Sightings Articles
Colbert and Catechesis — Martin E. Marty
“The devil should not have all the best tunes.” We baroque-loving church folk like to quote that, when justifying our devotion to jazz or, though not in my case, rock music. Think today of Christian jazz or “Christian rock.” Others who monitor “...
February 3, 2014
The Challenge of Christian Ecumenism in Israel and Palestine — Paul Parker
The diversity and vitality of Christians in Palestine and Israel is startling if one takes into account the presence of all Christians from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. These Christians live in one of the more challenging areas of the w...
January 30, 2014
Calvinism and Conflict — Martin E. Marty
Last Saturday was the day set aside for the annual festival commemorating “The Conversion of St. Paul.” Did anyone notice? Still, Paul is “all over the place” in Christianity. Almost everything about him evokes or signals conflict. Conflict # 1:...
January 27, 2014
Does Quebec's Desire to Remain "French" Exclude Religious Minorities — Jonathan Napier
Recently in Canada’s Quebec province, debates, disputes, a public hearing and public protests have been taking place with regards to the kinds of religious symbols civil servants should be allowed to wear. This is due to the Charter of Quebec Values,...
January 23, 2014
Barbour — Martin E. Marty
Ian Barbour, Who Found a Balance between Faith and Science, Dies at 90. So read hisNew York Times obituary, January 12, 2014, Today's Sightings, however, is not itself an obituary of Barbour; it only draws on one. The Times headline suggests a re...
January 20, 2014
FEMEN Activist Provokes Worshippers Celebrating the Provocative Birth of God -- Heike Springhart
It should have been a festive mass in one of the centers of Germany’s Catholicism....
January 16, 2014
Guns — Martin E. Marty
Impressed and depressed by the week-long media coverage of “Bridgegate” in Governor Christie’s New Jersey, I searched for a religious angle. What is wrong with New Jersey that televangelists, pundits, and sages covering it did not religiocify or sp...
January 13, 2014
Marriage and Contraception Will Dominate 2014’s Religion Headlines — Nathan C. Walker
On the domestic front, there are two obvious frontrunners for the religion headlines likely to predominate in 2014. ...
January 9, 2014
Religious Architecture
Few expressions of religion are as public and inescapable as buildings....
January 6, 2014
"Duck Dynasty" Phil Robertson's Theology: Dead or Alive?
Since a recent GQ Magazine article outed his homophobic and pro-Jim-crow views, left-wing commentators have declared open season on Phil Robertson, the patriarch of A&E’s “Duck Dynasty.”...