion and making it accessible to people - particularly young people on the internet - is important in growing your religion. In my opinion, I don't know how else you do it, to reach my generation and those younger than me.