Sightings Articles
Catholic Social Teaching by Martin E. Marty
Maureen Dowd wrote an almost innocuous column in the New York Times in which she noted, or argued, that "American bishops have been inconsistent in preaching their values." Any reader who is up on the teachings of the company of bishops should not be...
October 17, 2011
A Lutheran School by Martin E. Marty
Back in the middle of the twentieth century, when I lived and worked too briefly in Washington, D.C., a photographer friend sneaked me in to look on as he took formal pictures of dignitaries. I decided that the Supreme Court bench was the place to be...
October 10, 2011
Machine Gun Preacher by Martin E. Marty
Preachers, pastors, priests, rabbis, and imams number in the hundreds of thousands in the United States. They minister at the borders between what get tabbed "sacred" and "secular" realms, and as such cannot go unnoticed in public media. Some critics...
October 3, 2011
Papal Headlines by Martin E. Marty
Random headlines from daily newspapers which reached our door last Wednesday to Friday: "Pope Ventures Into Land of Luther, and Criticism," "A Papal Homecoming to a Combative Germany: Benedict Faces Calls for Change," "Pope to Visit Germany Amid Turm...
September 26, 2011
Mormons Now by Martin E. Marty
The late superstar economist Milton Friedman once delivered himself of a world-weary judgment by reference to the late economist John Maynard Keynes, that "we"—Americans?—"are all Keynesians now." We weren't, and we aren't, and who are "we" anyhow? B...
September 19, 2011
Cretan Partisams
We Americans are not as smart as the ancient Cretans, at least in one very important respect. There were good reasons to ponder their example this weekend during the solemn observances of 9/11 after ten years. Ordinarily the mission of Sightings is t...
September 12, 2011
Ordinariate by Martin E. Marty
Hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, famines, tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions, and many other natural disasters—supernatural disasters and signals to Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson—are prime global and local topics. They inspire prayer and practical...
August 29, 2011
Hell Reappeared -- Martin E. Marty
It’s bad journalism to obsess about a topic and inflict it on readers; it’s bad manners for a columnist to be self-referential. So I’ll start off saying “my bad!” and “my bad!” for returning to last week’s topic, “Hell.” And some readers may fear tha...
August 22, 2011
Who Wins? Two Books about Heaven and Hell by Martin E. Marty
“Let’s you and him fight!” The old comic-book trope is good advice for bystanders as Mark Galli’s God Wins counters Rob Bell and his book Love Wins. The two are respected evangelical leaders, an editor and a pastor, who attract headlines and readersh...
August 15, 2011
Muslims and Mormons in America by Martin E. Marty
“Americans Feel Warmest Toward Jews, Mainline Protestants, and Catholics” was a much-discussed headline in last year’s much-discussed American Grace, a survey-rich book on paradoxes in American religious life. The subtitle was How Religion Divides an...