Sightings Articles

church and state

liberalism | Thomas Jefferson | Catholicism | Church and State | Benedict Option

Liberalism’s Faith

On Maggie Nelson, the free exchange of ideas that fundamentalists fear, and the faith that must ground any tenable liberalism...

November 11, 2021

Church and State | education | parochial schools | Supreme Court | US Constitution

Children on Christian or Secular Swings?

Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley is a grabbing lawsuit name for those of us who do “sightings” of religion in American public life. It features in a story in The Kansas City Star (see “Resources” below). The suit has to do with whether c...

October 24, 2016

Church and State | religious freedom | Religious persecution

Defining Religion

Sightings is commissioned to deal with “religion in/and public life,” an assignment that prompts me to spend time on the concept of “the public.” Doing so is problematic, even risky, but still simple compared to the corollary burden: “define ‘religio...

May 16, 2016