Prosecutors say they will appeal El-Kosheh verdict
On Saturday, an official at Egypt's State Security Prosecution office said it would appeal the Feb. 5 acquittals of 96 Muslim murder suspects in last year's El-Kosheh massacre. Though observers say the acquittals were probably meant to avoid further violence between Muslims and Christians, Coptic Christian Bishop Wissa, whose diocese includes the village, says the ruling is an "open invitation for any one Muslim to kill Christians."

Was Lincoln an abolitionist?
Allen C. Guelzo, author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (which won a ChristianityToday Book Award) wrote an article about the president as "a reluctant recruit to the abolitionist cause" for Friday's Washington Post. "Not even the most vigorous apologists for Lincoln can escape the very real differences between the emancipator and the abolitionists," Guelzo writes. "Only when those differences are allowed full play can we begin to recognize Lincoln's real place in the story of slavery's end in America. Though Lincoln and the abolitionists finally reached common ground, they did so along very different paths." He also quickly summarizes Lincoln's religion: "Lincoln rebelled against his parents' religion early in adolescence. He understood that the universe was run not by a god who could be influenced by prayer to change the course of human events, but by 'Law & Order.'" (See Books & Culture's review of Redeemer Presidenthere.)

Left Behind: The Movie:

• Churches sponsored 'Left Behind' | Cloud Ten Pictures initially said there were no local sponsors (The Hartford Courant)

The Simpsons:

• TV's Most Religious Family? | The Simpsons have soul (The Christian Century)
• Earlier: Saint Flanders | He's the evangelical next door on The Simpsons, and that's okily dokily among many believers (Christianity Today, Feb. 5, 2001)