Kellie Kotraba

When anyone asked Eliot Battle how he was doing, he would always answer, "Super."

Battle, a longtime Columbia educator, died Tuesday (June 11) from injuries sustained after a car crass Friday. He was 88. 

Battle had a key role in the desegregation of Columbia's public schools. And the new high school in town, Muriel Williams Battle High School, was named in honor of his wife, who died in 2003.

When Gavin Hooks' parents divorced, his Christian faith faded.

"I felt like God had left me, or I felt like my faith wasn't sufficient to work through this problem," he said. He didn't stop believe in God, but for about a year, he "dropped out" of his faith walk. 

Eventually, he returned. He'd worked through the issues of his parents' volatile split – or so he thought. 

Fast forward 20 years. Hooks' mother died, and he realized something: He still had deep issues that he hadn't dealt with. 

A devastating tornado struck outside in Moore, Oklahoma, on Monday afternoon. As often happens in the wake of disaster, people took to Twitter.  KBIA's Kellie Kotraba took a look at what people in mid-Missouri were saying.

[View the story "Mid-Missourians respond to Oklahoma tornado" on Storify]

There are enough former Catholics in the United States to make up a large Christian denomination of their own.

According to the Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in 2008, one in 10 American adults identifies as an ex-Catholic. And of the 25 percent of American adults who are still Catholic, only one in four attend mass regularly.

  The American Humanist Association is demanding that weekly prayer sessions at Fayette High School be stopped on grounds that they are unconstitutional. 

Porsha Williams knows a thing or two about walls – metaphorical ones, that is. She’s been up against a lot of them, whether religious, psychological or cultural.

She describes herself as a “raised Christian, converted to Pagan woman.” And that conversion is the source of many of these walls.

Williams has always been intrigued with Kemeticism, an ancient Egyptian form of Paganism. But it wasn’t until about three and a half years ago that she decided to start practicing it.

This story was produced in partnership with Columbia Faith & Values. Find more stories like this one at ColumbiaFAVS.com. You can get instant updates each day on Facebook and Twitter.

This story was produced in partnership with Columbia Faith and Values.

Two explosions went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon. Like people all across the country, many of those from around mid-Missouri are responding with Tweets of prayer. 

[View the story "Prayers for Boston" on Storify]

[View the story "Missourians respond to SCOTUS gay marriage hearings" on Storify]