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Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum's claim that U.S. colleges drive young Christians out of church is facing scrutiny from Protestant and Catholic experts....

Conservative Brazilian bishop Robin­son Cavalcanti, who broke away from the established Anglican church, and his wife Miriam were killed...

Occasionally the Century editors sit down to talk with experts in magazine marketing. They sometimes tells us that we need to do more with celebrities--feature a celebrity on the cover of the magazine, for example. No, they're not pressing us to feature Brad Pitt or Lindsay Lohan. What they have in mind is featuring the celebrities of our world, that is, the celebrities of the mainline Protestant world. We usually respond: "But mainline Protestants don't really have celebrities." When the experts look doubtful, the editors look at one another. "Well, we might come up with a few living semi-celebrities--but that would take care of only two months worth of covers."

Attention mainline Protestants: a conservative Christian candidate for president would...

New today from the Century: Rodney Clapp praises snow, Casey Thompson's lectionary column, more.

Christopher Hitchens was an unrelenting unbeliever to the end. But Ross Douthat claims that everything about Hitchens points to an embrace of life and a refusal to give in to despair.

Two of Merlyn's daughters, members of our church, asked me to visit their mom as the end of her five-month battle with cancer drew near. Merlyn was 72, and her life had not been easy. She was widowed at 43 and raised her four children by herself. When I came to see her, she was alone, lying in bed by the window in the back room of the house. One of her daughters introduced me and left.

Two articles crossed my screen recently about the Internet and its effect on community.

New today from the Century: Tom Long on Christopher Hitchens, Lauren Winner reviews Elizabeth Clark, more.

In this deeply researched and illuminating monograph, Elizabeth Clark examines the development of early church history as an academic field in the U.S.

Yaounde, Cameroon (ENInews)--The campaign of violence in Nigeria carried out by the Islamist sect Boko Haram has raised fears of...

c. 2012 Religion News Service LONDON (RNS) A controversial Oxford University professor billed by many as...

c. 2012 Religion News Service NEW YORK (RNS) Did leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention hurt their missionary cause by opting not to change the denomination's name to...

c. 2012 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) The report was stamped top secret. Inside was a confidential dossier compiled by the New York Police...

c.2012 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) It took 83 years to build the iconic Washington National Cathedral, but a rare East Coast earthquake last summer took just seconds...

"I met an activist who said, 'You should go back to Virginia and start to organize.' It took me about three months to send out the first e-mail."

Last weekend, ESPN fired an editor who posted a racially offensive headline about NBA player Jeremy Lin; the network also suspended an anchor who used the same term. And taking the Lin coverage as a starting point, SNL produced a parody mocking a media double standard: stereotypes about Asian Americans are acceptable, but stereotypes about African Americans are offensive. The Lin media storm exposes the myth of a colorblind society. As much as we want to believe in meritocracy, equality and individuality, we rely on racial assumptions to make sense of the world and those around us. In many cases, the assumptions carry real consequences.

No, that’s not a typo....

New today from the Century: Interview with an immigration activist, art by Bertha Servín Barriga, more.

Here are some things I read recently but didn't get around to blogging about.