Because religious communicators deal with issues most profound and consequential to their audiences, it is imperative that they examine their motives, aspirations, and rhetorical methods, as well as the ethical dimensions of their communication. Religion operates, along with every other rhetorical system, in the world of contingency, of the probable rather than the absolute. However, religious truths depend for their propagation upon the communicator, who must correlate appearances with reality. Audiences, as a result, continually make comparisons between the value systems of persuaders and the religious ideas they promote. The ethical dilemma is the proper relative adjustment of means to end. A balance can be reached if all of the likely consequences are taken into account, if the ethical desirability of both means and end are considered, and if the probability exists of achieving the desired end with the available rhetorical means. (MAI)