Fat Tuesday celebrations can mean only one thing — Lent’s coming. Ash Wednesday marks the start of the 40-day season of penance, prayer and preparation for Easter Sunday, which arrives April 12 this year.

Some people give up something they enjoy during Lent — alcohol, sweets, TV. Some do something extra — volunteer work, extra prayers, extra church services. And of course, some people do nothing.

There’s always a kid, somewhere, who pledges to give up vegetables, or homework, or chores. Nice try.

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…

Ttrying to stem the damage to his presidential campaign, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama confronted racial divisions and the uproar over his pastor’s incendiary sermons.

On Tuesday, Obama rejected some of the pastor’s statements, but he says black anger still persists over injustice in America and whites shouldn’t be surprised that it bursts out in sermons.

Denouncing Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s comments as he has before, Obama attributed them to a bitterness he said hurts the black community. But, he added, “the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away.

In today’s story, Obama defended his longtime spiritual mentor, saying that 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…

I don’t know about you, but I hear about it all the time. Friends at my church complain about how Little League baseball or their kids’ soccer and basketball teams are playing on a Sunday morning.

They often have to skip services, or leave early, in order to make sure their kids get to the games, or practices, or tournaments. I’m sure it’s not just a problem for Christian families, who traditionally deal with conflicts on Sunday mornings. There must be similar conflicts on other holy days or sabbath days.

This topic comes to mind because of a story for Thursday’s Post-Dispatch….