Tag: Marty
Sightings . . .
Here is a paragraph and link to Martin Marty’s latest Sightings. May God’s peace be upon us all in the days ahead. I recommend receiving this weekly from the Marty Center.
Religion 2013
Martin Marty | December 23, 2013With 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, in 1957, I first tagged along with its pioneers as they investigated American religion. (See the reference below for Richard Ostling’s fine retelling of these pioneers’ struggles and successes from 1949 to 1974). Looking back, it is hard to picture the difficulties that religion newswriters faced in the early decades of their profession. Most newspaper editors equated religion with denominations, and relegated articles to a back page in the Saturday issue, where church advertisements were ghettoized. Now, religion-related stories daily make the front page, prime-time, and top blogs.
Changes . . .
You may have noticed small changes to this blog. More are certainly coming to this site, the many that you may interact with, and change is coming or has arrived on the doorsteps of important, treasured institutions; even your faith. One change I’m making to this site is how I post from Martin Marty’s Sightings. Rather than post his entire email I’ll post a snippet and link to the web where you can read more. I encourage you to read Dr. Marty’s words on the topic, Losing Faith.
Losing Faith
Martin Marty | Sightings | December 16, 2013However, Callahan and Company in Commonweal are alerting us that while sluggish and stupid religious institutions and hierarchies need criticism, renewal, and reform, the “sensitive crown” of the human heart needs ministering by symbols, whispers, invitations, and conversations that have more to do with “the mystery of faith” than with problems of the contemporary church and culture.