Sightings Articles
Fatherhood — Martin E. Marty
"Fathering across Diversity and Adversity: International Perspectives and Policy Interventions" is the forbidding theme of the fat, 254-page July 2009 issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences (Volume 624). I am a F...
June 22, 2009
A Different Side of Chabad — Martin E. Marty
Whenever I stroll down "my" Michigan Avenue in Chicago I pass forlorn pickets in front of the now forlorn-looking Congress Hotel. After six years I had never understood why this union is picketing this hotel. This week's Forward (June 11) cleared t...
June 15, 2009
I Was In Prison, But... — Martin E. Marty
Sightings files bulge with clippings and printouts having to do with religion and prisons. Every year I "do" one of the sixty synod assemblies of our cosa nostra, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This year it was the Southwest California s...
June 8, 2009
Seminarians by Martin E. Marty
Having had enough of headlines and cable television about distracting commencement events, I am planning to do a small, quiet commencement one the day before you read this. It's at a favorite school of our tribe, Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, ...
May 18, 2009
Torture Follow-Up by Martin E. Marty
Handicapped by distance from my sources, as I mentioned in last week's Sightings, and somehow not quick-witted or schooled effectively enough to google all the possibilities, I failed and "fell through," as pointed out by an astute reader, in last Mo...
May 11, 2009
Torture by Martin E. Marty
Writing from Paris: If I were Czar of Catechetics, unlikelily appointed to help set the agenda for instruction and discussion among adult church-goers in America, I'd assign the topic of torture. With English-language print media piling up thousands ...
May 3, 2009
Population Changes in Europe by Martin E. Marty
In hours I'll be boarding a plane for secular Europe, in particular secular France, and most particularly, secular Paris. Mixing business and pleasure, I'll be doing some accidental research, namely, observing and taking mental notes on areas famili...
April 27, 2009
One Hundred Years of America by Martin E. Marty
It is not hard to sight what I am sighting for Sightings this week, since its shiny gold "100 Years" cover is almost blinding. I am speaking of the centennial issue of America, one of the magazines on which many of us depend for comment on both Cath...
April 20, 2009
Holiday Conflicts by Martin E. Marty
America got past the seasonal holidays and festivals relatively unscathed this month. Such an observation may sound surprising, because one would not expect holidays or festivals to scathe anyone. "Holiday," says definition one in the dictionary, i...
April 13, 2009
God is Back by Martin E. Marty
God is Back is the title of a richly detailed new book by John Micklethwait, editor, and Adrian Wooldridge, Washington bureau chief, of The Economist, the news magazine so welcomed at our house. I profited from reading the book, but, in our self-impo...