Sightings Articles
Strange Bedfellows Scapegoat Russia's Gays
It's been a busy few months for anyone paying attention to issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Russia....
September 26, 2013
Pope Broadens Agenda to Include, Shock, the Gospel -- Martin E. Marty
On Pope Francis, Stephen Pope (no relation) of Boston College spoke wisely. According to many analysts, the Pope seemed, in his interview published September 19, 2013, to chide U.S. Catholic bishops for having focused too much on cultural or “social"...
September 23, 2013
Preach It, Putin! -- William Schweiker
As readers of Sightings know, these columns often bring to light expressions of religion hidden in public life as it engages current events. But sometimes truths are concealed even in religion’s appearance. Consider Syria: the use of chemical we...
September 19, 2013
Syria's Christians: A Population at Risk -- Martin E. Marty
“Buridan’s Ass” comes to mind as citizens ponder what to think and what to favor in the Syrian civil war. Look it up: this is the dilemma of Buridan’s ass (named after philosopher John Buridan). Poised equidistantly between two equally attractive bal...
September 16, 2013
A New Yorker's Reflections on 9/11/2001 -- Galen Guengerich
Remembering a Tragedy...
September 12, 2013
Moving Forward from the Folly of a Perpetual 'Walk of Faith' -- Martin E. Marty
Last week the Associated Press reported that Pastor Robert Schuller has “stage four” cancer and The New York Times reported the destruction of the “Walk of Faith” on the grounds of Schuller’s realized dream, the Crystal Cathedral. That glass edifice,...
September 9, 2013
The Holy in History: Remembering Robert Bellah (1927-2013) -- Steven Tipton
Where does religion come from, and where does it lead us? No one wrestled and played more deeply with these questions than Robert Bellah, who died unexpectedly on July 30. From Micah and Plato through Durkheim and Weber to Tillich and Talcott Parsons...
September 5, 2013
On Labor and Workers: the Silence of the Religions -- Martin E. Marty
After a month of non-labor, the Marty Center’s staff returns and publishes on Labor Day. Given the choice of dramatic, horrendous, headline-grabbing topics (e.g. Syria), to return to the scene with the topic of “Labor,” especially as in “Organized La...
September 2, 2013
Legacy of the Protestant Mainline Reconsidered : by Martin E. Marty
During Sightings’ annual “August Hiatus,” I (figuratively) load up my beach bag with books and other reading materials....
July 29, 2013
Finding God in a Song: Religion, Klezmer, and Country -- Mary Channen Caldwell
In a 2012, New York Times music-album review, “On Religion: A Search for God Through Bluegrass and Klezmer,” klezmer musician Andy Statman discusses a Christian hymn that appears on his album Old Brooklyn: “It’s about belief in God, a direct experien...