Sightings Articles
Chaplaincy — Martin E. Marty
Editorial Note: Many of you who have followed Sightings over time may recall the recent tenure of Jonathan Ebel, former managing editor of Sightings. This week, we have learned that Jon has been recalled and will be stationed in Germany serving under...
March 10, 2003
Quaker Constancy — Jon Pahl
For the past month or so, partly out of fear about a coming war, partly because I've wanted to find some silence, and partly because my sabbatical research project is a book on violence and religion in America, I've been attending Sunday meetings of ...
March 6, 2003
Wheaton's New Community — Martin E. Marty
When a liberal arts college adapts a new behavior code, other local colleges and the press yawn. But when Wheaton College in Illinois, the flagship of evangelical colleges, issued their "New Community Covenant" recently, the "allowing dancing" clause...
March 3, 2003
The Varieties of Wounding Experience — Jeremy Biles
Even a cursory reading of the day's news will turn up frequent references to wounds. Whether they occur in military combat, in nightclub disasters, or on city streets, wounds are sites of heightened interest, and too often the visible reminders of un...
February 27, 2003
Religion: Front and Center — Martin E. Marty
"Is There Any Non-Religious News Anymore?" Provocative, hyperbolic, ironic? Yes. But also my assigned topic at the Journalism School at the University of Nebraska some months ago. Both university professors and journalists, as well as other media pro...
February 24, 2003
Columbia's Fate — Kristen Kearns
In the aftermath of the recent Columbia disaster, the nation mourned together. The grief of the families and friends of the Columbia astronauts was deeply personal; the loss of seven lives in such unexpected and dramatic fashion was painful for them ...
February 20, 2003
Watchword: Imperium — Martin E. Marty
Columnist Cathleen Falsani (Chicago Sun-Times, February 14) summed up what reporters almost nationwide have concluded: "For once, religious leaders of virtually all persuasions are speaking with one voice. Or pretty close to it. They are begging for ...
February 17, 2003
Showbiz Zohar — Spencer Dew
One spark of religion getting press these days is the popularity of the Jewish mystical tradition Kabbalah among celebrities. The most outspoken of this motley collection of celebrities-turned-seekers is Madonna, whose most recent music video -- to a...
February 13, 2003
The Heavens — Martin E. Marty
Andrew Greeley's new Religion in Europe at the End of the Second Millennium (Transaction) finds that 86 percent of people in Ireland and only 21 percent in "East Germany" believe in heaven. Here in the States, we tend to believe more like the Irish. ...
February 10, 2003
Capital Offense — John G. Stackhouse, Jr.
First, a declaration: I am an evangelical and I am against the death penalty. Many people, within evangelicalism and without, seem to view such a declaration as a contradiction in terms. Aren't all evangelicals in favor of the death penalty? Indeed, ...