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COMMENTARYAccording to the International Programs Center, U.S. Bureau of the Census, as of today, May 15, 2007, the total population of the world is 6,595,336,785.Over two billion of them are Christians. That’s one out of every three persons on the planet.But according to the latest research from Todd M. Johnson, Research Fellow and Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, most non-Christians have never met one. Read more of this commentary by James Emery White, of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
COMMENTARYThe Rev. Jerry Falwell passed away yesterday after collapsing at his office in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was 73.Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979 to give conservative Christians a political voice. He worked to mobilize the Christian voters who helped elect Ronald Reagan president in 1980. Even though the Moral Majority membership was reported in the millions, I was never able to detect that it developed much traction in Wisconsin. But Falwell did have a headline-making appearance in the heart of Madison back in those early days.
WASHINGTON, May 7 — A new coalition of more than 100 largely evangelical Christian leaders and organizations asked Congress on Monday to pass bills to strengthen border controls but also give illegal immigrants ways to gain legal residency. The announcement spotlights evangelical leaders’ increasingly visible efforts to push for what they say is a more humane policy in keeping with biblical injunctions to show compassion for their neighbors, the weak and the alien. Read more of this story.
Madison’s Fountain of Life church building sits on a side hill overlooking the Beltline highway’s Park Street intersection. It’s visibility is blocked by a thicket of trees. The trees will disappear when a building program for a new facility breaks ground next spring. But meanwhile the congregation is raising its visibility in another way, by moving it’s worship services into one of Madison’s most challenging neighborhoods.
WARSAW, POLAND (ANS) — More than 3,300 delegates from around the world have been gathering in Warsaw’s historic Palace of Culture and Science, a Soviet-era sky-scraper that was originally built in honor of Joseph Stalin, from May 11-13, for the World Congress of Families IV. Read more of this story.
Madison’s Nehemiah Community Development Corporation started out 15 years ago as a ministry outreach of Fountain of Life Family Worship Center with the mission Rebuilding Faith in our Communities. It went from a half dozen employees to two dozen about ten years ago after securing a Dane County contract to assist families struggling with the impacts of welfare reform. "It was a mixed blessing," says Nehemiah president Alex Gee. "We had been supported by small county contracts for in-home family therapy services. The big contract helped us grow from a community-based organization that served African Americans in south Madison to…
News Release(Madison, WI) – InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA will resume on-campus activities at Georgetown University this fall, as a recognized affiliate of the Office of Campus Ministry, after being disaffiliated nine months ago. “I am very pleased with this news,” said InterVarsity president Alec Hill. “I give a lot of credit to our staff and student leaders who did not overreact. They were firm but diplomatic in their dealing with university officials. We are grateful for the good spirit of dialog shown by Georgetown as this agreement was worked out.”Read more of this story
Science Daily — The long search for Herod the Great’s tomb has ended with the exposure of the remains of his grave, sarcophagus and mausoleum on Mount Herodium’s northeastern slope, Prof. Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology just announced.Read more of this story.
Friends say he has flunked retirement, that he seems to prefer unpaved paths, that he is a human dynamo and a bionic man (thanks to three artificial hip surgeries).The Rev. John Rea Thomas of Madison acknowledges that he’s been a pioneer, of sorts, and lucky.Read more of this story.
Religious centers on campuses nationwide are seeing an increase in student involvement and interest in religious activities in the past few years.While many believe events like the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Virginia Tech tragedy have correlated with the rise in religious beliefs on campuses, Christy Chappell, associate director of communications for Intervarsity, said students now turn to religion because they are now looking for a greater understanding of life’s questions. Read more of this story.