Author: Gordon Govier

Madison Bishop Robert Morlino says it pains him that local Catholics accuse him of not telling the truth about the shape and status of plans for a new cathedral."I’m being as honest as I can be," Morlino told about 50 people gathered for a prayer service Wednesday marking the second anniversary of the arson destruction of St. Raphael Cathedral, 222 W. Main St.Read more of this story.

(Independent Mail) Rows and rows of Bibles sit in Christian bookstores, waiting to be taken home. Fat, skinny, pink, blue, metal, leather. For kids, teens, 20-somethings, and older adults. If those aren’t enough choices, there also are numerous translations, including New International Version, Today’s New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, King James Version – and the list goes on. So how does one choose?Read more of this story.

SAN FRANCISCO (BP)–The city turned off the sound system, but it couldn’t turn off the celebration.Nearly 23,000 teens and their youth leaders filled AT&T Park in San Francisco with shouts of “Jesus” and “Hallelujah” Saturday morning accompanied only by hand-held radios scattered among the seats.Read more of this story.

Sometimes dumb sounds cute: Sixty percent of Americans can’t name five of the Ten Commandments, and 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married. Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, isn’t laughing. Americans’ deep ignorance of world religions — their own, their neighbors’ or the combatants in Iraq, Darfur or Kashmir — is dangerous, he says.Read more of this story.

They call it the "Light Club." That’s because West Ridge Community Church in Elgin was built to look like a nightclub — the House of Blues in particular, according to co-pastor Darren Sloniger. Read more of this story.

WHILE teenage ballerinas and midriff-baring hip- hoppers cluster in the halls of the New Dance Group building on West 38th Street in Midtown Manhattan, inside one studio a very different type of dance class is starting. Twenty-five women are bowed on their knees in a circle, eyes closed, their foreheads resting on the floor.“We thank you, God, that you created the dance and you made it pure. Father, we want to dance your words through our limbs.” Wendy Heagy’s voice rises as she leads the circle in prayer. She is the founder of Raise Him Up Praise Dance School and…

COMMENTARY "The Power of Faith: How Religion Impacts Our World" is the cover and title of the International Edition of a September 2006 Spiegel Special that just came my way. It’s a stunning issue published in a nation stunned by evidences of vital religion almost everywhere in the world except Western Europe and, closest to home, Germany itself. Half the issue is given to "World Religions" and half to "Faith and Values" and "Christianity." Fair enough. (There’s much on Islam in Europe, too.)Read more of this story.

The fittest survive, but rarely alone. Resourceful Robinson Crusoe needed his man Friday. Keep busy working together and if you work with a song in your heart, tragedy may touch you but not kill you. That’s how dancer and singer Shimmy Jiyame sees it.He should know. The Soweto native has seen a world of suffering but he also knows the power of song, especially gospel music.Read more of this story.

For the folks at Oxford Document Management Co., it’s not snooping. It’s a divine mission.With a full-time staff of just three, the Anoka, Minn.-based background-investigation firm has beaten bigger rivals to become the go-to gumshoes for religious groups across the United States.Read more of this story.

Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson and other conservative Christian leaders are calling for the National Association of Evangelicals to silence or fire an official who has urged evangelicals to take global warming seriously.Read more of this story.