Sightings Articles
Muslim Perspectives on "Remembering God" at Christmas
What Muslims think about Christmas...
December 26, 2013
Religion in 2013 -- Martin E. Marty
With this release Monday’s Sightings says good-bye to 2013. Appropriately, I want to use this moment to take a retrospective look at religion-in-the-news during the past year. The Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) was eight years old when, ...
December 23, 2013
Faith-Based Prisons: More Religion Equals Less Crime? — Brad Stoddard
The State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, recently made headlines because it hosts an in-house seminary that offers a two-year associate degree in Pastoral Ministries and a four-year bachelor’s degree in Theology. The curriculum includes a varie...
December 19, 2013
Losing Faith — Martin E. Marty
Guiding my own thoughts about historical changes are these lines by the Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset: “Decisive historical changes do not come from great wars, terrible cataclysms, or ingenious inventions: it is enough that the heart of ...
December 16, 2013
Advent-Season Fasting by Supporters of New U.S. Immigration Bill — Elizabeth Collier
For Christians, the season of Advent is a time of hopeful expectation, a hopeful waiting in the midst of short days and long hours of darkness. The challenging, exhausting, penitential practice of fasting, found in most religions, is not typically as...
December 12, 2013
War on Christmas -- Martin E. Marty
Two stories vied for top notice over the weekend. The first was the death of Nelson Mandela, the South African maker of peace. The second was the war about “The War Against Christmas.” Both dealt with the “public religion” themes that preoccupySighti...
December 9, 2013
Anti-Superstition Campaign in India Cost Dr. Nadrendra Dabholkar His Life — Anand Venkatkrishnan
Earlier this year, Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, president of a prominent Indian rationalist organization, the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), or Committee for the Eradication of Blind Faith, was killed for his efforts to get...
December 5, 2013
Pope on Unequal Wealth -- Martin E. Marty
“Pope attacks ‘tyranny’ of markets in manifesto” (Chicago Tribune, Nov. 26), “Pope Assails ‘New Tyranny’ of Unchecked Capitalism” (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 26), “Pope Francis the Revolutionary” (Wall Street Journal, Nov. 28) are just three of the th...
December 2, 2013
Thanksgiving 2013: "So Far From Want" -- Jeanne Bishop
When President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday of November as “a day of thanksgiving and praise” for the nation, he did so in the midst of war....