Hidden in the back of the typical American music store – past the ethnic folk songs and spoken poetry – is a tiny slot set aside for "Contemporary Christian Music."

Mark Joseph ponders this sad state of affairs whenever he returns home to Tokyo and flips through racks of compact discs, looking for the Christians whose music he markets in Japan through his MJM label.

"Over there, Holy Soldier is next to Jimi Hendrix ... and White Cross is next to White Snake," said Joseph, who is best known in Japan as a U.S. correspondent for CNN's Wow Wow Entertainment Report and the NHK television network. "In Japan, we can get away with that, because to them it's all rock 'n' roll. ... This is exactly how the artists I know would like to see their music handled in the states. But we know that's not possible, since over here `Christian' and `secular' music exist in different worlds."

Of course, no one would try to pin a "Buddhist musician" label on Tina Turner, the Beastie Boys or Courtney Love and lock their music in a commercial ghetto, he said.

LOS ANGELES – Wherever he goes, veteran movie producer Ken Wales hears the same question: "What now?"

Letters keep arriving asking what happened to Christy Huddleston, the heroine of Catherine Marshall's famous novel about a missionary teacher in the Great Smoky Mountains. In the last episode of the CBS series "Christy," Wales and crew left her facing a romantic cliffhanger. Did she choose the preacher or the doctor?

"Truth is, we hadn't really made up our minds," said Wales. "In the book, she chooses the doctor. ... In real life, the real Christy married the minister."

But there's the rub. Viewers may never know, because the network canceled the series. During a year of CBS ratings disasters, "Christy" maintained solid second-place numbers in various time slots, while generating record numbers of fan letters and calls. That wasn't enough.

"Obviously, the CBS people never quite understood what `Christy' was about. I don't think they wanted to understand," said Wales, who invested nearly 20 years of his time and money in the project. "They gave us five different time slots and never left us in one place more than a few weeks. Anybody who has worked in this town knows that the way you kill a show is to keep moving it."

So there's that question again: "What now?"

No modern papal tour would be complete without services for throngs of the faithful gathered in sports stadiums.

Scoreboard operators don't have much to do during these rites, especially in comparison with big games. They handle a few public announcements or display words for hymns, but that's about it. This is a shame, since many who flock to hear the pope desperately want someone to keep score. As usual, experts searched for signs of a political game plan during John Paul II's recent U.S. visit.

After all, this is an ultraconservative pope. Perhaps his strong words on abortion, euthanasia, sexuality and family values were new clues that he wanted Catholic leaders here to cut decades of ties to the Democrats.

But John Paul also praised America's ethnic diversity and pleaded for renewed efforts to help the poor, care for the sick and welcome immigrants. Could these be words of warning to Republicans, or even the Christian Coalition, amid debates on welfare and tougher laws at U.S. borders?

Sometime between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the typical rabbi slips one or more not-so-subtle messages into the High Holy Day services.

Perhaps the rabbi will remind the throng that the doors are open year round or note that it's usually easier to find spaces in pews. Everyone laughs, because they've heard this before. But once the 10-day holy season has ended, as it did Wednesday, many of the worshippers vanish – until next year.

The problem is that so many Jews center their faith on a few rites and seasons in synagogues and temples, said Ron Wolfson, director of the Whizin Institute for Jewish Family Life, in Los Angeles. Instead, more need to embrace rituals and symbols that they can use week after week in their homes.

"What we are dealing with here is a supermarket mentality," he said. "People say, `If I want exercise, I can go to the health club. If I want to buy something, I can go to the mall.' ... Then it's natural to say, `If I want some religion, then I know where to go – I can go to the synagogue.' "