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3. Church of San Clemente was earthquake's deadliest spot
Between 200 and 300 people were inside the Church of San Clemente in Pisco, Peru, when the earthquake hit last Wednesday. Reports say 148 bodies have been removed from the church's rubble— about 23 percent of the quake's growing total death toll of 650. The Associated Press points to one small bright spot: All three generations of the immediate family of the man whose funeral it was survived.

4. A short hostage crisis in Afghanistan
Christina Meier, a German aid worker with the Christian organization ORA International, was abducted Saturday while eating lunch in a Kabul restaurant with her husband. Monday, more than 300 police freed Meier in a raid. The kidnappers were not Taliban and had asked for a $1 million ransom.

Meanwhile, there is little news about the South Korean aid workers being held by the Taliban as their abduction enters its second month. South Korean officials continued face-to-face talks with Taliban leaders, but have made no progress. Taliban leaders also continue to talk to the press.

"Even though talks with the Korean government are at a stalemate, we will continue to negotiate even if there is only a 10 percent possibility," one Taliban commander told the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. "The Korean government has asked for more time as they are doing their best to pressure the Afghan government to meet our demand of the release of Taliban prisoners. We agreed to give them more time."

But another Taliban leader's statement to the news agency AFP was more threatening. "The Korean nation must understand that if their hostages are harmed their government will be responsible, because it doesn't do much to gain their release," he said. "Their efforts are not sufficient. The Koreans are telling us that 'We're trying to persuade the Kabul administration and the US government to accept the Taliban demands' -- but it seems they can't."

5. That New York Times Magazine story on "The Politics of God"
The New York Times cover story this week, an excerpt from Mark Lilla's forthcoming The Stillborn God, is getting a fair bit of attention. Christopher Hitchens and Asia Times columnist Spengler had concurrent responses to the piece, Rod Dreher had a lengthy summary post, and the blogs are buzzing. Frankly, I wasn't terribly interested. It's one of those cases of The New York Times planting its flag on well-trod ground as if it's virgin territory: "Your attention please! The secularization hypothesis is mistaken!" Thank you, professor. Next up, perhaps: Coffee is quite expensive and confusing these days.

My problems with the piece, in a nutshell, are that Lilla still views political theology through a political lens and that he seems to wish very much that the secularization thesis really were true because religion is so dangerous and harmful to the public good. I'm sure that some wise Christian pundit will probably come up with some very profound response to this article or perhaps to Lilla's book once it is published. I just can't muster the interest.

Quote of the day
"This is a thousands-year-old problem, the question of who is a Jew. I don't anticipate being the answer."

—Brad Greenberg, a regular Christianity Today news freelancer, staff writer for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, and self-described "God-fearing Christian with devilishly good Jewish looks." He was interviewed by the Jewish newspaper Forward. And if you like the CT Weblog, you certainly should be reading his God Blog.

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August (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51