Sightings Articles
Protecting Freedoms in Alberta — Wayne A. Holst
Recent studies released by Statistics Canada and the Conference Board of Canada confirm what Calgarians and many Albertans have suspected for some time: The lure of an unprecedented, prolonged oil boom has made Alberta the most attractive Canadian de...
January 10, 2008
The "Roman" in Roman Catholic — Martin E. Marty
Friend and neighbor Father Andrew Greeley, sociologist, novelist, and columnist, reminded me in a recent e-mail that he liked to be called a "Catholic," not a "Roman Catholic." In his January 2nd Chicago Sun-Timescolumn, he elaborates: "My crowd has ...
January 7, 2008
The Economist on Religion
The Economist, our favorite weekly (still-)news magazine, published a keeper on November 3rd in the form of a sixteen-page "special report on religion and public life." As many of you know, our Center's early "public religion" efforts presumed that w...
November 12, 2007
Garry Wills on the Abortion Question
"But is abortion murder?" Garry Wills asks the question in his new book, Head and Heart: American Christianities. In this enlightening book—you will hear much about it—Wills explores how the Enlightenment heritage interacts with the Evangelical herit...
October 8, 2007
Bach in Bethlehem — Martin E. Marty
The Center that issues Sightings is devoted to "public religion endeavors." Its leaders have always been emphatic: "Public religion" is not just about politics. As many of the Thursday Sightings articles by other contributors demonstrate, "public" in...
May 14, 2007
Christian Discipline of Children
At Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood, Tennessee, only a short distance from my home, religious leader Gwen Shamblin encourages parents to spank their children, describing corporal punishment as a "time-tested, ancient teaching of the Bible" nece...
May 3, 2007
Speaking of Speaking of Faith — Martin E. Marty
My website reminds readers that I cannot write dust-jacket blurbs for forthcoming books, a policy explained on the "Regrets" page. Sometimes, however, when I read a manuscript critically for a publisher or an author -- my "Regrets" page also explains...
March 26, 2007
Sweetness and the Super Bowl
The Bears are going to the Super Bowl, their first visit in over twenty years. This chance to perform before the nation's largest audience has been hard won and long in coming. An ancient Roman such as Julius Caesar would say the Bears had earned the...
February 1, 2007
Going Beyond Belief — Philip Hefner
Both the New Scientist and the New York Times reported on the symposium entitled "Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival," hosted by the Science Network, a coalition of scientists and media professionals convening November 5-7 at the ...
December 14, 2006
Against Coercion — Martin E. Marty
Two events this season led me to go back to the Sightings archive, to a column dated October 29, 2001 ("Listening to Lactantius"). Giving evidence of our passion always to be current, we cited Lactantius from the years 302 and 303, because what he wr...