(RNS) Attempts to favor one faith -- historically Protestant Christianity -- over others in the public square are doomed to fail in the new religious America of the 21st century. But that won't stop many in the majority from trying. By Charles C. Haynes.

AURORA, Colo. (RNS) Worshippers in this city rocked by Friday's mass shooting flocked to church Sunday, seeking solace within their faith communities.

Attempts to favor one faith -- historically Protestant Christianity -- over others in the public square are doomed to fail in the new religious America of the 21st century. But that won't stop many in the majority from trying.

As I kept watching my own emotions come and go, I wondered: 
what am I experiencing as I see the first live images of this killer?
What goes through my own heart?
Is it Anger?
Is it Pity?
Is it Compassion?

Last Friday, Cathy Grossman, USA Today's eagle-eyed veteran religion reporter, scooped the rest of the world by reporting that, according to the Pew Research Center, the proportion of Nones in the American adult population has now reached 19 percent. Among those she scooped was Pew itself.

Vigils and prayers in Aurora. Did Romney cite the Book of Mormon? Is gun control a religious issue? 

(RNS) After Friday's deadly shootings in Colorado, religious leaders called for stricter gun control. But is gun control a "religious" issue? By David Gibson.

"Jesus was crystal clear on the question of whether violence is an acceptable response to violence, on whether arming ourselves with fists or swords or guns is the way to protect ourselves from fists and swords and guns." So says Ellen Painter Dollar today in response to the horrific deaths of twelve people. Why are American Christians so slow to question our society's knee-jerk protections of the right to bear arms?

In a majestically grumpy new book, social critic Os Guinness tells Americans something we need to hear: our freedom is in peril. The first step in safeguarding it? Study history.

My colleague Ned Cabot, sometime head of Common Cause, sent along the following reflections this afternoon:

I had to turn off my Christian radio station this afternoon. (Given my perverse tastes, it will not surprise you that I very much enjoy tuning into their musical entertainment: “God's Country.”)

A masked gunman has shot dead at least 12 people and wounded 50 others at a showing of new Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" in the US state of Colorado.

There are difficult questions to be asked about this senseless act of violence, and we will ask those questions later.   For now, let us mourn, let us pray, let our hearts be shattered for now.