Sightings Articles
The Decline of Military Chaplaincy -- Martin E. Marty
Sighting military chaplains these days demands strong binoculars -- chaplains are distant and few -- as well as measures of attention that most citizens lack. But to focus in on a sample: Forward offers a cover story called "Military Services Hit Har...
July 11, 2005
Billy Graham's Final Crusade -- James L. Evans
Two weekends ago, Billy Graham preached what has been predicted to be his final American evangelistic campaign -- perhaps his last campaign ever. If this proves to be true, his career will have concluded where it began, in New York. His first nationa...
July 7, 2005
Rossing's Rapture -- Martin E. Marty
When I use the word "literally," I mean "literally" -- not metaphorically, as in "it was literally raining cats and dogs." Literally, one or two-score pages of the newspapers that came my way last week bannered the place of religion in American life ...
July 5, 2005
It Only Hurts When I Laugh -- James K. A. Smith
The May issue of Harper's magazine is, as usual, a feast. There is a distinct theme running through this issue, which comprises an almost apocalyptic collection of editorials and essays chronicling the dangers of evangelical Christianity -- from Lewi...
June 30, 2005
Reporting on Billy Graham -- Martin E. Marty
My notes from a quick trip to New York to cover Billy Graham: "The attention shown by the full house last night was a tribute to his organization and to his appeal. Authority and sincerity more than color and emotionalism contribute to that appeal...
June 27, 2005
Evolving Debates -- Darren M. Henson
The evolution debate has once again taken center stage in Kansas, thrusting the state into the national spotlight. The situation at hand concerns a proposal before the Kansas Board of Education to adopt science standards that describe evolution as "m...
June 23, 2005
Evangelical Ecologies -- Martin E. Marty
Pro-war, pro-gun, pro-executions, anti-pro-choice, pro-DeLay, pro-public school prayer, pro-Frist, pro-Schindler, pro-apocalypse, pro-Robertson/Falwell/Dobson/LaHaye: you could look it up! -- these are the only things most mass communicators communic...
June 20, 2005
Remembering Paul Ricoeur -- W. David Hall
As many of us were saddened to learn, philosopher Paul Ricoeur died of natural causes on May 20, 2005. He was 92. Ricoeur held professorships at the Sorbonne, the Catholic University at Louvain, and the University of Paris at Nanterre, where he serve...
June 16, 2005
American Culture, American Religion -- Martin E. Marty
Given the global decline in America's reputation in recent years and bemusement, at least among Europeans, over the public religiosity of the U.S., the press runs many stories on "how others see us." Now and then we find a piece that we might call "h...
June 13, 2005
Dreaming of Genies -- Matthew C. Baldwin
Dreams are said to disguise wishes; similarly, stories and myths can encode ideological fantasies. Last month, some rhetoric used in the general context of congressional debate reminded me of a classic American TV story, unveiling ways that mythic an...