Singles, you probably already know this. On the top 10 list of places to find a date, church is No. 4 -- right behind the gym, the grocery store and environmental group meetings.

There's even a Web site that boasts a list of pickup lines suitable for use in the pews.

Example: "Do you have a quarter I can borrow?'

"When she says 'No' or 'Why?' you reply, 'Oh, I needed to call God and tell him one of his angels is missing from heaven.' "

Or how about this one?

"Are you religious? Good, because I'm the answer to your prayers."

Groan if you must, but making a love connection in church sounds so wholesome and pure. It also sounds like a great way to winnow out the miscreants you might meet in a bar.

Well, I'm here to remind you that there are a few exceptions to the religious rule.

Consider the cases of the late Janine Sutphen, the late Marnita Bynum, the late Dujuana Massenburg.

When I say late, I don't mean tardy for mass.

Sutphen turned up dead in Falls Lake; Bynum was found stuffed in the trunk of her convertible; and Massenburg's minivan was run off the road before, police say, her husband killed her with his bare hands.

In fact, all of those women were killed at the hands of their spouses, according to police.

But what else do the cases have in common?

The couples either met in church or spent most of their married lives involved in one.

And don't forget Ann Miller Kontz. Guess where she met her second hubby, the Christian rock musician?

I can imagine Paul Martin Kontz using the pickup line, "You're so pretty, I feel like I've died and gone to heaven." Following her guilty plea in the arsenic death of first husband Eric Miller, he's just lucky it wasn't prophetic.

Look what happened to Barbara Stager's second husband, killed by the same method as her first.

Did I mention that Stager and the second husband were big in their church?

I talked about this the other night with my preacher.

He allowed as how "meeting someone at church is no guarantee."

Pity, that.

It's a reminder, though, of what the domestic violence experts say all the time. This societal ill draws no distinction between Christian or Jew, Hindu or Muslim.

We in the media often write about these cases with special emphasis on the religious connection -- as if we are stunned that this is something God-fearing folk could do.

But with national polls showing that 90 percent of us self-identify as belonging to a religion, and up to 70 percent of us claim we practice our faith, it should come as no real surprise.

That is why domestic violence programs have begun to target faith leaders for special training.

So, singles, before you go looking for the spouse of your dreams in services, remember that meeting a man or woman in Bible study carries no promise. He or she could be a keeper. Or a killer.

The bar scene is looking better all the time.

Then again, who am I to give advice?

I met my husband at the legislature.