Sightings Articles
Yuletide Journal — Martin E. Marty
The text for our morning meditation is the Christmas Eve day edition of the Wall Street Journal, which is crowded with many subtly polemical, and some insightful, good cheer items. The lead-off is the annual reproduction of the late Vermont Royster's...
December 27, 2004
Symbols and Signs — Martin E. Marty
Some year Sightings hopes to transit from November to January without having to notice what Albert J. Menendez called, in his book of the same title, "December wars." We like to deal with events and trends that might otherwise be overlooked; December...
December 13, 2004
Intuitive Ethics — Martin E. Marty
Thanksgiving weekend took us to Palm Desert, California for an escape from the real world. Away from the headlines that we usually sight, I had leisure to catch up on scholarly journals, including the latest Daedalus (of the American Academy of Arts ...
December 6, 2004
Open Theism — Martin E. Marty
Weary of sighting controversies over abortion, gay marriage, school prayer, values, morals, blues, and reds, Sightings this week turns its scope on a rare, genuinely theological conflict within the evangelical quarter. Evangelicalism's in-house criti...
November 29, 2004
Outmoded Morals? — Martin E. Marty
“The Fourth Commandment says, ‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall do no work.’ … It’s simply breaking God’s law to be open on Sundays. … I don’t work on Sunday because...
November 22, 2004
Dwindling Parishes — Martin E. Marty
Sighting a story on Catholic change was easy this week. The inescapable USA Today devoted three pages to “Church Struggles with Change” by Cathy Lynn Grossman and Anthony DeBarros, which appeared on the front page of the Life section (November 8). Th...
November 15, 2004
Iraq Costs — Martin E. Marty
Monday Sightings chose to do little sighting of religious issues in the campaign this year. But not for lack of topics. Commentators tell us that citizens lined up "faith-basedly" in the recent election to vote their "values and morals" -- mainly the...
November 8, 2004
Campaign Yearbook — Martin E. Marty
Having done little Monday-morning sighting of the 2004 campaign, at its end, we should, at least, look at the "flip-flops" or "changed places" among religious groups. First, Catholics: The May 17 Sightings ("Catholic Elections") commented on how t...
November 1, 2004
The Armageddon-Minded — Martin E. Marty
"At Christian Rally for Israel, Robertson Pitches 'Messiah'," banners the Jewish weekly newspaper Forward (October 8). At a Succoth rally designed to show evangelical support of Israel, the televangelist "Pat Robertson opened his mouth and uncorked a...
October 25, 2004
Estate Tax: Repelling the Repeal — Martin E. Marty
November is approaching, which, in the Protestant/Evangelical half of America, is often "Stewardship Month." For those whose charities' fiscal year begins in January, it is also the month for budget-setting. As a former pastor of a congregation, I re...