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Now there are two names you don’t typically see in the same headline. George Beverly Shea and Jon Foreman are both Christians who sing and travel and make recordings. Beyond that they would appear to have little in common. Their fans are of two widely separated generations who may scarcely be aware of the other artist’s existence. But one other dubious honor they both share. They both disappointed me.

NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s wife, Deanna Favre, has seen a lot. She chose not to abort their out-of-wedlock baby, she watched her husband battle an alcohol and pain killer addiction, she fought breast cancer, and she has experienced the spotlight again in recent weeks. Brett Favre met with NFL officials on Tuesday over allegations that he sent sexually explicit text messages and pictures to a woman who worked for the New York Jets. Deanna Favre declined to address the allegations against her husband, but she spoke with Christianity Today on how faith has helped her through the current news cycle…

Vatican City — Former La Crosse Bishop Raymond Burke is among 24 new cardinals that Pope Benedict XVI named Wednesday, putting his mark on the body that will elect his successor.

An international congress taking place in Cape Town South Africa this week is expected to to chart the course for the global evangelical church for years, even decades to come. It’s called the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Among the 4,000 invited participants are a number of Madison residents, most of them associated with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. That includes InterVarsity president Alec Hill; Lisa Espinelli Chin, director of InterVarsity’s International Student Ministry; and Helyn Luisi-Mills, director of InterVarsity’s Global Projects Ministry.

A group of volunteers from a number of Madison churches come together on a weekly basis to be a part of another fellowship, The River Food Pantry, located in a giant warehouse at 2201 Darwin Road. Every Friday evening The River volunteers serve a meal to anyone who comes. The River also provides groceries, clothing, household goods and furniture to needy families. On Thursday evening, October 14th, many of these volunteers gathered at The River for a different purpose: to celebrate a half decade of outreach, enjoy a great meal, and share the experience with their friends and other community…

Two well-known advocates clashed over organized religion’s benefits and harms to an audience packed into the University of Wisconsin’s Memorial Union Theater Thursday night.   Dinesh D’Souza, president of King’s College and a religious advocate, said religion gives people a sense of the sublime and offers them “a cosmic purpose.”

  Outreach magazine has compiled statistics on the largest and fastest growing churches in the U.S. A number of cities and states have multiple churches on the list. Wisconsin has only one. The only “mega-church” in the Badger state, according to Outreach magazine, is Elmbrook Church in surburban Milwaukee.

MONONA — Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Parish in Monona is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. In 1950, St. Bernard Parish on Atwood Ave. in Madison saw such tremendous growth that Bishop William P. O’Connor announced that a new parish would be formed in Monona to serve the growing number of Catholics in the area.

Everything is marked down Friday and Saturday at the Boomerangs Resale Shop, at 1133 N. Sherman Avenue, to celebrate the store’s second anniversary. Boomerangs opened in 2008 as an outreach of Door Creek Church. Residents of the north side around the Northgate Shopping Center have enthusiastically embraced the store, according to manager Craig Gielow. “They tell us that the north side needed a store like this, and that it’s a blessing to be able to get high quality merchandise at low prices,” he said.

  If the Bible said, “Ye must do something about global warming,” as well as, “Ye must be born again,” Katherine Hayhoe’s job would be easier. But Hayhoe believes “love your neighbor as yourself” speaks clearly enough. Hayhoe, the wife of a pastor and faculty adviser for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter at Texas Tech University, is a professor of Geosciences and one of the nation’s leading researchers on global warming. Hayhoe told an audience of about three dozen at the Overture Center, in a lecture presented as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival, that the evidence for global warming…