Sightings Articles

Image, made available by the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, shows students at a Presbyterian boarding school in Sitka, Alaska in the summer of 1883. (Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia via AP)

Native Americans | colonialism | Pope Francis

Reckoning with Re-education: Christianity’s Role in Native American Boarding Schools

American Christians must reckon with colonial history and cooperate with US government's “Road to Healing" initiative....

July 6, 2022
laicite protest

France | Islam | Islam of France | secularism | colonialism

The Problem with Freedom from Religion

Laïcité must reckon with the continuing impact of French colonial history ...

March 8, 2021

colonialism | jihad | repentance | violence

But Who's Counting?

The “Global North” is where most Sightings readers live. In his new book Crusade and Jihad (Yale, 2018), historian William R. Polk includes in this neighborhood China, Russia, Europe, Britain, and America, plus, presumably, “et cetera.” His subtitle ...

June 18, 2018

Kenya | LGBT rights | Republican Liberty Party | anti-sodomy laws | colonialism | Wangari Maathai | homophobia | Christianity | Other Sheep Kenya | Michael Kimundu | Pembizo Christian Council | Solomon Gichira | Binyavanga Wainaina

Gay Prayer in Uhuru Park, or Christianity and LGBT Empowerment in Kenya

While doing preliminary research for a project on religion, homosexuality and LGBT rights in Kenya, July-August 2015, I discovered a different side of the gay debate in Africa—one that so far has received very little attention. Where religion in gene...

February 4, 2016

Debra Erickson | Nigeria | Goodluck Jonathan | Muhammadu Buhari | Boko Haram | John Kerry | colonialism | Biafra | Jos | pan-Nigerian nationalism | Christianity | Islam

Nigeria's Presidential Election: Will the Muslim Challenger Defeat the Christian Incumbent? by Debra Erickson

Out of a region usually granted just one story at a time, reports from Nigeria have multiplied in recent months, and little of it is encouraging. Presidential elections scheduled for February 14 were postponed six weeks by the government, ostensib...

March 5, 2015