Religion: A Job for Jordan

• Share

In the serious hours of war, NBC last week for the first time set up a separate department of religion. NBC's fast-growing religious mail helped convince NBC, whose public-service director is James Rowland Angell, that the company's religious activities ought to be separated from its educational office. Holder of the new separate portfolio, charged with making NBC religious broadcasting a potent factor in the war effort, is tall, cadaverous, 47-year-old Max Jordan.

Son of an Italian chemist and a devout Roman Catholic, Max Jordan got his Ph.D. in religious philosophy at Jena, then got sidetracked into journalism and radio. He scored many radio scoops during ten years as NBC's European chief. He was the first broadcaster from Nazi-occupied Paris, from the Zeppelin Hindenburg over the Atlantic and the first to send the Munich Pact text to the U.S.

Notable among newer religious broadcasts :

> We Believe (NBC), a half-hour Sunday afternoon spell of choral music of both Christians and Jews, is sent not only to the U.S. but also by short wave to U.S. troops overseas.

> Chaplain Jim (Blue Network), another Sunday half-hour program, is popular with service men's families, illustrates the chaplain's work with soldiers who are spiritually hungry or temporally blue.

> Light of the World (NBC), 15-minute, Monday-through-Friday afternoon Biblical drama, has jumped high in favor since the war. Sponsored by General Mills, the playlets started in the Garden of Eden, are now in King Solomon's lavish times.

> Minute of Prayer (Mutual) offers a war prayer by a different cleric each weekday evening. Because it follows Superman and precedes Uncle Don, children hear the prayer accidentally, but write many approving letters.