Sightings Articles
Where's the Story? — Martin E. Marty
Sightings sometimes sights the sighters, people who write on religion in newspapers, magazines, and the like as members of the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA). To cite them may seem like shop-talk, something that should concern the professiona...
November 9, 2003
Kinder, Gentler Passion — Spencer Dew
Mel Gibson's upcoming film "The Passion of Christ" (formerly "The Passion") portrays the final 12 hours in the life of Jesus, opening with a quote from the prophet Isaiah and an image of Jesus crushing a snake beneath his heel. Gibson believes that t...
November 6, 2003
Charitable Choice — Sheila Suess Kennedy
At a recent lecture by eminent sociologist Robert Wuthnow, I was introduced to the speaker by one of my colleagues, who mentioned my three-year study of the first Charitable Choice legislation -- the precursor to President Bush's Faith-Based Initiati...
October 29, 2003
Evangelical Synthesis — Martin E. Marty
There being so many things to cover, Sightings seldom allows itself to focus too long or too often on a single subject. So, having recently devoted 16 lines to the recent California election, I apologize for returning to the scene. Why do so? Firs...
October 27, 2003
Twilight of the Icons — Jeremy Biles
Among contemporary America's many media spectacles, professional wrestling is perhaps the most spectacular. Indeed, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the most prominent "all-star" wrestling outlet, can hardly be matched for its sheer grandiloquenc...
October 23, 2003
Does Religion Make a Difference? — Martin E. Marty
Social scientists and news people who report on religion often get asked whether they are "pro" or "con" religion, or pro or con this or that religion. If they are fair-minded, as we expect them to be, they report on the highs and lows, the ups and d...
October 20, 2003
Proximities: Old and New — Michael A. Johnson
In the aftermath of September 11th, journalists and commentators are often at a loss to describe the complex interaction of religion, culture, and current events. As "moderns," it was assumed that we could describe events using the value-neutral voca...
October 16, 2003
Evangelicals: Right and Might — Martin E. Marty
Business and commerce may represent the most secular sector of our common life, but the daily paper that covers business and commerce has "got religion." Especially on Fridays, the Wall Street Journal notices faith and the faiths, and we like to moni...
October 13, 2003
The New Freedom of Public Religion — John Witte, Jr.
Thomas Jefferson's metaphor of "a wall of separation between church and state" has become for many the source and summary of American religious freedom. Indeed, many within and beyond these borders think Jefferson's words are enshrined in the First A...
October 9, 2003
Catholic Rogues — Martin E. Marty
The New Anti-Catholicism, a book by Philip Jenkins, (Oxford) is occasioning some finger-pointing. Who is guilty? Mainline Protestants, Evangelical Protestants, Fundamentalist Protestants, Pentecostal Protestants, and African-American Protestants. Jus...