Sightings Articles
April is the Cruelest Month -- Donald E. Miller
Every April I find myself grieving over the levels of violence of which humanity is capable. April 6, 1994, was the first day of the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis by their Hutu neighbors. April 24 is the day on which Armenians commemorate the g...
May 2, 2002
Out of Bounds -- Martin E. Marty
Only two months ago William A. Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights listed "The Ten Worst Anti-Catholic Atrocities of 2002" in America (February 18). Some examples certainly were atrocious, e.g. a Time Out New York listing of...
April 30, 2002
Dismantling Academic Freedom -- Philip P. Arnold
A memorandum dated 30 November 2001 was sent from Governor George Pataki's office through the State University of New York University Counsel to all presidents of New York State operated campuses and community colleges. It stated that all contacts wi...
April 26, 2002
The Myth of the Myth of Freedom -- Martin E. Marty
Two running and highly visible examples of religious groups under governmental investigation or court summons are Islamic charities, which may or may not be funneling funds to terrorist groups, and Catholic dioceses, which may or may not be guilty of...
April 22, 2002
The Dilemma of a Faithless Faith -- James L. Evan
We don't hear much about orthodoxy these days. The notion comes from a time when the church was able to exercise control over the beliefs and practices of its members. The idea of a binding body of religious teaching is simply untenable in the modern...
April 18, 2002
Living in Glass Houses -- Martin E. Marty
Scandal Brings Out the Bigots: Sex Charges Just an Excuse to Revel in Anti-Catholicism." That headlines the April 12 column of sociologist, novelist, columnist, and friend Father Andrew Greeley in the Chicago Sun-Times and elsewhere. Yes, there is a ...
April 15, 2002
The "Greater Good"? For Whom? -- Deborah A. Green
Ralph Meyerstein's story appeared in a recent edition of the Chicago Tribune ("Holocaust Payouts at a Sluggish Pace," Greg Garland, February 3, 2002). His ordeal began in 1939 when he was 18. Meyerstein had escaped from Germany and was living in Engl...
April 11, 2002
A Spreading Conflict -- Martin E. Marty
The escalating belligerence on both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has caused alliances to shift and solidify. Suicide ttacks on Israel bring partisan Jews into at least temporary alliances. Israeli military attacks on Palestinians bring M...
April 8, 2002
Differentiating Among Tragedies -- Arthur E. Gans
In a recent issue of Sightings ("Suffer the Children," Sightings, 18 February 2002), Dr. Martin Marty drew a comparison between the Archdiocese of Boston's pedophilia scandal and residential schools cases involving the Anglican Church of Canada. Thes...
April 4, 2002
The Translation Sensation -- Martin E. Marty
Devoting two whole pages of the March 27 USA Today to arguments over Bible translations, as Cathy Lynn Grossman and her editors did this Holy Week, might have seemed like a drab choice to people who live any distance from church conflicts. Those who ...