Sightings Articles
A Limited Ecumenism — Ryan McCarl
As reported in Sightings last Monday, the Vatican announced two weeks ago that it was setting up a new canonical structure, or Apostolic Constitution, to facilitate the conversion of disaffected Anglican traditionalists to Catholicism; the converts w...
November 5, 2009
Congregational Economics — Martin E. Marty
Covering “public religion” is our assignment. To many, reporting on congregations and, worse, on “giving,” looks private, personal, beside the public point. They should look again: By far the largest sector of charitable giving is to and through r...
November 2, 2009
Back to the Twelfth Century: Peter the Venerable and Pope Benedict XVI — Lucy K. Pick
In his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on October 14th, Pope Benedict gave an address in which he held up the twelfth-century monk and abbot of Cluny, Peter the Venerable, as a model for contemporary Christians, lay and monastic, praising him ...
October 29, 2009
Anglicans and Rome — Martin E. Marty
The top ecumenical – some are saying un- or anti-ecumenical – news of the year occurred October 20th with a Vatican announcement. Bypassing forty years of Anglican-Roman Catholic conversations-cum-negotiations and blindsiding Archbishop Rowan Willia...
October 26, 2009
Anglicans and Rome — Martin E. Marty
The top ecumenical – some are saying un- or anti-ecumenical – news of the year occurred October 20th with a Vatican announcement. Bypassing forty years of Anglican-Roman Catholic conversations-cum-negotiations and blindsiding Archbishop Rowan Willia...
October 26, 2009
Seeking Moral Clarity in the Fight Against Sex Trafficking — Barbra Barnett
Last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech to kick off a conference on the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, in which she addressed the urgent need to combat sexual slavery, forced labor, and other forms of exploitat...
October 24, 2009
On Muslims and Miniature Horses — Spencer Dew
Last week’s Sightings explored religion’s horrific side, discussing a Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of videos showing animal deaths. The content of the videos under judgment ranges from demonstrations of hogs being killed by dogs...
October 22, 2009
The Common Good — Martin E. Marty
Sometimes we do our sightings and findings of religion-in-public-life themes among throwaway or incidental lines, writings or sayings which suddenly hit us with unexpected force. A seemingly banal one struck me, and provides the base for all charter...
October 19, 2009
Crush Videos, the Human Sacrifice Channel, and Other Religious Horribles — Jeremy Biles
A previously obscure sect of sexual fetishism with enigmatic religious dimensions was exposed to the full light of the media last week, as the Supreme Court began deliberations on U.S. vs. Stevens. The case centers on a 1999 statute making it illegal...
October 15, 2009
Israel After Utopia — Martin E. Marty
Israel, its politics and policies and its religion(s) past and present, is the subject of so much pro and con (never neutral) comment in media, politics, and religious circles, that we could do enough sighting each week to fill this column. In such a...