Sightings Articles
Year's End -- Martin E. Marty
This week the various religious periodicals and internet outlets issue their "Top Ten" religion news stories of 2002. Rather than add to the listings, Sightings will end the year commenting on the great increase in the number of stories to rank. The ...
December 30, 2002
Benisons -- Martin E. Marty
The University of Chicago’s rarely heard alma mater has a redundant line that includes the words “blessings” and “benisons.” I use the latter word increasingly, so: “Christ-mass” benisons to the Christ-massers among you. And all the other benisons to...
December 23, 2002
A Letter from Jerusalem: Christmas 2002 -- Ithamar Gruenwald
Christmas this year cannot be like any Christmas in previous years. In the year that has passed, the Church of the Nativity was turned -- for a while -- into a beleaguered fortress. Arab Palestinians forced their way into the Church, and Israeli troo...
December 19, 2002
Catholicism and American Hispanics: In, Out, or Spiritual? -- Martin E. Marty
Sighting evidences of religion in American public life is easy, there are so many. Choosing which to highlight is more difficult. Friday last, the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law and an executive order giving a jump-start to federal funding of "f...
December 16, 2002
Code Orange: Panic in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction -- Jeremy Biles
Over a year has passed since the disaster of September 11, 2001. During this time, America has been in a state of "heightened alert." Code Orange, even when not officially declared by the government, has become the order of the day. The panic that en...
December 12, 2002
Interfaith Marriage -- Martin E. Marty
Sightings attends to public expressions of religion. Not too long ago, that would have left topics such as marriage, residential life, leisure life, and worship safely in the private sphere. The rest of the world then took care of public life: econom...
December 9, 2002
Tintern Abbey -- Lawrence Webb
There's a majesty about the huge church in the little Welsh village in the Wye Valley. The complex of buildings adjoining the church once housed an order of contemplative monks who spent much of each day in silence. Everything about Tintern Abbey ...
December 5, 2002
The Good, the Bad and the WCC -- Martin E. Marty
The good news is that Israel Singer, chair of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation (IJCIC) at a recent conference sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League, combined firmness with civility in dealing with Jewish-Catholi...
December 2, 2002
Interfaith Louisville -- Martin E. Marty
Sighting interfaith groups and movements nationally serves one kind of purpose. But just as "all politics is local" (and the local is the national/global), interfaith endeavors witnessed up close, in particular locales, are especially revealing. ...
November 25, 2002
Religious Voices in Foreign Policy -- Edward LeRoy Long, Jr.
Martin Marty's report of PBS's "America in the World" and the conversations at the Wye Plantation (November 11) raised some significant issues. I was particularly struck by the report of Nathan Baxter's assertion that religious communities are among ...