Sightings Articles
A Public Religion Snapshot -- Martin E. Marty
The concept of public religion can seem abstract, remote, ethereal, and hard to grasp. However anyone who monitors its appearances, as we do, knows that public religion seen up close is concrete, material, and graspable. It appears when humans with n...
July 22, 1999
Who Publishes Religion Books? -- Martin E. Marty
Most "Sightings" deal with events and trends. Now and then we like to helpother "Sighters," as we did recently by calling attention to a book on religion reporting. Today we return to the scene of dissemination and again refer to a book that missed...
July 21, 1999
Pluralism in the Military -- Martin E. Marty
"Well, if you're not Catholic, or Protestant, or Hebrew, what in blazes are you?" an army sergeant barked to "some theologically precise recruit (probably a high-church Episcopalian) who insisted he was neither Catholic or Protestant or Jewish." So r...
July 15, 1999
Religion Reporting How To -- Martin E. Marty
Many hundreds of the many thousands who receive "Sightings" are themselves "sighters." That is, as talk show hosts, editors, reporters, writers, public relationists, advertisers, educators, and more, they let us know that they and we together are w...
July 13, 1999
The Invisible Organization: Religion and Politics in Cyberspace -- Martin E. Marty
The World Church of the Creator, the white supremacist movement that helped impel Benjamin Smith to go on a hate-crime murdering spree, propagated itself online. Like many other hate groups, it has had a Web site, and like so many others, it promotes...
July 9, 1999
Looking to the Left: Religious Attitudes in Periodicals on the Left -- Martin E. Marty
Attempting to trace religious attitudes in magazines that are decisively on the left is difficult, chiefly because there are so few surviving periodicals over on that side. On the right one can do sightings in the NATIONAL REVIEW, the AMERICAN SPECTA...
June 30, 1999
Religion Books on the Millenium -- Martin E. Marty
A score of years ago predictors about predictors predicted that the year 2000 would see many books by apocalypse-minded Christians who would date and picture the second coming of Christ around 2000. Much has happened since then. Some of the Christi...
June 28, 1999
Wiccans in the Constitutional Spotlight -- Martin E. Marty
Americans take turns appraising the relative dangerousness or unrespectability of religion after religion. Most recently Representative Bob Barr of Georgia turned on the lights when he discovered that Wiccans had the right to worship on military ba...
June 24, 1999
The Serbian Orthodox Church: Responses and Identity -- Martin E. Marty
Isolating American religion from the global scene is impossible in these times. The Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States, for instance, has been much in the news, both for its links with Serbia--at least in memory and sentiment--and for Ser...
June 18, 1999
Examining the Effects of Black Theology -- Martin E. Marty
Whoever monitors sightings of religion in American public life has no trouble finding examples in African American communities. Black churches are known to be agencies of service, activism, and voting, but not everyone knows what types of religion ...