Author: Gordon Govier

Two Catholic students at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire have sued the university after being denied credit toward mandatory community service for the time they spent teaching their religion at a local parish. Their attorney, from the Gerogia-based group Alliance Defending Freedom, says the policy amounts to an unconstitutional “animosity toward and discrimination against religion.”

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship officially began its campus ministry in the United States on November 14, 1941, the day the ministry was incorporated. Campus fellowships had already been active at several U.S. colleges for a few years, however. In 1941 InterVarsity’s founder, Stacey Woods, directed a three-person staff, operating out of a Chicago office that was shared with the Christian Workers Foundation. Today, 75 years later, InterVarsity’s national office is in Madison, Wisconsin, and staff workers and volunteers across the U.S. total more than 2,000. InterVarsity has 1,011 chapters on 667 U.S. college campuses, working with more than 40,000 core students…

The SSM Health Fall Gospel Fest, originally set to take place this Saturday at Blackhawk Church, has been rescheduled for Saturday, December 10 at High Point Church in Madison.

Catholic Charities Madison has chosen Judith Metzger as the director of the planned day resource center for the homeless, scheduled to open in Madison next summer. Metzger spent the last 22 years as outreach coordinator at the Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel and Student Center at UW-Madison. Prior to that, she was a case manager and therapist.

Representatives of at least 45 Madison area churches made up the 400 people who attended Care Net Pregnancy Center of Dane County’s annual banquet, November 3rd, at the Marriott Madison West. Roland Warren, the CEO of Care Net’s national organization challenged those congregations to take up the job of ending abortion. “Fifty four per cent of women who have abortions identify as Christian,” Warren said. “If a woman has a positive pregnancy test, who is she going to talk to in her church?” If there is no one, he suggested, the woman might easily choose to go to an abortion…

Over the past two years, a former Verona bowling alley has been converted from a place where attendees chased strikes and spares to one where they seek salvation. Sugar River United Methodist Church purchased the former Wildcat Lanes in 2014 and this weekend opens its new sanctuary and gathering space in the area that was once home to the bowling lanes and a bar.

Fans of the Chicago Cubs are celebrating after their team became World Series champions for the first time since 1908. Certainly, MVP Ben Zobrist is happy to return to the cheering throngs in the Windy City with the Commissioner’s Trophy in hand… but he says what people really need is Jesus Christ.

Andy Crouch, InterVarsity Press author and executive editor of Christianity Today magazine, is “a public intellectual committed to whole life transformation,” in the words of John Terrill, as he introduced Crouch at Upper House for tonight’s lecture. Crouch will be speaking to several more gatherings at the University of Wisconsin in the next few days and, if tonight’s lecture is any indication, bringing new perspectives on life and faith.

MADISON — At the halfway point of the 40 Days for Life vigil to end abortion, prayer warriors in Madison got a chance to unite themselves to pro-life efforts across the country. On October 13, the UNITED Bus Tour made a stop outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on Madison’s east side.

As with many political conversations in 2016, Donald Trump was a looming presence at a panel discussion on religion and the upcoming election on Thursday night. For one thing, there was the Republican presidential nominee’s early promise to ban Muslims from entering the United States if elected. The local Muslim leader Masood Akhtar — one of the seven scholars and religious leaders who gathered at the High Noon Saloon to discuss faith and politics for a Cap Times Talk — said that Trump’s comments put the Muslim community in a difficult position.