Religious orientation—a person’s set of religious beliefs—is another demographic characteristic that can influence how people respond to your speech. In the United States alone, there are as many as 2,300 religious identifications—including Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Confucians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Zoroastrians, to name just a few.

For some people, religious orientation strongly shapes their views on a wide range of issues—including but not limited to gay marriage, abortion, and men’s and women’s roles in family life and society. Moreover, some of the larger religions have numerous subdivisions, whose adherents possess conflicting beliefs about specific issues. For example, Anglicans and Roman Catholics share common elements in the celebration of the Eucharist, but they are widely divided over such issues as allegiance to the papacy and the admission of women into the priesthood. Likewise, Reform and Orthodox Jews differ in their dietary laws and in their interpretations of the Torah. Thus, like any other demographic characteristic, religious orientation does not preordain (pardon the pun) an audience’s reaction to a given message, yet it can still exert great influence. Presenters who craft their speeches accordingly stand a better chance of connecting with their listeners.

One particularly enduring example of this approach is the late pope John Paul II’s address to the state of Israel at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in March 2000. The pope knew that many Jews believed that his predecessors had been indifferent to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust. Demonstrating his sensitivity to their feelings, the pope repeatedly used Old Testament passages to describe suffering and awareness of human evil. In addition, he condemned all the hatred, acts of persecution, and displays of anti-Semitism directed at Jews by Christians throughout time.

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The current pope, Francis, has continued John Paul II’s example and taken many steps further toward improving relations between Christians and the worldwide Jewish community. Welcoming a Jewish delegation to Rome in 2015 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Nostra aetate, the declaration promulgated by Paul VI that led to improved relations between Jews and Catholics, Francis declared in his address to the public at St. Peter’s Square: “Yes to the rediscovery of the Jewish roots of Christianity. No to anti-Semitism.”7