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,…

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…

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…

St. Louis University hoops coach Rick Majerus has said on a televised interview that he supports abortion rights and stem cell research. These views are counter to those of the Catholic Church. SLU is a Catholic institution.

Says Archbishop Raymond Burke in today’s story:

“It’s not possible to be a Catholic and hold those positions,” Burke said. “When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don’t have to embrace everything the Catholic church teaches. But you can’t make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic church.”

Burke says that he thinks Majerus should be…

As the Rev. Scott Weldon of Marshfield, Mo., said in his blog back in September, “Rarely do we find, in this day and age, a political candidate who claims to be a Christian, and by all appearances actually backs it up with his life!”

As pointed out in a story for Friday’s Post-Dispatch, Huckabee vs. Romney is a matter of faith for some, Rev. Weldon has been way out in front of Mike Huckabee’s surge that pushed the former Arkansas governor past Mitt Romney in the Iowa polls last weekend.

While some conservative evangelical Christians fret about Huckabee’s electability, support…