Is bigger always better? New data show that a church must have 8,000 weekly attendees in order to make it onto the list of the country’s 100 largest churches; Ten years ago, 4,000 or more was good enough to make the cut. (That’s Houston’s Lakewood Church at left)

WaPo magazine profiles Metropolitan Jonah, the politically minded head of the Orthodox Church in America. BU’s Stephen Prothero says “Israel is the new Iowa” for GOP presidential wannabes (Sarah Palin is the latest to make the rounds).

Speaking of, former Sen. Rick Santorum is urging Catholics not to donate to Catholic schools that stray from church teaching, although it’s unclear whether he means Catholic elementary, secondary or higher-ed schools.

Ambassador-in-waiting Gary Locke says he will “consider” attending a Chinese house church when he lands in Beijing.

The latest edition of the best-selling NIV Bible hit bookstores, and not surprisingly, not everyone’s happy about it.

POTUS leaves tonight for a tour of Central and South America, and will reportedly pay his respects at the tomb of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Yesterday POTUS asked college campuses to commit to interfaith service projects; the project’s brainchild Eboo Patel breaks it down here.

A Jehovah’s Witness in Raleigh, N.C., will receive $55,000 from Belk department stores after she was fired for refusing to wear a Santa hat and apron. An Episcopal priest was nearly fired for attempting to live as a Muslim for the 40 days of Lent. Southwest Airlines apologized for booting a Muslim passenger off a flight from San Diego.

Crystal Cathedral founder Robert Schuller says he never would have approved of a please-don’t-be-gay pledge that choir members were asked to sign; his daughter is now the church’s senior pastor.

Six months ahead of his beatification, relics of the late Pope John Paul II are popping up around Europe.