Sightings Articles

jan 6 protesters

political partisanship | decline | democracy | American exceptionalism | america

Epiphanies Of Power and/or Goodness

The epiphany of this January is at root about the profound need to civilize the nation.

January 12, 2022
revival

political religion | history | American exceptionalism

The 1776 Report: Mind the (Religion) Gap

The revealing omissions in Trump's revisionist history of American Christianity

February 25, 2021

politics | American exceptionalism | Evangelicalism

On Gods and Kings

How are we to “sight” the always intricate, sometimes chaotic, and too often hidden relationship between religious convictions and political order? More often than not it requires piecing together a jigsaw puzzle with hints from hither and yon, in bo...

January 28, 2019

Elijah Muhammad | Nation of Islam | Sunni Islam | Sufism | Jim Crow | Stephen Prothero | God in America | Olympics | American exceptionalism | racial supremacy

Taking Exception: How Muhammad Ali Transformed American Religion

The morning after he defeated Sonny Liston for the world’s heavyweight boxing championship in February, 1964, Cassius Clay confirmed that he was a Muslim, a convert to Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam. To a reporter who referred to him as a “card-ca...

June 9, 2016

Martin Marty | Amos | American exceptionalism | Edmund Burke | Martin Luther King Jr. | Abraham Lincoln | Chosen People

Connected Criticism -- Martin E. Marty

“Open your Bibles to the book of the Prophet Amos…” That sounds like a command from a Bible Class of old. Instead, it’s a response to a column by a favorite of ours, William Galston, from the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 24). Quoting Amos may seem arcan...

March 2, 2015

American exceptionalism | Soren Kierkegaard | scandal of Christianity | Christmas | virgin birth | political parties

Exceptionalism -- Martin E. Marty

Flashback: 75-plus years ago, growing up in Nebraska, my friends and I looked for something that might give us any kind of bragging rights. We were envious of California, New York, etc. for being Number One in so many rankings, which left us out. As ...

January 5, 2015