"Nationwide, the number of adults being baptized as Catholics is up by as much as 10 percent this year, and the number of Catholic adults who were baptized as infants but who are just now receiving First Communion and being confirmed is rising slightly faster," reports The Boston Globe. Though the article doesn't mention specific statistics, it says many of these converts are coming from Protestantism.

"I feel ridiculed, humiliated, raped," Francisco Santana tells the Miami Herald. Santana, the paper says, "has been a personal religious advisor to the Miami Gonzalez family and a key player in negotiations with the U.S. government." But other religious leaders in the community are no less bombastic. "They say in the Scripture that a shadow fell on Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified," pastor Humberto Cruz says. "A shadow has once again fallen, this time on our city." Fortunately, not all pastors equate Elián's removal with the crucifixion of the Son of God. Emilio Vallina, for example, was content with saying, "This is all part of God's plan."

The Air Force inspector general is investigating charges that Brig. Gen. Lorraine Potter, Air Force deputy chief of the chaplain service, said, "African-American chaplains are good pastors and preachers but cannot do staff work." Another source says the inspector general is also looking broadly into whether the chaplain service discriminates against African Americans.

Winnipeg-based standup comedian Al Rae takes a look at a few boxes worth of Christian stand-up ...