Author: Gordon Govier

High-Profile Pastor Steps Down Amidst One Man’s Accusations – Agape PressMonday morning update COMMENTARYTalk about bad timing.On the day after former Congressman Mark Foley entered an alcohol rehab program, his beleaguered staff received a package. With reporters watching, they unpacked a framed copy of one of his most famous pieces of legislation — a bill requiring a crackdown on sexual predators, including those who exploit minors online.And all the people said: "Hypocrite!"

News ReleaseMADISON, Wis. — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys representing the Wisconsin Legislature today filed an appeal asking the high court to allow the lawmakers to intervene as defendants in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against several state agencies. The ACLU filed the suit in an effort to obtain taxpayer-funded employee health benefits for same-sex couples. “Cases like this are why the Wisconsin Legislature chose to present a marriage amendment to the voters,” said ADF Senior Counsel Glen Lavy. “If the people of Wisconsin wish to preserve marriage, they should vote ‘yes’ on the proposed marriage amendment. Without a marriage…

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)–Mendy Nantz was on the way to a funeral when it happened. “Don’t scream or do anything stupid or I will kill you,” a well-dressed man commanded the 33-year-old Southern Baptist missionary. Read more.

Madison Bishop Robert Morlino defended his opposition to gay marriage, the death penalty and embryonic stem-cell research Monday, saying his views should not be surprising since the Catholic Church "is intensely pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-family."Morlino said these public positions are not simply "Catholic" issues. "These are not tenets of our ‘faith’ which we are defending," Morlino said in a statement. "They are universal truths, based on reason alone." Read more.

STOUGHTON – Sunday was a bittersweet day for members of Christ Lutheran Church, who stood in a cornfield for the groundbreaking of their new $5.5 million church. Their old church on Main Street, which dated to 1874, burned down Aug. 17, 2005, after teenagers sneaked onto the roof and started a fire. A second calamity hit the following day, when a tornado ripped through Stoughton. Among those who lost their homes or saw them badly damaged were nine members of the church. Read more.

Jim Wallis was standing in front of about 200 people at a Harry Schwartz bookstore in Milwaukee this week snapping his fingers.He had just mentioned that every day in the world, about 30,000 children under the age of 5 die from preventable diseases. That’s one every 3 seconds.He snapped his fingers. Waited 3 seconds. Snapped them again. Waited 3 seconds. Snapped them again.The buzz in the bookstore stopped. Then Wallis continued. Read more.

(UNDATED) The nation’s Catholic bishops will consider new pastoral guidelines in November for ministering to gays and lesbians that affirm traditional church teachings on sexuality in the face of a quickly changing culture. Read More.

It’s been estimated that a quarter of today’s young adults are children of divorce — people who grew up in broken homes. And for many of them, the breakup of their parents’ marriage had a profound — and negative — impact on their religious lives as they grew into adulthood. Read more.

(AgapePress) – A spokesman for an organization that has launched a new website to provide Christian volunteers says it will tap into the largest pool of volunteers available in the country.TechMission executive director Andrew Sears says its new site — ChristianVolunteering.org — can be the missing link in bringing together people with specialized skills and interests, with opportunities for them to serve. Until now, he says many of those with special skills — from professionals like lawyers and accountants, to web designers and computer programmers — have been looking for a way to volunteer.Read more.

Church historian Vinson Synan has made 20 trips to Latin America while studying the explosive growth of Pentecostal Christianity and he believes that it’s time to state the obvious."We’ve reached the point where you’re not going to be able to get along very well with many believers in the Third World unless you embrace the gifts of the Holy Spirit," said Synan, who teaches at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.