Christianity Today

This is the second Weblog we've posted today. The earlier one has bigger stories.

1. Melissa Berels: An American martyr
From The Detroit Press:

Melissa Berels was a devout Christian who spent her work breaks on a phone chat line, likely spreading the word of her faith, police said.

Patrick Selepak has confessed he was one of the people in spiritual peril on the other end of one of those calls, New Baltimore Detective Ken Stevens said Thursday.

"We knew that she talked to people all the time and was very involved in the church and trying to get the message out," Stevens said.

It was those brief conversations from inside V.G.'s Food Center in New Baltimore that probably led to Selepak's visits there, police said. Now Selepak is accused of killing Berels, who was 10 weeks pregnant, and her husband, Scott Berels, on Feb. 15. Police discovered their bodies wrapped and bound in plastic and stashed under a tarp in a bedroom of the couple's home in New Baltimore.

Expect to hear more about Berels and her faith as Selepak and Bachynski's trial continues.

2. Christian college applications spike
"Applications have jumped between 8 percent and 10 percent at the 238 colleges that belong to the North American Association of Christian Admissions Professionals," Religion News Service reports. "More applications mean more students on campuses next fall … and that's good news since 25 percent of those schools are barely breaking even financially. … Enrollment has increased 70 percent since 1990, from 135,000 to 230,000, at the 102 evangelical schools belonging to the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities."

3. Catholic Charities of Boston quits adoption business If providing adoption services requires placing children in sexually ...

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