Sightings Articles
Children on Christian or Secular Swings?
Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley is a grabbing lawsuit name for those of us who do “sightings” of religion in American public life. It features in a story in The Kansas City Star (see “Resources” below). The suit has to do with whether c...
October 24, 2016
In 2014, Marriage and Contraception Dominated US Religion News -- Nathan C. Walker
As expected, marriage and contraception dominated 2014’s domestic religion news headlines. At this time last year, same-sex marriage was legal in fifteen states, plus the District of Columbia. Today, 70 percent of the US population lives in a state w...
January 8, 2015
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...
October 20, 2014
Pseudo-Events Clash -- Martin E. Marty
More than a half century ago, historian Daniel J. Boorstin—a Ph.D. dissertation-adviser of mine—taught us to distinguish between events and pseudo-events. The latter, he noted, were staged to get media attention whether anything event-ful had happene...