Sightings Articles
Liberal Attacks and Counterattacks -- Martin E. Marty
"Freedom from Religion." So Ellen Willis called her blast from the left against "faith-based" ventures and religion in public life in*The Nation* (February 19). Some notables from what survives on theleft blast her blast in a subsequent issue (Marc...
March 5, 2001
Religion in Inaugural Addresses -- Scott Hanson
President Bush's new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives officially opened on February 20 and has touched a nerve in the nation over church-state issues, but it confirmed his commitment to plans hinted at in controversial pass...
February 28, 2001
The Nature of Anti-Religious Sentiment -- Martin E. Marty
The current flap over blasphemous art at the Brooklyn Museum quickened this week's round of complaints that anti-Catholicism is rampant. Mailings arrive full of appeals for funds to fight anti-Catholicism through anti-defamation fronts. The A...
February 26, 2001
The Subordination of Church to State -- Martin E. Marty
Few citizens, we imagine and hope, enjoy seeing pictures of pastors being carted away from their church buildings by U.S. marshals. Yet they did see such images last week on screen or in print of the Reverend Greg J. Dixon being removed on wheels fr...
February 19, 2001
Public Perceptions of Theological Education -- W. Clark Gilpin
What do members of the wider public know about theological education and think about the religious leaders that seminaries train? Such questions recently prompted Auburn Theological Seminary's Center for the Study of Theological Education to conduct...
January 31, 2001
Mourning a Monsignor -- Martin E. Marty
Sighting religion in the public realm does not take one away from the organized church if one finds clerical leaders "out there" like the most public priest we have known, Chicago's Monsignor John "Jack" Egan. The best-known and most loved (a...
January 29, 2001
The Complications of Charitable Choice -- Martin E. Marty
This is the third time *Sightings* has gazed at "charitable choice "and "faith-based" ventures. Not necessarily the most urgent topic, it nevertheless can be revealing since people in both parties are on both sides. Some find pro and con arguments ...
January 29, 2001
Jesse's Journey -- Robert M. Franklin
The recent revelations regarding the Reverend Jesse Jackson's private life have evoked great sadness and pain. For over forty years, Jackson has been a world-class "public theologian," politician, and opinion leader. He was a close aide to Dr. Marti...
January 24, 2001
Presidential Scriptures -- Martin E. Marty
No one needs binoculars to do sightings of religion in American public life when a new president comes into view. Presidents signal something of their and the nation's acknowledged needs and chosen images by bringing their clergy along to inaugurati...
January 22, 2001
Wicca and Equal Opportunity Criticism -- Martin E. Marty
When "high culture" folks -- the well-educated and the well-off -- knock" organized religion" and "the institutional church," they and the media they favor (and who favor them in turn) do tend to give a free ride to nonmainstream, New, New Age, non-W...