Sightings Articles
Extra Ecclesiam -- Martin E. Marty
One week after I explained why Sightings does not always pick the "topic of the week" for comment, I find myself commenting on the "topic of last week," Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst. I'll pass the whole controversy by except to lift out a sub-t...
August 7, 2006
Civic Pedagogy and Violence — Martin E. Marty
Readers of Sightings through most of a decade may have noticed that the concept driving it is "pedagogy," not "ideology." What José Ortega y Gasset called being a "civic pedagogue" is appealing as a vocation. Some subscribers, to most of whom we cann...
July 31, 2006
Going the Way of Masonry — Martin E. Marty
Summer travels off the interstate highways and onto byways, where vestiges of earlier American civilization(s) linger, often lead to passing visions of neglected, boarded-up, or refashioned Masonic Lodge buildings. Just as numberless Catholic church ...
July 24, 2006
The Joy of Stewardship — Martin E. Marty
Religious commentators have had much to say (as well they should) over the recent philanthropic moves of Warren Buffett and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Among the critics, one offers theological and logical emphases that bear examination. J...
July 17, 2006
OT, NT, and QT — Martin E. Marty
I don't know whether this is making a mountain out of a mountain or only a bigger molehill out of a little molehill: It's a tiny item in a brisk and enjoyable local column, one that trades on a syndrome evidenced in our daily readings having to do wi...
July 10, 2006
"Religiosecular" Revisited — Martin E. Marty
No, it has not been a slow week, and yes, there were plenty of religion-in-culture events on which to focus our "sightings." However, we have some catch-up work left over from when, two weeks ago, I asked, "Any takers?" ("Religiosecular Meditations,"...
July 3, 2006
Blogs for Better or Worse — Martin E. Marty
The text for our morning meditation is by Rick Morrissey: "One of the best and worst things that has happened to our society is the blog—best because everyone can have his say, not just us so-called experts; worst because everyone can say anything wi...
June 26, 2006
Religiosecular Meditations — Martin E. Marty
"Religiosecular": I've been trying to patent what in one article long ago I called a "neologistic barbarism" to cover the reality that the world, "our" world, is all the time growing manifestly both more religious and more secular (using all kinds of...
June 19, 2006
Christianity in Canada — Martin E. Marty
The DEW (Distant Early Warning) signal of Cold War days may have a religious successor, which we in the U.S. will notice as the Canadian border becomes newly relevant. For context: I call the global area west of Poland, across western Europe and thro...
June 12, 2006
Pro-Life Progressivism — Martin E. Marty
"Pro-Life Progressivism" must sound as oxymoronic to some citizens as "Pro-Choice Conservatism" must sound to others. That's the fix we're in, and have been, since 1973, after Roe v. Wade, when defining groups often found it feasible to organize peop...