Author: Gordon Govier

Jesuit priests are widely admired as scholarly, witty and even being a little debonair. They have sometimes been known as "God’s soldiers," after being founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534.But would most people really want to live like a Jesuit? With a vow to adhere to poverty, obedience and, well, chastity? Well, maybe just a little.The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and associate editor of America, the Jesuit magazine, has written a new book for those interested in borrowing from Jesuit tenets to live simpler lives. It’s called The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything: A Spirituality for…

COMMENTARYIn a recent New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof credits evangelicals with pushing for AIDS and malaria programs and for “doing superb work on issues from human trafficking in India to mass rape in Congo.”This is in contrast, he says, to the “save-the-worlders,”—that is, liberals. Kristof credits liberals for being concerned about poverty because for decades, they have supported big-government programs for the poor and sick, both at home and abroad. But since when is supporting government-run programs the only way, or even the best way, to help the world’s poor?

TOLEDO, Ohio — For years, Americans have watched international reports of human trafficking thinking it couldn’t happen here. But now, researchers are finding more and more domestic cases and not just in the big cities or the border states. They’re in the heartland.Shared Hope International, a Christian anti-trafficking organization, reports that up to 300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk for trafficking each year. Twelve years old is the average age of entry.

AUSTIN, Texas — Oftentimes those who preach sexual abstinence have been told to stop trying to impose their beliefs on others. But what if science could prove sexual permissiveness does great damage to future sexual happiness? That’s what Dr. Joe McIlhaney of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Austin says. New research shows that sleeping around now could ruin your chances of having a happy, fulfilling marriage later.

As policymakers in Washington, D.C., debate overhauling health care, several evangelical Christian groups have found a way of getting around the high cost of health insurance. Instead of paying premiums, they simply agree to pay each other’s medical bills. The groups are not regulated because unlike insurance there’s no guarantee an individual’s bills will be paid. That’s something members take on faith.

President Obama’s faith council delivered 64 detailed recommendations to top administration officials, Tuesday, covering a broad range of issues from responsible fatherhood to poverty and interfaith relations.

NEWS RELEASEPalm Desert, Calif., March 9 — The Mission America Coalition issued a call to churches and Christians across America last week for a “prayer-care-share approach” to “loving their neighbors to Christ.” “We need a new surge of evangelism and discipleship in America,” Dr. Paul Cedar, chairman of the Coalition, said in an interview at the group’s annual gathering in Birmingham, Ala. last week. “The average evangelical Christian in America has such a resistance to being involved in evangelism. I’m convinced that fear, not wrong motive, is the major factor. They are just afraid.”

Why are so many of us flocking to the theater when we’re pinching pennies more now than in decades? And why are we spending our hard-earned money on movies about the end of existence?

Walid Shoebat, a former Palestinian terrorist, sounded a warning about Islam to a Madison church audience Sunday. Speaking to several hundred people who had gathered at Grace Evangelical Church, 4127 County AB, Shoebat presented a strong argument that out of Islam will come the anti-Christ of Biblical prophecy.

The recession has deflated many high-flying careers. James Bartylla upended his on purpose years ago.Once a jet-setting financial analyst earning six figures and traveling the globe, Bartylla gave up what he calls his single-minded quest for business success to enter a Catholic seminary at 34.Now known as Monsignor Bartylla, he was promoted in December by Madison Bishop Robert Morlino to vicar general, the second-in-command in the Madison Catholic Diocese.