Lil Wayne’s new album Tha Carter III hit double-platinum a few weeks ago. It sold two million copies in the first nine weeks since its release - one million copies in the first week alone.

These are huge sales, especially in a day when digital song consumption creates music buyers who purchase singles rather than albums.

Speaking of singles, the success of Tha Carter II seems to be driven by the incredible demand for the first single off the album, “Lollipop”.

Music Choice reports that “Lollipop” is now its most popular music video - ever. Damon Williams, VP of Programming for Music Choice said, “Wayne has done an incredible job of consistently delivering what today’s hip-hop fans want. The milestone of realizing over 10 million views for a single video speaks to the power of Lil Wayne’s fan base. Lil Wayne is the best in the game.”

And there is crossover appeal in the song. It not only reached…

If you didn’t have a chance to watch the two-hour Saddleback Church/Rick Warren questioning of presidential candidates Obama and McCain, you can find the transcript here.

The chattering class had plenty to say about the evening, including the following:

McCain and Obama Face Questions About Faith - Associated Press

McCain Shines at Saddleback Forum - Michael Gerson, Washington Post

The Importance of Saddleback Church - Alan Wolfe, The New Republic

McCain, Obama at Saddleback Church - Carrie Budoff Brown, The Politico

John McCain, Barack Obama Display Abortion Divide at Evangelical Forum : LifeSite News

Are We Now Officially a Christian Nation? - Joan Walsh, Salon

McCain’s Back in the Saddleback - Chuck Todd, NBC News

McCain’s Depth & Experience Stood Out - Byron York, National Review

Obama’s Purpose-Driven Gamble - Mike Madden, Salon

Kristol: Showdown at Saddleback

Sullivan: McCain’s ‘Cross’ Story 

Podhoretz: Obama on Thomas 

Of special note are a couple of claims:

The New York Times reports that McCain was…

This week the Democratic party made clear its total support of abortion on demand.

Gone is the “safe, legal and rare” rhetoric of the past few years and in is this:

“The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, clearly ultra liberal on the abortion issue — look at his Senate record — is surely pleased.

Less clear is whether the conflicted electorate will be.

And now, as of three days ago, we have new charges from the National Right to Life organization about candidate Obama’s  abortion obfuscation as well as his well known abortion extremism.

NRL accuses Barack Obama of being a whole lot less than truthful when he defends his opposition — three times as…

OK, this is a little melodramatic and contrived, but it is a question I was asked at an interreligious lecture, and I believe that this question reveals a lot about one’s religious vision. So I would like to hear from our readers and from the other bloggers how you would answer this question:

You and a companion are lost in the Sahara desert after a car crash on a deserted road, and no one knows to come and look for you. After a day waiting and hoping someone would come, you and your companion decide to start walking with your last two canteens of water. Your companion drinks all of his water right away, you use your sparingly. Late in the day, he falls and breaks his leg. He is delirious from the trauma, cannot travel any more, and cannot even stand for you to carry him because of the…

I just got back from vacation and found Tim Townsend’s article about Chatfields Boutique in Des Peres, Missouri – click here – specializing in bridal and formal gowns that are modest.

What a concept!

This is an idea that has caught hold in Utah, where Latter-day Saint clothing entrepreneurs have, in recent years, been helping young teens and adults dress up without dressing down, way down to cleavage baring styles reminiscent of Hollywood’s Night at the Oscars.

Learn of one such clothing entrepreneur in the Meridian Magazine article: Keith Hall takes on Fashion Industry with Beautifully Modest Clothing.

For years Latter-day Saints and people of many faiths have been imploring clothing manufacturers to provide clothing with more cloth. But the response was always the same: modesty does not sell. 

When I went shopping in St. Louis a couple years ago to buy my daughter a prom dress there were none that didn’t show a whole lot of shoulder and revealing…

(1) The Olympics:The Wall Street Journal reports on China and religious repression:

Religious repression rears its ugly head again:

President Bush attended church in Beijing on Sunday, worshipping with Chinese Christians and singing “Amazing Grace.”

But what happened outside the church says more about the state of religion in China.

Earlier that morning, Hua Huiqi, the pastor of an illegal underground Christian church, was detained by police as he was biking to the service that Mr. Bush was to attend. His whereabouts are still unknown. Mr. Hua’s brother, who was briefly detained, said Mr. Hua only wanted to worship at the church where he was baptized.

China’s constitution allows freedom of religion, but in practice religion is tolerated only insofar as it is controlled by the state.

The only legal churches are those run by the State Administration of Religious Affairs.

Those who choose to attend “house” churches — roughly half of China’s…

I have a small confession to make: I went to see Mamma Mia! last week. Twice.

The film has received deservedly mixed reviews, yet I found myself sucked in by it, almost in spite of myself. The sheer goofy joie de vivre of the “Dancing Queen” scene alone is worth the price of admission. (There’s a hilarious entry here about what how this movie is so bad that it makes the writer want to claw his eyes out. I include it as fair warning for those who might be tempted to run out & see the film after reading this blog. No, I won’t give you your money back if you hate it.)

So what could such a pop culture cream puff of a film have to do with religion? I hope you’ll bear with me, and maybe take my enthusiasm with a grain of salt. From my perspective, the message of the…

Tuesday afternoon I walked into a small business establishment that employees a handful of Russian-American women. When I entered and asked if everyone were talking about Solzhenitsyn, I was told bemusedly, “No, the Russians are too busy working and the young don’t know who he is.”

And then back to work they went.

For the rest of us — and for those women and the young most especially — here is a list of recent remembrances, Solzhenitsyn links from the last three days:

Moscow Times: Solzhenitsyn, chronicler of  labor camps dies at 89

New York Times/Michael Kaufman: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn dies at 89

Russians Mourn Dissident Writer Solzhenitsyn:

A funeral service will take place at the medieval Donskoi monastery in Moscow on Wednesday and Solzhenitsyn will be buried there later that day in accordance with his will, said a Russian Orthodox church spokesman……

Solzhenitsyn was a great and important man: National Review

Remembering…

Just in case your summer reading list has wilted in the heat, my good friend John Nunes, president of Lutheran World Relief, recently posted a booklist of top books for the globally enlightened student.

The list was in response to a college professor who asked him what books she should encourage her students to read to gain greater global awareness. He passed along the question to a group of friends and colleagues. I was honored to be included.

My contribution was as follows:

The Gospels in Our Image: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Poetry Based on Biblical Texts, edited by David Curzon. A kind of midrashic collection of poems ranging from the deeply reverent to the keenly skeptical. Also a great primer in world poetry from the last century.