Question: I am writing because I do not like the place that you have changed the obituaries to. I think it is very degrading to look in the classified ads to see the article on a loved one or friend. Could you please consider returning the obituaries to the IN section again? – Vickie Linton, Newport, Wash.

Answer: We have been running obituaries in our Classified section for years. The InLife obituaries were boiled-down versions of the Classified obits. By eliminating that duplication, we were able to add more personal achievements listings (such as honor rolls) to InLife and also bring back free wedding, engagement and anniversary listings.

Furthermore, we’ll be redesigning our Classified obits so that they’ll be more attractive and more readable. Those changes should be ready early next year. – Steve Smith, editor

Eliminate sermons

Question: I’d like to comment on the weekly column you print on Saturdays written by Rev. Paul Graves. By inviting a Protestant Christian minister to write a regular weekly sermon for your paper you are allowing the United Methodist Church to evangelize freely in your paper.

I have respected the way you print a variety of political and news opinions on your Op-Ed page and I suggest you apply the same policy to religion, if you really want to enter that highly charged arena of debate. Otherwise, just print the news, please, and let us get our sermons on Sundays in our own churches. – Doris Butler

Answer: Rev. Graves has been writing for our religion page for some years. One of the reasons he has been so successful, I think, is his ability to write beyond the boundaries of his own denomination. He presents a mainstream Christian voice. About two years ago, we added Steve Massey, a former editor at this paper, in rotation with Graves. Massey adds a very conservative, evangelical voice to the pages. While I think his columns sometimes read as sermons, they do represent the views of that segment of our population.

In recent months, I’ve been looking for a mainstream voice representing the ethics and values of agnostics, atheists and humanists. That’s proved to be a tall order. The few who write from that perspective regularly are not available to us. But we’ll keep looking.

Religion pages pose a real dilemma to mass market newspapers. The idea is to present news and commentary that reflect the diverse religious and spiritual life of the community. But achieving true balance is difficult, particularly in a community where there are so few non-Christian voices available to us. – Steve Smith, editor

Post vote records

Question: With the recent confusion about how Congresswoman Cathy McMorris voted on funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting perhaps The Spokesman-Review should (1) clarify how our representatives and senators are able to vote on both sides of an issue and (2) list how our representatives and senators in Washington, D.C., vote on important issues. – Eugene Johnson, Spokane

Answer: We recognize the value of “how they voted” summaries, but haven’t figured out a method of compiling those consistently. We’re getting a new “wire editor” who can revisit this issue – Ken Sands, online publisher