Author: Gordon Govier

A small but growing movement is bringing Christ back into the Young Men’s Christian Assn. About 13% of the more than 2,600 YMCA branches across the country have set up special committees to promote Christianity. Hundreds of Y leaders convene each year to swap ideas on how to "lift up the C in the YMCA."Read more.

While many Christians have already packed away their Christmas decorations and disposed of their trees, millions of Orthodox Christians waited until early Sunday to celebrate Christ’s birth.In Madison, 15 Oriental Orthodox Christians gathered at Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Mission Parish Chapel, 6205 University Ave., at midnight for a night of celebration and worship.Read more.

Has Christianity always warred with science? Or, conversely, did Christianity create science? Christian History asked David Lindberg, Hilldale Professor Emeritus of the History of Science and currently director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin.And he should know. Lindberg specializes in the history of medieval and early modern science, especially the interaction between science and religion. His Beginnings of Western Science (University of Chicago Press, 1992) is an oft-translated standard in the field. He is also currently the general editor, jointly with Ronald Numbers, of the forthcoming eight-volume, Cambridge History of Science. Read more.

At the age of 24, Heather Nichols has taught songs to kids in Thailand and has been to Africa twice to assist surgeons. She has led a missionary trip to inner-city Philadelphia and is about to do another. And she closed out her year here in St. Louis with more than 22,000 of her closest friends in Christ. Read more.

WASHINGTON — The new Congress will, for the first time, include a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians, and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history.Roman Catholics remain the largest single faith group in Congress, accounting for 29 percent of all members of the House and Senate, followed by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Jews and Episcopalians.Read more.

News ReleaseBreast cancer patients who pray in online support groups can obtain mental health benefits, according to a new study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research that was funded by the National Cancer Institute. Read more.

We can never know the real story about a President’s faith. We only know what he does — or refuses to do — in God’s name. Voters were unwilling to forgive Gerald Ford for his great act of forgiveness, the unconditional pardon of Richard Nixon. But there was another side to the pardon, the presidency and the 1976 campaign that received much less attention, in part because Ford wanted it that way. The contest between Ford and Jimmy Carter was a battle between two born-again Christians — but only one was willing to run as one. Read more.

Martin Luther wrote the lyrics centuries ago, but the eighth-note rock rhythms that pulsated through St. Marcus Lutheran Church on Christmas Eve clearly proclaimed that this was new terrain for "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come." Read more.

(St. Louis, MO)—American students of the current generation are serious about following God, said Urbana 06 director Jim Tebbe as InterVarsity’s 21st Student Missions Convention came to a close on New Year’s Eve. “It seems that there’s a different tenor to it than even 2003, the last Urbana,” Tebbe said. “There’s a serious of purpose here that has surprised me.” Read more.

(St. Louis, MO)—Since Christianity is expanding rapidly in the non-western world, where seventy five percent of Protestant Christians now live, some people may conclude that missionaries are no longer needed. But not according to Oscar Muriu, the pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Nairobi, Kenya, who spoke at Thursday night’s plenary at the Urbana 06 Student Missions Convention, at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Read more.