Sightings Articles
Habitat for Humanity — Martin E. Marty
Someone once suggested that the two greatest inventions in American history are Alcoholics Anonymous and ice cream cones. As half-serious as that proposer must have been, I'd add Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI). Ordinarily we do our sightin...
February 23, 2004
Black Theology and The Passion — Robert M. Franklin
The Passion of the Christ will be seen by millions of people. Many will view it reverently, as movie theatres become houses of worship. Others will condemn the director's interpretive spin in portraying Jews as unrepentant Christ killers or imposing ...
February 19, 2004
Tracking the Nones — Martin E. Marty
For exactly fifty years I have been tracking the "infidel" (also "free-thinker," "atheist," "secular humanist") in America, beginning with a dissertation on "The Uses of Infidelity" and an early book, The Infidel. I had expected to find a large but s...
February 16, 2004
The Passion: Christians and Jews — Fr. John T. Pawlikowski and Rabbi David Sandmel
With all the praise being heaped on Mel Gibson's soon-to-be-released movie, The Passion of the Christ, many people may be wondering why many Christians and Jews are unhappy. Who can complain when a major movie star invests $25 million of his own mone...
February 12, 2004
Not My Passion — Martin E. Marty
Call this column "Gibson's Passion Not My Passion" or "Sightings Fails to Sight Gibson's Passion." It's a preemptive response to reader and media requests for comment on the forthcoming film, to which so much attention is being given, and about which...
February 9, 2004
Unwrapping God's Gift to Humanity — Brent A. Smith
In a speech almost a year ago to U.S. troops, President Bush declared: "The freedom you defend is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity." Whe...
February 5, 2004
Hispanic America — Martin E. Marty
We at Sightings are often surprised by the responses we get. We read them all, but do not have the resources to write personal responses. We did not foresee the many reactions to last week's column on the violence of sundering conflicts in the church...
February 2, 2004
Kwanzaa: A Reply — M. Randolph Thompson
Culture, acculturation, and assimilation are powerful phenomena that play immense roles in shaping the lives of individuals and societies. Martin Marty proves in his article on Kwanzaa (Sightings, December 29) how much he and his subject, Debra J. Di...
January 29, 2004
Conflict and Consolation — Martin E. Marty
Devoted as Sightings authors are to the craft of religion newswriting, we know that there is inevitable distortion when religion-as-news as opposed to religion-in-features dominates. We also know that congregations, parishes, movements, and denominat...
January 26, 2004
Reconciliation and Peace — Elizabeth Hayes Alvarez
Reconciliation and peace. This is the banner under which the Catholic Church and its leadership have been marching this week. First, in New York. A group of Catholic Cardinals including Chicago's Francis George and other notables from around the w...