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MADISON — Since 1909, St. Paul University Catholic Center has been a home for the thousands of Catholic students attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In particular, the undergraduate ministry has seen tremendous growth in the past 10 years as the vision and programs have undergone a major transformation.St. Paul’s exists primarily to serve the students at UW– Madison, offering a wide array of programming to reach a student population of over 42,000, of which over 10,000 were raised Catholic. With an expanding pastoral staff and continued investment in outreach and programming, St. Paul’s is better equipped to reach out to…
That is arguably one of the best parts of March Madness—the exciting possibility of a small-college program beating a nationally ranked team. Who can forget Princeton’s upset win over UCLA in the mid-’90s or, more recently, Davidson College’s triumphs over Gonzaga, Wisconsin and Georgetown in the 2008 season? Many wonder if this will be the miracle year that the 16th seed finally topples a No. 1 seed. The biblical imagery of triumph against the odds would have greatly appealed to the game’s founder, Dr. James Naismith.
Can text messaging and Twitter enhance worship or just interrupt it?One would be hard-pressed to go an entire day without bumping into someone (sometimes literally) with their phone out and their thumbs punching buttons. It used to be limited to teenagers at the mall, but now text messaging is commonplace, as is its sister technology, Twitter. And for many churches, this is great news because these technologies provide opportunities to foster community—even during worship.
If God, as C.S. Lewis wrote, "shouts in our pains," then in the past year he has nearly deafened Cindy Winters and her two daughters.About 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 8, a man stormed into First Baptist Church of Maryville (IL), approached the pulpit where Cindy’s husband, the Rev. Fred Winters, was giving his sermon, and began shooting. The man was armed with 30 rounds of ammunition, but his .45-caliber semiautomatic Glock jammed after four shots.The fatal bullet went straight through Winters’ heart. Another hit his Bible, exploding its pages into confetti.
Just before he stepped down as a member of President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Richard Stearns threw down a gauntlet. It came in the form of a press release chastising those who would say faith-based organizations that hire on the basis of religion should not receive federal funds. "The President has said he wants his faith-based initiative to be legal and constitutional, and it already is," said Mr. Stearns, president of World Vision, the Seattle-based international Christian humanitarian organization. "The only people trying to change the law and ‘fix’ what ‘isn’t broken’ are those who have always…
Do you ever give your Blackberry a day off? Fast from Facebook? Take a time-out from Twitter? If not, you probably need to read this.The nonprofit group Reboot is launching a new project called the Sabbath Manifesto designed to get overworked and overstressed young techies to rediscover the novel Biblical concept of a day of rest.It kicks off March 20 with a "National Day of Unplugging" — not using computers, cell phones, or any technology from sundown on Friday, March 19, to sundown on Saturday, March 20.
A few years ago, the former Baghdad correspondent for NBC and devout Christian brought over to the United States a young Iraqi Muslim he had known for only a month. Not only that, he also made her a part of his family.“God has something in mind for Rafraf, and it wasn’t for her to die at the hands of Iraqi insurgents,” Teague recalls thinking.
Jesuit priests are widely admired as scholarly, witty and even being a little debonair. They have sometimes been known as "God’s soldiers," after being founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534.But would most people really want to live like a Jesuit? With a vow to adhere to poverty, obedience and, well, chastity? Well, maybe just a little.The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and associate editor of America, the Jesuit magazine, has written a new book for those interested in borrowing from Jesuit tenets to live simpler lives. It’s called The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything: A Spirituality for…
COMMENTARYIn a recent New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof credits evangelicals with pushing for AIDS and malaria programs and for “doing superb work on issues from human trafficking in India to mass rape in Congo.”This is in contrast, he says, to the “save-the-worlders,”—that is, liberals. Kristof credits liberals for being concerned about poverty because for decades, they have supported big-government programs for the poor and sick, both at home and abroad. But since when is supporting government-run programs the only way, or even the best way, to help the world’s poor?
TOLEDO, Ohio — For years, Americans have watched international reports of human trafficking thinking it couldn’t happen here. But now, researchers are finding more and more domestic cases and not just in the big cities or the border states. They’re in the heartland.Shared Hope International, a Christian anti-trafficking organization, reports that up to 300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk for trafficking each year. Twelve years old is the average age of entry.