Sightings Articles
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 ...
April 1, 2002
A (Sacrilegious) Musical Offering -- Richard Young
It is not unusual for classical music compositions to be adapted to serve purposes other than those originally intended by the composers. Madison Avenue and Hollywood do it all the time, often very effectively. Few were bothered when they heard Strau...
March 29, 2002
Of Faith and Sacrifice . . . Flies -- Martin E. Marty
April Fool's Day is still a week off, but I am in the mood for a day off today. Pedophilia. Anti-Semitism. Al-Qaeda. Recent front-page words relating to religion deal overwhelmingly with devastations. So we turn for a moment to a more positive experi...
March 24, 2002
The Level Playing Field -- Sheila Suess Kennedy
In legal circles these days, there is much talk about tensions between the Establishment and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment. If a public school allows the Dungeons and Dragons club to distribute flyers at recess, can it bar the Bible Club...
March 21, 2002
America the Shmoo -- Martin E. Marty
Cathy Grossman's story in the March 7 edition of USA Today carried the headline: "Charting Unchurched America: 14% profess no religion. For them, spirituality is found elsewhere." Grossman was reporting on assessments by American Religious Identity S...
March 18, 2002
"The Women" Are Everywhere -- Amy Hollywood
In "Where are the Women?" (The Nation, 22 October 2001), Katha Pollitt called attention to the plight of Afghan women under the then ruling Taliban. After describing the harshest of the measures against women under the Taliban (legally women could no...