Author: Gordon Govier

A Madison photographer is challenging a city ordinance and state law that her lawyers say could compel creative professionals to promote messages that violate their religious beliefs. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based conservative Christian organization, filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court on Tuesday on behalf of Amy Lawson, owner of Amy Lynn Photography Studio.

The Madison Plan Commission approved plans Monday for the expansion of a private West Side religious school. Lighthouse Christian School is looking to convert an office building on the city’s Southwest Side that will offer more space than is currently available at Lighthouse Church, 5202 Regent St. The proposed renovation calls for creating about 19 classrooms, two bathrooms, a computer room, gymnasium and chapel in the 37,000-square-foot building at 6400 Schroeder Road.

The Madison Christian Giving Fund announced that its campaign for 2016 concluded with $123,000 raised. They have allocated $123,000 to 23 Christian organizations to meet some of Madison’s most challenging issues in 2017. The Madison Christian Giving Fund is a new organization with a board of 20 volunteer members seeking to organize a central funding source for Christian based agencies. One hundred percent of the money raised through workplace payroll deductions, private donations, and social media campaigns is being distributed to Christian based agencies that meet community needs while encouraging a gospel message of hope as part of their programming.

When Jennifer Wiseman was studying astrophysics at Harvard, there were no known planets outside of our own solar system. Today, astronomers have identified thousands of planets surrounding distant stars. In fact just last week, the announcement of seven planets orbiting a dwarf star in the constellation Aquarius, stunned the astronomical world. What Wiseman did do during her college years, as an undergraduate researcher at MIT, was discover a comet, the comet known as 114P/Wiseman-Skiff. She is now Senior Astrophysicist at  NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She is also the director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Dialogue…

PRAIRIE DU SAC — Sister Christina Marie, 33, was an entomologist. Sister Mary Benedicta, 36, studied to be an aeronautical engineer. And Sister Mary Bede, 30, intended to become a professional violinist. They left those lives to become nuns, cloistered together at Valley of Our Lady Monastery in a small village in Sauk County. It’s home to a Cistercian order, the only Catholic convent of its kind in the country. Read more of this story.

Christa Fisher receives a couple hundred requests from Dane County Jail inmates per week, asking for her services as a chaplain that range from one-on-one spiritual guidance to providing extra pairs of socks. She is a chaplain with the Madison Area Jail Ministry, a nonprofit ecumenical Christian ministry that serves jail inmates of many faiths. The organization is celebrating its 50th year in 2017 and originally formed to provide support to Dane County Sheriff’s Office deputies delivering death notices and to the families receiving them.

The handsome brick and stone structure that is the Redeemer Lutheran Church has stood in its spot on W. Wisconsin Ave. for 100 years, and among those who came Sunday to celebrate the building’s centennial was Bessie Bray, who is herself 100 years old.Bessie sat in her usual spot, which is not in the very back and not in the very front, but in the modestly forward fourth pew from the altar on the west side of the church.

The financial unraveling of a once-thriving company called SupplementWarehouse.com Inc. has created headaches for lots of people. There are, of course, the creditors. They’re owed millions, and Supplement’s assets appear to be worth nowhere near that much. There are thousands of customers, who purchased things like Muscle Milk protein powder and Lipodrene Hardcore diet pills, but didn’t receive them. And there’s one unusual potential victim — a Waukesha church.

The nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education brought about plenty of protests across the country, heated confirmation hearings, two rounds of voting, and plenty of social media criticism.  One main reason why many are against her is because she is a big supporter of private Voucher schools or Charter schools; something that many see as detrimental to the public education system in the nation. A little over a week after DeVos was confirmed as Secretary of Education, the Wisconsin State Journal reported on the proposed expansion of Lighthouse Christian School, the only private school in Dane County that…

Looking back on 37 years in law enforcement, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney said he knew even as a child he would be involved with law enforcement. He just wasn’t sure which side it would be. Sometimes light hearted, most of the time very serious, and occasionally with a tear in his eye, Sheriff Mahoney shared about his law enforcement career with a Saturday morning men’s breakfast at Madison’s City Church, a career that included a visit with other sheriffs to the Oval Office to meet with President Trump last week.