A CHRISTIAN CHINA? Lots of people seem excited by this article, which begins: “Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by the National Catholic Reporter’s veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world’s largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history.”

It could happen, I suppose, and my colleague Rosalind Hackett, who studies these things, has suggested that militant Christianity, not Islam, is likely to be the religious force of the 21st century. (She also notes that few Americans realize how much missionary activity there is by African Christians in North America.) Still, I’d be surprised if these predictions bore out. Question left as an exercise for the reader: How long, at 10,000 / day, does it take to reach 200 million?