A story today by the Associated Press tells of a study by Northeastern University that black teenagers are killing each other in rising numbers, despite an overall falling crime rate across the nation.

FBI crime statistics show overall decreases in murder and other violent crimes. The a report by criminal justice professors James Alan Fox and Marc Swatt uncovers other disturbing trends within that data. (Related: Updated FBI crime statistic)

Among their findings: an increase of more than 39 percent in the number of black males between the ages of 14 and 17 killed between 2000 and 2007, and an increase of 34…

Sermons are going high-tech at a church where the pastor encourages members to ask him questions via text message.

A few churches here, and others across the country, are beginning to allow their members to send text messages to the pastor – even during his sermon – that might answer some burning question of the day or maybe even change the course of the pastor’s prepared remarks.

In a story for Tuesday’s Post-Dispatch, we learn that the Morning Star Church in St. Charles County has been dabbling in just such 21st Century communication during their services. Rev. Mike Schreiner said of the…

A new study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life confirms a lot of information we know about how Americans practice their faith. But it has a lot of new information as well. A story about the study by the Associated Press says the study is “unusual for it sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population.”

According to several highlights in the story:

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates the United States is 78 percent Christian and about to lose its status as a majority Protestant nation, at 51 percent and…