Sightings Articles
The Greatest Divide — Martin E. Marty
In the Austin, Texas, American-Statesman (July 25), Bill Bishop climaxed a series on "the great divide" between the two Americas this election year. Perhaps he expected to find that local congregations would be places where some give-and-take of theo...
August 2, 2004
Addressing the Nation — Martin E. Marty
Some front-rank religious thinkers fed Peter Steinfels (New York Times, July 24) good recommendations for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates. I'll add a P.S. by pushing for a little article by Michael E. Bailey and Kristin Lindholm cal...
July 26, 2004
Making Peace with Potter — Martin E. Marty
This Sightings is sent as a message in a bottle, floated from Washington Island, Wisconsin, where I am co-leading a retreat. Distant from most media stimuli, I did my sighting of a book, John Granger's Looking for God in Harry Potter (Tyndale). Rea...
July 19, 2004
Book Ends — Martin E. Marty
Sighted in The Associated Press (July 9) and, more extensively, in the New York Times (July 8) was a story about the drastic decline in the number of book readers in our society. We are becoming an ever less literate nation. There are still some re...
July 13, 2004
Secular in Politics, Strong in Faith — Martin E. Marty
Two republican leaders got things right, or pretty much so, during the past fortnight. I am referring to recent debates concerning religion and politics, personal faith and public policy, and private spirituality and the open parading of it. Senat...
July 5, 2004
My Atheist Friend: A Follow Up — Martin E. Marty
I usually hesitate to double back and revisit a just-visited theme, especially when there are so many other religion-in-culture events to sight, but last week's column prompted so many good responses that we wanted to note them. (As often mentioned, ...
June 28, 2004
Specter of Strife — Martin E. Marty
—Martin E. Marty At a recent event that commingled superstars (e.g., Rhodes and Marshall scholars, Nobel prize winners, etc.) from fifty nations, "my favorite atheist" came up with two questions for me. The first had to do with the panel on which ...
June 21, 2004
The Reagan Mantle — Martin E. Marty
Friday at 4:44, four papers on our porch sometimes provide editorial-opinion texts for Sightings on deadline day. This past Friday (June 11), President Reagan's funeral gave a theme to several, but not all. In the Chicago Tribune, Richard Norton S...
June 14, 2004
Defenders of the Creed — Martin E. Marty
In Cappadocia, Istanbul, and Ephesus two weeks ago, we visited the sites (ancient "Asia Minor") where Christian creeds were shaped. On a pleasure trip with friends, I did not work hard enough to claim a tax deduction, but I did work some. Having had ...
June 7, 2004
Prayer Accountability — Martin E. Marty
Those of us who find intercession ("prayer for others") to be a high point in worship have something new about which to be concerned. Lifting up the names of service people in danger, collegians away from home, and people traveling is an act that usu...