Sightings Articles
Obama's Religious Challenge — Jerome Eric Copulsky
Last Friday, Barack Obama, the charismatic junior senator from Illinois and possible Democratic presidential hopeful, made news by speaking at an AIDS conference at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, one of the flagships of contemporary evangelicalism....
December 7, 2006
Bill Moyers's Message — Martin E. Marty
Let me start unconventionally this Monday by passing on a link: http://www.tompaine.com/print/message_to_west_point.php. Let me also continue unconventionally. Most of the 375-plus "sightings" from the past almost eight years have fulfilled my assign...
December 4, 2006
Ted Haggard's "Sin" — Jon Pahl
Now that some of the dust has settled from the unfortunate fall of evangelical leader Ted Haggard — who has confessed to being a "sinner" to his congregation — we can achieve some longer-range perspective on what it all means. I agree with Martin ...
November 30, 2006
The Catholic Vote — Martin E. Marty
"God Gap Narrows as Democrats Take Majority of Catholic Vote" is Joe Feuerherd's headline in the liberal National Catholic Reporter (November 17). "Republican hopes that socially conservative church-going Catholics would help forestall an electoral c...
November 27, 2006
Listening to Andrew Greeley — Martin E. Marty
If all will have gone according to plan — Bible believers would cite James 4:13-15 — yesterday at noon in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Andrew M. Greeley will have discoursed with Harvard's Robert A. Ors...
November 20, 2006
Iftar and American Islam — Matthew Weiner
Iftar (the breaking of daily fasts during the Islamic month of Ramadan) in interfaith settings is an increasingly widespread phenomenon. This year there were dozens of interfaith Iftar celebrations throughout New York City, where I live, and perhaps ...
November 16, 2006
Watch Your Language — Martin E. Marty
With regard to the recent election — was it a seismic or glacial change? — I want to make one observation or suggestion. It's in the "watch your language" category. Ever since my article "The New Christian Right" appeared in the Encyclopedia Britanni...
November 13, 2006
The Seduction of Reasons
"Courage, sir" is the basic prerequisite for any kind of serious moral thought, and British novelist Martin Amis has always impressed me as a person who has such courage in spades. Amis has never shied from the moral critique of life and literature. ...
November 9, 2006
Considering Ted Haggard's Plight — Martin E. Marty
Sightings usually avoids stories that are over-reported and commented on, but this is an exception. Here's why: If Pastor Ted Haggard had not waited until a second query to admit that he bought methamphetamine and a massage from a male prostitute ...
November 6, 2006
FoxFaith and the "Christian Market" for Movies — Glenn Whitehouse
FoxFaith recently became the newest division of 20th Century Fox, in the latest nod to a "Christian market" on the part of mainstream media producers. This represents both an effort by a major studio to produce new films for this audience, and a new ...