GODSTUFF:<\/font><\/p>\n\u2018GOD, INC.\u2019 PUTS \u2018OFFICE\u2019 HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTING<\/span><\/p>\n<\/iframe>Some of the funniest moments in \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d are produced by the \u201cPublicity\u201d department, a k a world religions.<\/p>\n<p>For three years running, the Muslim publicist has had the best numbers (because, he says, \u201cMy marketing strategy is the one, true marketing strategy\u201d), winning converts hand over fist, and annoying the pious (and obnoxious) Esther, who\u2019s in charge of \u201cReally Christians.\u201d (Not to be confused with Andy, a slackery dude who does P.R. for the \u201cSort-of Christians,\u201d who, he explains to Sarah, are the ones who go to church on Christmas and Easter and who believe. Sort of.)<\/p>\n<p>To try to shake up the populations of the world\u2019s religions, the office manager, fearsome Piper, starts a contest to see, in a week, which publicist can come up with the most new converts. The winner gets a box of steaks, which doesn\u2019t make the Hindu publicist very happy.<\/p>\n<p>Stokes, who was reared Lutheran and says he is fascinated by spirituality and \u201cwhy the world is the way it is,\u201d dreamed up \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d over a beer with his brother-in-law, Kyle, at his home in Downers Grove last summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe works in [information technology] and was just giving me some ideas,\u201d recalled Stokes, who has been making feature-length independent films for a decade, while also working for the City of Los Angeles, \u201cwhich explains my deep understanding of the workings of a bureaucratic institution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As YouTube.com became known as a venue for young filmmakers to get recognized, Stokes decided to go for it with \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The overwhelming response has shocked no one more than Stokes, who has heard from many self-identified religious people, some of whom thought \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d was hilarious, while others took offense. The filmmaker recalls \u201cgetting an e-mail from someone saying, \u2018Is this how you think the afterlife is going to be, because I can assure you that it\u2019s not!\u2019 Yeah, because they know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, Stokes got a note from a Presbyterian minister who asked for the series on DVD so he could use it as a teaching tool in a class on spirituality, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it strikes a chord,\u201d Stokes said. \u201cA lot of people who aren\u2019t that religious . . . feel like religions avoid a lot of questions or give them answers that don\u2019t ring true to them. So maybe this does in some sort of silly way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>God never appears in any of the \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d episodes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s intentional,\u201d Stokes says, \u201cso that, in essence, these characters have the same questions about the grand plan that the rest of us do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GODSTUFF: \u2018GOD, INC.\u2019 PUTS \u2018OFFICE\u2019 HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTING Some of the funniest moments in \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d are produced by the \u201cPublicity\u201d department, a k a world religions. For three years running, the Muslim publicist has had the best numbers (because, he says, \u201cMy marketing strategy is the one, true marketing strategy\u201d), winning converts hand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2711],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Dude Abides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in "God, Inc." are produced by the "Publicity" department, a k a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in "God, Inc." are produced by the "Publicity" department, a k a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Dude Abides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cathleen Falsani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cathleen Falsani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea\"},\"description\":\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \\\"God, Inc.\\\" are produced by the \\\"Publicity\\\" department, a k a\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/\",\"name\":\"The Dude Abides\",\"description\":\"Chilling at the intersection of faith and culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea\",\"name\":\"Cathleen Falsani\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cathleen Falsani\"},\"description\":\"Cathleen Falsani is an award-winning religion journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, BELIEBER: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber, and the newly released Disquiet Time: A Devotional for Ordinary Skeptics (edited with co-author Jennifer Grant and published by Jericho Books, Oct. 2014.)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/author\/cathleenf\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Dude Abides","description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","og_site_name":"The Dude Abides","article_published_time":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","author":"Cathleen Falsani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cathleen Falsani","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","name":"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea"},"description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/","name":"The Dude Abides","description":"Chilling at the intersection of faith and culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea","name":"Cathleen Falsani","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cathleen Falsani"},"description":"Cathleen Falsani is an award-winning religion journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, BELIEBER: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber, and the newly released Disquiet Time: A Devotional for Ordinary Skeptics (edited with co-author Jennifer Grant and published by Jericho Books, Oct. 2014.)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/author\/cathleenf\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2018GOD, INC.\u2019 PUTS \u2018OFFICE\u2019 HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTING<\/span><\/p>\n<\/iframe>Some of the funniest moments in \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d are produced by the \u201cPublicity\u201d department, a k a world religions.<\/p>\n<p>For three years running, the Muslim publicist has had the best numbers (because, he says, \u201cMy marketing strategy is the one, true marketing strategy\u201d), winning converts hand over fist, and annoying the pious (and obnoxious) Esther, who\u2019s in charge of \u201cReally Christians.\u201d (Not to be confused with Andy, a slackery dude who does P.R. for the \u201cSort-of Christians,\u201d who, he explains to Sarah, are the ones who go to church on Christmas and Easter and who believe. Sort of.)<\/p>\n<p>To try to shake up the populations of the world\u2019s religions, the office manager, fearsome Piper, starts a contest to see, in a week, which publicist can come up with the most new converts. The winner gets a box of steaks, which doesn\u2019t make the Hindu publicist very happy.<\/p>\n<p>Stokes, who was reared Lutheran and says he is fascinated by spirituality and \u201cwhy the world is the way it is,\u201d dreamed up \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d over a beer with his brother-in-law, Kyle, at his home in Downers Grove last summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe works in [information technology] and was just giving me some ideas,\u201d recalled Stokes, who has been making feature-length independent films for a decade, while also working for the City of Los Angeles, \u201cwhich explains my deep understanding of the workings of a bureaucratic institution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As YouTube.com became known as a venue for young filmmakers to get recognized, Stokes decided to go for it with \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The overwhelming response has shocked no one more than Stokes, who has heard from many self-identified religious people, some of whom thought \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d was hilarious, while others took offense. The filmmaker recalls \u201cgetting an e-mail from someone saying, \u2018Is this how you think the afterlife is going to be, because I can assure you that it\u2019s not!\u2019 Yeah, because they know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, Stokes got a note from a Presbyterian minister who asked for the series on DVD so he could use it as a teaching tool in a class on spirituality, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it strikes a chord,\u201d Stokes said. \u201cA lot of people who aren\u2019t that religious . . . feel like religions avoid a lot of questions or give them answers that don\u2019t ring true to them. So maybe this does in some sort of silly way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>God never appears in any of the \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d episodes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s intentional,\u201d Stokes says, \u201cso that, in essence, these characters have the same questions about the grand plan that the rest of us do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GODSTUFF: \u2018GOD, INC.\u2019 PUTS \u2018OFFICE\u2019 HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTING Some of the funniest moments in \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d are produced by the \u201cPublicity\u201d department, a k a world religions. For three years running, the Muslim publicist has had the best numbers (because, he says, \u201cMy marketing strategy is the one, true marketing strategy\u201d), winning converts hand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2711],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Dude Abides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in "God, Inc." are produced by the "Publicity" department, a k a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in "God, Inc." are produced by the "Publicity" department, a k a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Dude Abides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cathleen Falsani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cathleen Falsani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea\"},\"description\":\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \\\"God, Inc.\\\" are produced by the \\\"Publicity\\\" department, a k a\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/\",\"name\":\"The Dude Abides\",\"description\":\"Chilling at the intersection of faith and culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea\",\"name\":\"Cathleen Falsani\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cathleen Falsani\"},\"description\":\"Cathleen Falsani is an award-winning religion journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, BELIEBER: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber, and the newly released Disquiet Time: A Devotional for Ordinary Skeptics (edited with co-author Jennifer Grant and published by Jericho Books, Oct. 2014.)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/author\/cathleenf\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Dude Abides","description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","og_site_name":"The Dude Abides","article_published_time":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","author":"Cathleen Falsani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cathleen Falsani","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","name":"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea"},"description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/","name":"The Dude Abides","description":"Chilling at the intersection of faith and culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea","name":"Cathleen Falsani","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cathleen Falsani"},"description":"Cathleen Falsani is an award-winning religion journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, BELIEBER: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber, and the newly released Disquiet Time: A Devotional for Ordinary Skeptics (edited with co-author Jennifer Grant and published by Jericho Books, Oct. 2014.)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/author\/cathleenf\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe>Some of the funniest moments in \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d are produced by the \u201cPublicity\u201d department, a k a world religions.<\/p>\n<p>For three years running, the Muslim publicist has had the best numbers (because, he says, \u201cMy marketing strategy is the one, true marketing strategy\u201d), winning converts hand over fist, and annoying the pious (and obnoxious) Esther, who\u2019s in charge of \u201cReally Christians.\u201d (Not to be confused with Andy, a slackery dude who does P.R. for the \u201cSort-of Christians,\u201d who, he explains to Sarah, are the ones who go to church on Christmas and Easter and who believe. Sort of.)<\/p>\n<p>To try to shake up the populations of the world\u2019s religions, the office manager, fearsome Piper, starts a contest to see, in a week, which publicist can come up with the most new converts. The winner gets a box of steaks, which doesn\u2019t make the Hindu publicist very happy.<\/p>\n<p>Stokes, who was reared Lutheran and says he is fascinated by spirituality and \u201cwhy the world is the way it is,\u201d dreamed up \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d over a beer with his brother-in-law, Kyle, at his home in Downers Grove last summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe works in [information technology] and was just giving me some ideas,\u201d recalled Stokes, who has been making feature-length independent films for a decade, while also working for the City of Los Angeles, \u201cwhich explains my deep understanding of the workings of a bureaucratic institution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As YouTube.com became known as a venue for young filmmakers to get recognized, Stokes decided to go for it with \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The overwhelming response has shocked no one more than Stokes, who has heard from many self-identified religious people, some of whom thought \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d was hilarious, while others took offense. The filmmaker recalls \u201cgetting an e-mail from someone saying, \u2018Is this how you think the afterlife is going to be, because I can assure you that it\u2019s not!\u2019 Yeah, because they know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, Stokes got a note from a Presbyterian minister who asked for the series on DVD so he could use it as a teaching tool in a class on spirituality, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it strikes a chord,\u201d Stokes said. \u201cA lot of people who aren\u2019t that religious . . . feel like religions avoid a lot of questions or give them answers that don\u2019t ring true to them. So maybe this does in some sort of silly way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>God never appears in any of the \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d episodes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s intentional,\u201d Stokes says, \u201cso that, in essence, these characters have the same questions about the grand plan that the rest of us do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GODSTUFF: \u2018GOD, INC.\u2019 PUTS \u2018OFFICE\u2019 HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTING Some of the funniest moments in \u201cGod, Inc.\u201d are produced by the \u201cPublicity\u201d department, a k a world religions. For three years running, the Muslim publicist has had the best numbers (because, he says, \u201cMy marketing strategy is the one, true marketing strategy\u201d), winning converts hand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2711],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Dude Abides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in "God, Inc." are produced by the "Publicity" department, a k a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in "God, Inc." are produced by the "Publicity" department, a k a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Dude Abides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cathleen Falsani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cathleen Falsani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea\"},\"description\":\"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \\\"God, Inc.\\\" are produced by the \\\"Publicity\\\" department, a k a\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/\",\"name\":\"The Dude Abides\",\"description\":\"Chilling at the intersection of faith and culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea\",\"name\":\"Cathleen Falsani\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cathleen Falsani\"},\"description\":\"Cathleen Falsani is an award-winning religion journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, BELIEBER: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber, and the newly released Disquiet Time: A Devotional for Ordinary Skeptics (edited with co-author Jennifer Grant and published by Jericho Books, Oct. 2014.)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/author\/cathleenf\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Dude Abides","description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","og_site_name":"The Dude Abides","article_published_time":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","author":"Cathleen Falsani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cathleen Falsani","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/","name":"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-30T14:54:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea"},"description":"GODSTUFF:'GOD, INC.' PUTS 'OFFICE' HUMOR IN HEAVENLY SETTINGSome of the funniest moments in \"God, Inc.\" are produced by the \"Publicity\" department, a k a","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/2007\/03\/30\/412\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/","name":"The Dude Abides","description":"Chilling at the intersection of faith and culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/47c87be03ef08b2eb209b2e7242d4dea","name":"Cathleen Falsani","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cc435ed440814d4b3330d6bf38d75d37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cathleen Falsani"},"description":"Cathleen Falsani is an award-winning religion journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, BELIEBER: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber, and the newly released Disquiet Time: A Devotional for Ordinary Skeptics (edited with co-author Jennifer Grant and published by Jericho Books, Oct. 2014.)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/author\/cathleenf\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thedudeabides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}