Sightings Articles

Bishops' Press -- Martin E. Marty

Chicago's Cardinal Francis George wryly but very sadly told the press at the Catholic bishops' meeting in Washington, "At this moment you probably have more credibility than I have. They'll believe you rather than believe me, so I would ask you to co...

November 18, 2002

Carter's Civil Christianity -- Jon Pahl

George Will's recent, crabbed critique of Jimmy Carter's reception of the Nobel Peace Prize, in Newsweek (October 28, 2002) contrasts remarkably with the agenda of Carter's own civil Christianity -- and thus ironically highlights how worthy Carter is...

November 14, 2002

By the People -- Martin E. Marty

"By the People," a sixteen-month initiative from MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, is designed to encourage citizen involvement in a conversation on "America in the World." Preparing for a National Issues Convention of randomly-chosen citizen-delegates, Ro...

November 11, 2002

Judging Rightly -- James L. Evans

Judge Myron Thompson of the U.S. Middle District Court of Alabama may have one of the trickiest jobs in America right now. This federal judge has the unenviable task of presiding over a law suit filed by the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of C...

November 7, 2002

Who's Counting? -- Martin E. Marty

Who's counting? Answer: the United Jewish Communities, through the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01, which has been counting Jews and measuring Judaism in the United States. Sponsors and commentators use superlatives: largest, most detailed,...

November 4, 2002

Niebuhr and U.S. Restraint -- Dan Malotky

Reinhold Niebuhr, the great American theologian, had many and varied things to say about the use of military force. A pacifist early in his life, he supported our involvement in World War I, became a pacifist again in response to Versailles, and late...

October 31, 2002

The USA and Your Chevrolet -- Martin E. Marty

Thursday's Sightings by John P. Crossley (October 24, 2002) reviewed well the status of debates on how courts handle "under God" clauses and other issues on the frontline of "church-state" issues. Reading it called to mind the fact that whiners about...

October 28, 2002

Under God -- John P. Crossley

If the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the decision of its three-judge panel regarding the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, I believe the Supreme Court would do the nation a favor by refusing to hear the inevitable appeal. Th...

October 24, 2002

Pedagogy -- Martin E. Marty

Given the many and lively reactions to recent "Sightings" that report on the absence and then the presence of, and sometimes the conflict among, religious voices in respect to the impending Iraq War, let's talk this week about the nature and intentio...

October 21, 2002

Judeo-Christian Ethics -- Bill Gralnick

A few weeks ago, Sightings ran a piece on the efforts of Hebrew Christian groups to convert Jews ( HYPERLINK "http://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/archive_2002/0830.html" August 30, 2002). The commentary by Elizabeth Hayes Alvarez was made in the c...

October 17, 2002