Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1921-02-19
MINISTER'S
ADVERTISING MEN
Jerome P. Fleishman, In "Uncle
Jerry Says" Gives To The
Public The Following:

which means Goodness, needs an adj
vertising manager.
Sin is very efficiently advertised. 1t
has the advantage of being something
that the buyer wants. When the de-
sire for commodity already is es-
tablished, the marketing of that COM
modify is comparatively simple
matter.
But goodness is something that
must be sold.
The desire for it must be created.
And getting the purchasers name
on the dotted line requires, to my way
of thinking, the very highest kind of
craftsmanship.
Headquarters for goodness seems
for centuries to have been established
in the church.
The c. ~fch is the jobber for the
best brand of merchandise ever offer
ed humanity-G odliness.
Ministers and priests and rabbis are
the church's sales managers.
Some Of them need lessons in sales
manship.
If ! were selling typewriters, I do
not think would tell the prospect
what would happen when the mechan-
ism got out of order.
| would dwell on the desirable fea-
akQres of the article.
would sell the good work my ma
ci1ne is capable of doing. 1 would
sell its stability, it's strength, it's last
ing power. l would sell it's service.
Do the sales managers of Goodness
do that?
Not always.
Too often they sell us the negative
side of their stock-in-t trade.
They tell us what will happen to US
if we aren't good.
In lurid word-pictures they paint
Hell in all it's horribleness.
They dwell on our earthly sins in all
their fascinating detail.
Sometimes they almost make us
proud that we are worldly enough to
know a thing or two.
That is negative craftsmanship.
That is why there are empty pews
and empty hearts.
That is why religion today, in in
Vulnerable personal applications, is
something man carries in his hip
pocket and takes swallow of on the
few occasions when he is thirsty.
Nothing very useful, except per-
haps handk .rchiefs, ever came out of
hip pockets.
The big job that the church faces
is the making of people thirsty all the
time and the bringing about of real
ization that their thirst can oe salts
fed only at the fountain of True God
illness, and not from the Pharisaic
hip-pocket travelling refreshnentor-
ium.
Many Of Gods advertising men are
trying to sell something that isn't
all-wool-and-a-yard-wide.
They arc trying to put over the
kind Of Goodness that is found in
creed and cant and ritual.
1t is easy to make people sing
hymns. 1t is difficult-very difficult
Ito make them feel down in their
very souls the meaning of those
hymns.
That is why an Advertising Man is
needed for Goodness.
If were Gods advertising man,
would fight shy of the hard-an-fast
kind of religious teaching, and |
would map out campaign aimed to
put into every human heart love for
its fellows and real desire to serve
those fellows.
/ would plan the kind of "copy"'
that would smash it's way into the
dark fastness of religious bigotry and
let the sunshine of Love in.
! would have men pay less atten-
ton to the mouthing of their religion
and more attention to the living of it.
would create in every human
breast a desire for the finer things of
life-for art, for music. for good
books, for the songs of birds and the
laughter Of children.
For only as we grow spiritually can
we hope 70 evolve morally.
would build mammoth temple of
friendliness, and every day in the
year, there would be preached therein
sermon by some man or some wom-
an who had suffered enough to know
how to be kind.