Author: Gordon Govier

Olympics fans heading to Vancouver might want to visit a vanishing cultural treasure while they’re in Canada — local churches.Canada has become a "post-Christian society" where once-dominant Anglicanism has "moved to the margins of public life," according to a bleak study reported by Michael Valpy at the Globe and Mail.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, February 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new country music star has been born – and with a pro-life ballad, no less, that is steadily climbing the country music charts. Matt Kennon’s debut hit single “the Call” has risen to No. 39 on the Billboard 200 list of top country music hits and packs a compelling pro-life, or what some may call a “whole life," message.

The Rev. Chuck Swindoll, pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, and a worldwide Christian radio presence, finished second only to Billy Graham in a new survey that asked Protestant pastors to name the living Christian preachers that had most influenced them. Graham was named by 21 percent of the roughly 900 pastors who responded, and Swindoll by 8 percent.

Even though Pat Boone has sold over 45 million albums, enjoyed 38 Top 40 hits and starred in more than 12 Hollywood movies and a hit TV show during his ongoing 55-year career, there’s one song that his Jewish fans keeps wanting to hear from him – the “Theme to Exodus.”And as it turns out, it’s not only Jews, but also Christian supporters of Israel who are smitten with the “second Jewish national anthem,” as the 75-year-old Boone good-naturedly calls the song which dramatically intones, “This land is mine, God gave this land to me.”

Sports journalists are reluctant to tackle faith on the field.Tim Tebow may steal the Super Bowl spotlight by appearing in an antiabortion TV commercial with his mother, Pam, but his faith is kept on the sidelines. Most reporters writing about the ad neglected to say that his mother’s faith was the reason she did not abort him when doctors warned he could be born severely disabled in 1987. Perhaps the sportswriters assumed that most people know about the family’s Christian beliefs. The former quarterback for the Florida Gators paints Bible verses under his eyes and is vocal about saving himself…

Just over one year has passed since it was first reported that UW Health and Meriter Hospital were planning on performing late-term abortions at the Madison Surgery Center at 1 S. Park St. But no abortions have been performed yet, news that encouraged the approximately 500 men, women and children who turned out for yesterday’s second annual Defend Life Rally on the University of Wisconsin Library Mall.The crowd listened to almost a dozen speakers, endured the haranguing of a small group of loud abortion supporters, and then marched from State Street to Regent Street for a vigil in front of…

For a painter of abstract expressionism, Makoto Fujimura has some very concrete ideas on the role of Christians as stewards of culture. Fujimura was in Madison this week for Geneva Forum, a series of lectures and public appearances sponsored by Geneva Campus Church. Last night he spoke on "Prodigal Art: Restoring Health to the Cultural Ecosystem," to a crowd of about 200 gathered in the Alumni Lounge of the Pyle Center on the University of Wisconsin campus.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (BP)–With Super Bowl XLIV only a few days away, the lights are on early here at the Indianapolis Colts’ hotel conference room, with more than a half dozen coaches huddled together. But the Colts’ coaches, including head man Jim Caldwell, weren’t working on a secret plan to slow down the high flying New Orleans Saints. Rather, it was the coaches’ weekly Bible study, and not even a chance for NFL supremacy was going to keep them from meeting.

COMMENTARY"Cool! Your church has funerals," a friend recently said after I told him about attending one for a fellow parishioner at my church.My friend attends one of those churches that meet in a Cineplex. Ever since he first told me about his theater church, I had wondered about the logistics of baptisms, weddings, and funerals.It turns out that the entire membership of his congregation ranges in age from late teens to late 20s. Baptisms are rare and handled at other venues. As far as he knows, they’ve never had a funeral. And when people get married, they rent out traditional…

BOOK REVIEWThere was a time when, after a busy weekend of church activities, I would be so thoroughly over-stimulated that I’d have to go straight to bed when I got home. My extroverted husband would graciously leave me alone and instruct our children to do the same. Those days seem long ago and far away. So little angst remains about my own introverted nature that I wondered if Adam S. McHugh’s new book, Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture (InterVarsity Press), was even necessary. After all, I had figured things out for myself.But then I…