MC News

MALULA, Syria — Elias Khoury can still remember the days when old people in this cliffside village spoke only Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Back then the village, linked to the capital, Damascus, only by a long and bumpy bus ride over the mountains, was almost entirely Christian, a vestige of an older and more diverse Middle East that existed before the arrival of Islam.Read more of this story.

Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros — named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid — has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries — mostly Muslim converts — he appears frequently on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). There, he addresses controversial topics of theological significance — free from the censorship imposed by Islamic authorities or self-imposed through fear of the zealous mobs who fulminated against the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Botros’s excurses on little-known but embarrassing aspects of Islamic law and tradition have become…

Religious schools do not have a blanket exemption from the state’s anti-discrimination laws, the 4th District Court of Appeals found in a decision released last week that might be precedent-setting.Read more of this story.

NEWS RELEASENeighbors in need at Dane County’s busiest food pantry rely on donations of garden veggies. Now that snow piles have been rained away, the thoughts of many in the Madison area turn to gardening. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is asking those whose thumbs are any shade of green to grow a row or two of produce this year for the Dane County neighbors who turn to the Society’s food pantry for help.

The New International Version of the Bible is by far the most preferred translation of the Scripture, according to a new survey of U.S. evangelical leaders.More than 65 percent of the participating leaders named the NIV as their preferred Bible in a survey conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in light of the NIV’s 30th anniversary this year.Read more of this story.

Forgiveness is like gift giving, said theologian Miroslav Volf. He used the example of a gift sent to his sister, who might find all kinds of reasons not to accept something sent by her brother. "The gift is still valid and important," he told a questioner who wanted to know if forgiveness was conditional upon the recipient showing remorse for their actions.

MADISON, Wis. – A watchdog group on Friday called on Wisconsin Supreme Court justice-elect Michael Gableman to skip a prayer breakfast hosted by a sheriff’s department.The Freedom From Religion Foundation called the event a violation of the separation of church and state because it is hosted by the Burnett County Sheriff’s Department. Gableman, a Burnett County Circuit Court judge, is expected to be the featured speaker at the May 1 event at a restaurant in Siren. Gableman narrowly defeated Justice Louis Butler in the April 1 election and will join the Supreme Court on Aug. 1.Read More >>

When Justin Moore and his wife, Bonnie, cut up their credit cards in a show of financial freedom earlier this year, they did it in front of a group of supporters—at church.Moore, 25, works as an information technology coordinator for a staffing agency in Shelby, N.C., but on Sunday nights he heads back to church to serve as a group coordinator for a local course of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Ramsey, an author and radio show host, created the popular 13-week program, which covers getting out of debt, living on a budget, and establishing better money management skills. It’s…

COMMENTARYThe Institute for American Values and the Georgia Family Council have just released a sobering study titled “The Taxpayer Cost of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing.” The study notes that while the debate on marriage usually focuses on its social, moral, and religious qualities, marriage is also an “economic institution.” It is a “powerful creator of human and social capital.”Read more of this commentaryWisconsin Family Council

Only 9 percent of all born again adults gave 10 percent of their income to churches and charitable groups, a new survey revealed.While the practice of tithing and whether it is a biblical responsibility is still debated today, The Barna Group found that very few Americans, including Christians, give tithe.Read more of this story.