Sightings Articles
Media New and Old by Martin E. Marty
Every ten years a Religion Communication Congress meets, as it did last weekend in Chicago. I attended, as is my decennial habit. Though I could not stay to the end, I did get to chair a panel on “How Social Change is Changing Media Coverage of Rel...
April 12, 2010
Churches Facing Minister Shortages by James L. Evans
A study completed a few weeks ago by Auburn Theological Seminary in New York study suggests that churches in America may be facing a dramatic shortage of ministers in the coming years. According to the study, less than a third of students now attend...
April 8, 2010
Abundance and Choice by Martin E. Marty
“Easter Monday,” Christian clergy call today. Rabbis probably have an analogous term for their well-earned day or week or fortnight off following holiday holiday ceremonies. After too much heavy, even sometimes traumatic, religion news, let’s use t...
April 5, 2010
Lent and the Sexual Abuse Scandal by Wiliam Schweiker
Sad and troubling news is spreading like wildfire around the world of the extent of the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church and the seeming failure of the Church leadership, possibly including the Pope, adequately to address the problem. ...
April 1, 2010
Abuse in the News by Martin E. Marty
Sightings weekly scans newspapers, magazines, press releases, newsletters, blogs, books, and more, and then references its stories. This week there are no citations, because the religion-in-public-life story of the week, coded as “Clerical Abuse” is...
March 29, 2010
Form Follows Dysfuntion by Jeremy Biles
Currently on display at the Chicago Cultural Center is an exhibition of artist Christine Tarkowski’s work entitled “Last Things Will Be First and First Things Will Be Last.” Like much of the artist’s previous work, some of the pieces in this show ar...
March 25, 2010
Natural Inclusion in Religion by Martin E. Marty
“Natural inclusion” is the mantra some scholars have used in efforts to locate a proper place and time for religion in public school curricula and textbooks. It is the opposite of “unnatural exclusion” of religion in the same locales. It is also di...
March 22, 2010
Religious Registration in the Slovak Republic: Constitutional yet Patently Problematic
Early last month, the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic rendered a long-awaited landmark decision on a complaint filed by Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka, who argued primarily that the present law governing the registration of churches a...
March 18, 2010
Social Justice by Martin E. Marty
Are 68.1 million Americans connected with a Communist front movement? Yes, if they are Roman Catholic. Are another 20 million citizens listening to “coded” Nazi messages? Yes, if they are mainline Protestant. Are tens of millions more in danger ...
March 15, 2010
Failing to Talk about Proposition 8 by Gregory C. Syler
The trial in California to determine the fate of Proposition 8 – that state’s 2008 referendum which defines marriage as a compact between a man and woman – rested in late January, although final arguments and a ruling might not come until later in Ma...