Sightings Articles
Malls versus Mecca? by Jon Pahl
President George W. Bush, to his credit, tried not to scapegoat Muslims for 9/11 and other acts of terrorism. "We are not at war with Islam," Bush repeatedly intoned. Many Americans haven't gotten the message. They still see the world in a populis...
February 11, 2010
The Religious Violence of "Defending Marriage" by Jon Pahl
A recent article in The Atlantic and recently released Lutheran documents give good reasons to revisit the status of gays and lesbians across American society. Unfortunately, few commentators to date have addressed the most troubling development of ...
March 12, 2009
Ted Haggard's "Sin" — Jon Pahl
Now that some of the dust has settled from the unfortunate fall of evangelical leader Ted Haggard — who has confessed to being a "sinner" to his congregation — we can achieve some longer-range perspective on what it all means. I agree with Martin ...
November 30, 2006
The Most Acceptable Prejudice -- Jon Pahl
One sad trend in the current controversy over pedophilia in the church is that it has occasioned yet another rank of people of privilege in America to represent themselves as victims. These mostly white, mostly male, mostly well-off Roman Catholic le...
November 10, 2005
Jesus and the Buddha at Live 8 -- Jon Pahl
Jesus and the Buddha both made appearances at the July 2 Live 8 concert here in Philadelphia. The two peacefully coexisted at this pluralistic justice-fest, where ethics of interdependence and love merged with a dash of Protestant missionary revivali...
July 14, 2005
Converging Civilizations — Jon Pahl
At a conference in Ankara, Turkey, I observed many signs of convergence between the Christian West and the Muslim Middle East that counterbalance Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations" and the current events that seem to support his thesis. And...
December 2, 2004
Motivating a Movement? — Jon Pahl
It was a beautiful fall Sunday morning when the "Call to Renewal Rolling to Overcome Poverty" tour bus came to Media (PA) Presbyterian Church. It was the last stop on a fifteen city, twelve-day tour. I looked forward to hearing the Rev. Jim Wallis pr...
October 21, 2004
Tru-Envy? —Jon Pahl
I saw the first dandelion in my lawn yesterday, and today two advertisements for lawn care companies arrived in my mail-box. Call it a coincidence, but for many in America, such a conjunction of signs would be the trigger of a largely unconscious rel...
April 15, 2004
Freedom's Rise — Jon Pahl
Not prone to patriotic sentiment, I was surprised to be nearly moved to tears when I first visited the new National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The museum, located on the Independence Mall near the Liberty Bell and dedicated on the 4th of Ju...
September 11, 2003
Quaker Constancy — Jon Pahl
For the past month or so, partly out of fear about a coming war, partly because I've wanted to find some silence, and partly because my sabbatical research project is a book on violence and religion in America, I've been attending Sunday meetings of ...