MC News
On a recent Saturday, Sue Anderson found herself in a place she hadn’t been for 11 years — a movie theater. It takes a special film to get Anderson, 60, of New Glarus, to the Cineplex. The last one was “Calendar Girls,” a 2003 romp about a charity fundraising effort by a group of middle-age women. What lured her back was “Son of God,” a straightforward retelling of the biblical story of Jesus Christ, from birth to crucifixion and resurrection
Green Bay — Athletes praising God is the norm. Half-expected. After wins, after losses, so many players automatically shift to this mode. Then players like Jared Abbrederis make you wonder. The Wisconsin wide receiver maintains faith was a driving force behind his rise. There’s a sincerity to his words.
An atheist group is combatting a Christian Easter display at Wisconsin’s Capitol building in Madison by setting up a sign that reads “Nobody died for our ‘sins,’ Jesus Christ is a myth.” The Freedom From Religion Foundation says it rushed to get a permit for their display after seeing that the Concerned Women for America group was able to set up their own display at Wisconsin’s Capitol building. The CWA group’s display reportedly included a Christian cross and pro-life literature. The conservative women’s group says on its website that it’s dedicated to bringing “biblical principles into all levels of public…
A potluck dinner designed to strengthen the Madison community and discuss race relations has been scheduled for April 27 at James Madison Memorial High School. The dinner carries the theme “Let’s Talk About It: Race Relations,” and will be held from 3-6 p.m. There is no cost to attend, but people are asked to bring a dish to pass that will serve eight to 10 people. The event is being organized by the Rev. Alex Gee, founder of the Justified Anger Project, Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County, Ed Hughes, president of the Madison…
During his recent talk on the UW-Madison campus, Wayne Meisel, one of the architects of the federal AmeriCorps service program, asked the largely college-age audience which historical figures inspire them to do community service work. Some of the names that came back: Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Cesar Chavez, Gandhi. “So many of these people are people of faith,” Meisel said. “Faith is what defined them and kept them in the game.”
We gathered outside the Madison Federal Courthouse to commemorate the moment the Roman legal system sentenced Jesus to die. We remembered Veronica and her small gesture of kindness, wiping the brow of the condemned Jesus, outside the City-County Building, where the homeless gather in need of the smallest kindnesses. And we remembered the moment of Jesus’ death on the steps of Grace Church, where a homeless man died in the bitter cold just three months ago.
Jesus Christ’s suffering didn’t end on the cross but continues today in the forms of inequity, discrimination and other woes, according to the organizers of the annual Social Justice Stations. The fifth annual pilgrimage of nearly two miles through La Crosse will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Good Friday, April 18.
A Wisconsin church plans to create an unforgettable night for special needs students by hosting individuals with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and Autism as honored guests at a prom next month. Great Lakes Church says the event’s concept is compassionately simple. Students are pampered and paired with a high school student who acts as their host for the night while keeping them company and providing assistance if needed.
Last fall, Jose Flores applied to UW-Madison and the University of Dallas, thinking he might want to become a pediatrician. But something nagged at the high school senior. “I didn’t feel really content,” said Flores, 18, who lives with his parents and two brothers on Madison’s East Side. “I have an ambitious personality. I want to do a lot, and I feel very strongly I could work hard enough to become a doctor. But I thought maybe I need to be doing more for God.”
The lawsuit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) challenging the clergy housing exclusion proceeded this week as the government filed a brief in the Seventh Circuit defending the constitutionality of the law and arguing that FFRF lacks legal standing to bring the case.