Sightings Articles

religious freedom | Protestant Reformation | Christianity

The Affair of the Sausages and Religious Freedom

Five hundred years ago today, some Swiss people ate sausages. This was a major event in the history of Christianity....

Coronavirus | religious freedom | religious liberty | Religious Freedom Restoration Act

In the Name of ‘Religious Liberty,’ Roger Severino Wants to Feed U.S. Christians to the (COVID-19) Lions

How COVID-19 reveals the dangers of misunderstanding and abusing 'religious liberty'...

conscientious objectors | religious freedom | religious ethics

Conscience: Its Use and Abuse

How John Henry Newman helps us guard against the political abuse of conscience for religious beliefs...

politics | religious freedom

Religious Discrimination: The Australian Debate

religious freedom | prisons

Diet and Free Exercise

How do religious beliefs decide what prisoners and patients eat? Two recent court cases in Virginia pit religious diets against the need to serve diverse populations in public institutions. In one case, a prison inmate has requested kosher food, whi...

Church and State | religious freedom | Religious persecution

Defining Religion

the issue is not simply who “gets” to define, but who “must?

fundamentalism | culture wars | John Kerry | peace-making | religious freedom | stewardship of the earth | human good | community-building

Religion in Global Affairs

Understanding Religion in the World...

separation of church and state | religious freedom | Bill of Rights | Vatican II | Roman Catholicism | Sidney Mead | Winfred E. Garrison

Change in Church and State Relations

Concepts and practices of religious freedom...

Catholicism | Vatican II | religious freedom | Dignitatis Humanae

"Religious Freedom" After 50 Years?

December 7th: Sightings notes the date because fifty years ago today, by a vote of 2,308 to 70, the “Council Fathers” at the Second Vatican Council voted to promulgate Dignitatis Humanae, “On the Dignity of the Human Person.”Regarded as one of the ma...

Jodi Picoult | religious freedom | separation of church and state | fundamentalism | Muslim brotherhood | Gush Emunim | US Constitution

Religion Unites and Divides -- Martin E. Marty

“ISIS CRISIS.” . . . “EBOLA CRISIS” . . . “ECONOMIC WORRIES” . . . Headlines about these and others point to realities which often have religious dimensions. One of them is posed in a featured interview with Jodi Picoult, the novelist author of Leavi...