Sightings Articles
Abuse in the News by Martin E. Marty
Sightings weekly scans newspapers, magazines, press releases, newsletters, blogs, books, and more, and then references its stories. This week there are no citations, because the religion-in-public-life story of the week, coded as “Clerical Abuse” is...
March 29, 2010
Natural Inclusion in Religion by Martin E. Marty
“Natural inclusion” is the mantra some scholars have used in efforts to locate a proper place and time for religion in public school curricula and textbooks. It is the opposite of “unnatural exclusion” of religion in the same locales. It is also di...
March 22, 2010
Social Justice by Martin E. Marty
Are 68.1 million Americans connected with a Communist front movement? Yes, if they are Roman Catholic. Are another 20 million citizens listening to “coded” Nazi messages? Yes, if they are mainline Protestant. Are tens of millions more in danger ...
March 15, 2010
God versus God by Martin E. Marty
We are in for another intense round of “God vs. God,” “Our God vs. Their God,” “Good God vs. Bad God=Devil.” The current round comes from many readers of Mosab Hassan Yousef’s new Son of Hamas, which reads like a spy novel and whose “gripping” plot ...
March 8, 2010
Biblical Literalism by Martin E. Marty
Lauren Ashley, self-proclaimed Miss Beverly Hills, now rejected by Hills officials, is drawing more media attention as an oracle than anyone else since another would-be Beauty Queen, Carrie Prejean, spoke. Both commented on homosexuality. We news-s...
March 1, 2010
Sexuality by Martin E. Marty
Thirteen months ago Sightings commented on a report by the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing, and its unsurprising finding that most theological seminaries do nothing to prepare future ministers to deal with sexual issues. ...
February 22, 2010
Everydayishness by Martin E. Marty
“Sightings” in the past week included numerous stories on “secularization” and “religious decline” in the United States. Catholics and leaders in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities debate in print: Do their higher academies help st...
February 15, 2010
Cultural Disruptions by Martin E. Marty
This week we reflect on issues posed in a thoughtful piece by Leon Wieseltier in the February 18th New Republic, titled “Aftershocks.” A question it inspires: Is there a framework in which to place the fights-of-the-week that made news on the “reli...
February 8, 2010
Jim Wallis on Morals and Values by Martin E. Marty
In 1957, young Harvard-bred historian Timothy Smith, of the Church of the Nazarene, knocked a lot of us budding ordinary historians – secular, “mainstream,” and whatnot – off our library stools with his book Revivalism and Social Reform. We had been...
February 1, 2010
The Robertson Paradox by Martin E. Marty
Jeffrey Weiss, who blogs at Politics Daily, sent an e-query to some of us e-columnists, or at least to me, supplementing his blog-list. He raised enough good questions to merit a response. Revisiting the by-now-over-visited tragicomedy of televange...