Sightings Articles
The Pittsburgh Twelve and Catholic "Fringes" — Julie Byrne
In July, aboard a boat sailing Pittsburgh's Monongahela River, three female bishops ordained twelve women to the priesthood and diaconate. The bishops traveled from Germany as part of Roman Catholic Womenpriests, a group that advocates lifting the Ro...
September 7, 2006
Heeding Edward O. Wilson — Martin E. Marty
A former Southern Baptist spends her or his post-Baptist years trying to make sense of, and sometimes fighting, the past, and seeing what elements of it might be resources for the future. Former Southern Baptist Edward O. Wilson makes no effort to mi...
September 4, 2006
Sanctuary or Spectacle?
Two weeks ago, Elvira Arellano and her seven-year-old son sought sanctuary in the Adalberto United Methodist Church of Humboldt Park, Chicago, instead of reporting to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation. Arellano, a 31-year-old Mexica...
August 31, 2006
A Bird's-Eye View of the Badminton Game — Martin E. Marty
The late Brooks Hays once said, "I felt like the sparrow that flew into a badminton game." Observing, reporting on, and communing with scholars and activists in the worlds marked "religious" and "secular" is not as hazardous as was Hays' great and de...
August 28, 2006
Cell Phone Theology - Brent A. Smith
I see applications for Paul Tillich's theology of culture in the most unusual places. His claim that "religion is the substance of culture [and] culture is the form of religion" reminds me to look for the deepest longings and "ultimate concerns" of h...
August 24, 2006
Irony and "Islamofascism" -- Martin E. Marty
Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim excrescences that issue in terrorism are coming to be called "Islamofascism" among those who want to see the "War on Terror" be part of "World War III" (or IV). Roger Scruton, author of A Political Philosophy: Arguments for C...
August 21, 2006
Commodified Conversion and The Dr. Phil Show — R. Danielle Egan and Stephen Papson
One aspect of the pervasive "religiosecular" character of American culture is the marriage of capitalism and conversion experiences, particularly in "self-help" television. Psychologist cum life coach Phil McGraw, who got his start on Oprah, hosts th...
August 17, 2006
Remembering the Sabbath — Martin E. Marty
Sightings of religious issues in public life this week appeared along the highways and in the Jewish weekly The Forward (August 4). Columnist Jenna Weissman Joselit reminded readers that this is the fiftieth anniversary of the Interstate Highway Syst...
August 14, 2006
Religion in Modern Times
While it may not constitute as momentous a cultural event as it would have thirty years ago, Bob Dylan will release Modern Times, a new album of ten original songs, on August 29. Early reports and "leaked" online audio fragments indicate that Modern ...
August 10, 2006
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...