An Interview With Religion Writer Bob Smietana, Part 2

You're always looking for a story in the numbers. You see those numbers and you say, “OK, what does this mean?” What does that tell us about the way that people think about religion? You think, “OK, what do the numbers here tell us?” We had a story recently about domestic violence. You look for contradictions in the data. Churches say, “Boy, we really want to be helpful to domestic violence victims.” Do you have any programs? “No.” Are you prepared? “No.” Do you think it really happened? “Maybe not.”