News
The Obama administration has offended some atheists. One day after Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters he gets on his knees every day and prays for rain, the Council for Secular Humanism — a leading atheist group — accused the Obama administration of sending the wrong message to farmers caught in one of the worst droughts in decades. “It sends the wrong message to distraught farmers when the Agriculture secretary suggests that the best response is to pray,” Tom Flynn, executive director of the council and editor of its journal Free Inquiry, said in a statement. Read more of this…
Madison—Wisconsin Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner (R) announced yesterday that he is authoring legislation that will repeal the “Obamacare Religious Freedom Tax.” Following is a statement from Wisconsin Family Action’s president, Julaine Appling, reacting to Rep. Sensenbrenner’s proposal. “Congressman Sensenbrenner is the cavalry riding to our rescue. As he says, ‘our religious liberties are not bartering chips.’
Madison, WI 17 July 2012 — The first ever Lausanne Movement Consultation for North American Younger Leaders brings together a diverse collection of change agents, thought-practitioners, and younger leaders to strategize on fresh approaches to sharing the Christian message. The consultation will see 120 select younger leaders from the U.S. and Canada gathering at Madison’s Inn on the Park, July 24-26, 2012.
madisonchristians.com encourages a city-wide perspective on Christian ministry. We believe Christians from different faiths, and churches of different denominations can multiply their outreach impact by working together. We were encouraged by a World on Campus report on a young adult ministry in Charlotte, North Carolina, called CharlotteONE, which is supported by a coalition of 48 churches.
At St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Hales Corners, Father Chuck Schramm has been known to talk politics in the pulpit, lifting up church teaching on such issues as immigration and the care of the poor and disadvantaged. He tries to present both sides, he says, but it’s lost him a few parishioners over the years. Still, he persists in the belief that one’s faith must inform every aspect of life, including the political.
After a year of eating the same rice, beans and tortillas; sleeping in a barn; contracting malaria and fleas; and riding a dilapidated tractor for transport, you’d think we’d be happy to fly home to the United States. It’s never that simple. Over the years, moving to and from the United States, Nicaragua, China and South Africa, we’ve seen much to love—and lament—on both sides of our nation’s borders.
Blackhawk Church, the large evangelical church on Madison’s Far West Side, is developing plans to add a third site, this one in Fitchburg. The exact location is yet to be determined, but church officials hope to be meeting in at least a temporary site in Fitchburg by January, said the Rev. John Rosensteel, a 14-year Blackhawk pastor who lives in Fitchburg and will lead the Fitchburg site.
Religious leaders and faith-based organizations responded to Thursday’s Supreme Court decision on health care, calling it alternately a “triumph of the common good” and “deeply wrong.”
A South Side church plans to convert 4,000 square feet of its current building, including its sanctuary, into a community center for one of Madison’s most racially and culturally diverse neighborhoods. Fountain of Life Church and its Nehemiah Community Development Corp. announced in a festive groundbreaking ceremony Friday evening that its existing facility at 633 W. Badger Road will undergo a $300,000 renovation to become the South Madison Center for Culture and Community, described as a neighborhood gathering place to bring various cultures together.
Everett Mitchell has a simple — and compelling — reason for why he gives so much of his time doing community service work. “Because somebody gave it to me,” he says. Growing up in inner-city Fort Worth, Texas, Mitchell, now the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s director of community relations, says the reason he made to college and in to a career was because of people who took time out to help him get ahead. Mitchell also serves as pastor at Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church on the east side of Madison.