Sightings Articles
Memphis Church Preservation by Martin E. Marty
This season it’s Memphis. Last season it was in some city near you. Next season it will be a challenge in your city, or, if you “have” one, in your denomination. “It” refers to what in my eyes is one of the sad insolubles on the “public religion” fro...
January 24, 2011
Houses of Life: The Jewish Cemeteries of Jamaica by Rachel Frankel
At the outskirts of Port Royal lies Hunt’s Bay Jewish Cemetery, Jamaica’s oldest burial ground no longer in use today. The cemetery has recently been inventoried and mapped, and is now a Jamaica National Heritage Trust Site. Inventory work continues ...
January 20, 2011
Religion in News Clips — Martin E. Marty
Thesis: Religion is on the ropes in our modern secular world. Still, look at the stealth news about religion in one week. (Harriet Marty breakfasted Saturday with what looks like confetti left over after I have clipped religion-relevant stories fro...
January 17, 2011
The Politics of Wounding — Jeremy Biles
Sightings recently reported on artist and gay-rights activist David Wojnarowicz’s 1987 video “A Fire in My Belly,” which was pulled from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in response to pressure from conservative politicians and relig...
January 13, 2011
Martyrdom and Acquiescence — Martin E. Marty
“Iran Targets Christians with a Wave of Arrests,” “Egyptian Copts Mark Christmas Cautiously,” and “Anti-Christian Crimes Downplayed,” were all Friday headlines that set the tone for weekend coverage of bad news. Google some words like “Christian Mart...
January 10, 2011
Iran’s Baha’i Minority Suffers Increasing Persecution — Elise Auerbach
Seven leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community were sentenced to twenty years in prison by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran last August, a sentence that was reduced to ten years in September. They were convicted on serious but baseless charges including “...
January 6, 2011
Is Yoga a Form of Hinduism? Is Hinduism a Form of Yoga?
Debates about these questions have been making headlines lately. Some American Hindus have argued that American yoga is not Hindu enough, that Hindus should “Take Back Yoga” (the label of a campaign by the Hindu American Foundation). Other Americans ...
December 30, 2010
Public Religion Trends in 2010 — Martin E. Marty
The end-of-year summaries of “public religion” draw frequently on the most extensive press survey each December, from the Religion Newswriters Association, made up of reporters and columnists in the secular media. (A ringer in the Association, I was ...
December 27, 2010
Religion, Democracy and the Censorship of “Fire in My Belly” — Spencer Dew
David Wojnarowicz—who once, to protest President Reagan’s silence on the AIDS crisis, sewed his lips together—is again in the news, this time posthumously, with his eloquent 1987 video of mourning, love, and survival, “Fire in My Belly.” The film has...
December 23, 2010
Andrew Greeley's Chicago Catholics — Martin E. Marty
Father Andrew Greeley, friend, neighbor, sociologist, novelist, youngster—we were born on the same day, but he arrived three hours later—has published over 150 works of fiction and non-fiction. Chicago Catholics and the Struggles within Their Church ...