Sightings Articles
Religion in 2013 -- Martin E. Marty
With this release Monday’s Sightings says good-bye to 2013. Appropriately, I want to use this moment to take a retrospective look at religion-in-the-news during the past year. The Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) was eight years old when, ...
December 23, 2013
Losing Faith — Martin E. Marty
Guiding my own thoughts about historical changes are these lines by the Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset: “Decisive historical changes do not come from great wars, terrible cataclysms, or ingenious inventions: it is enough that the heart of ...
December 16, 2013
War on Christmas -- Martin E. Marty
Two stories vied for top notice over the weekend. The first was the death of Nelson Mandela, the South African maker of peace. The second was the war about “The War Against Christmas.” Both dealt with the “public religion” themes that preoccupySighti...
December 9, 2013
Pope on Unequal Wealth -- Martin E. Marty
“Pope attacks ‘tyranny’ of markets in manifesto” (Chicago Tribune, Nov. 26), “Pope Assails ‘New Tyranny’ of Unchecked Capitalism” (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 26), “Pope Francis the Revolutionary” (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 28) are just three of the th...
December 2, 2013
Church Snakes and State Law -- Martin E. Marty
“Asserting a God-Given Right to Snakes” is the kind of headline which can grab attention in the midst of news-of-the-week about the Affordable Care Act, the catastrophic typhoon in the Philippines, and other beckoners for public notice. (The New York...
November 18, 2013
State Sanctioned Prayer -- Martin E. Marty
Let us pray: “in the name of the one who came, and died, and rose again that we might have eternal life—Jesus Christ our Lord—Amen.” Thus Dr. Robert Jeffress, “pastor of the 11,000 member First Baptist in Dallas, Texas, and daily radio broadc...
November 11, 2013
Mormons and Native Americans -- Martin E. Marty
Good news for readers who are weary of some subjects which are naturally covered in Sightings: here is a story about some Native Americans and about Mormons who work among them. It concerns the efforts by certain Latter-day Saints to serve the people...
November 4, 2013
Evangelical Pullback/Retreat - Martin E. Marty
The public is getting used to headlines like these: “Evangelical Leader Preaches Pullback from Culture Wars” and “Southern Baptists Sounding Full-scale Retreat in Culture War?” The former is from The Wall Street Journal and the latter from Renew Amer...
October 28, 2013
Thanksgiving and Secularization — Martin E. Marty
Having had enough of talk about Congress and the Affordable Care Act and “default,” let’s look ahead, not back. I propose a glance at the calendar, with Thanksgiving Day several weeks off. It is in the news already because Macy’s stores, one of which...