Sightings Articles
Stop Asking What the Bible Means to the President
A historian of the bible in America reflects on what Trump’s recent photo-op in front of St. John’s Church does (and doesn’t) mean
June 8, 2020
Playing the Ostrich; or, How Not to Think about QAnon
American conspiracy theories and the task of the scholar of religion
May 18, 2020
Scapegoating Mitt Romney
What Mitt Romney's disinvitation from CPAC 2020 tells us about the evolving role of religion in public life for the Christian Right
March 12, 2020
General Suleimani, U.S. Policy, and Jus ad Vim
Why we need a better way of talking about the use of “force short of war”
January 9, 2020
Free Speech in Poetry and in Prose
What the President's executive order to combat anti-Semitism teaches us about the abuse and misunderstanding of free speech
December 16, 2019
Paula White and the Mainstreaming of American Pentecostalism
Trump's appointment of Paula White is an indicator of shifting lines within the Christian right
November 7, 2019
The Blinding Idol
Daniel Owings discusses the shortcomings of idolatry imagery for understanding Donald Trump
October 17, 2019
Sharpiegate, or the Origins and Ends of Democracy
What does #Sharpiegate teach us about the place of religion in the future, or the end, of democracy?
September 23, 2019
Male, Female, and Transgender: Notes from Theological Anthropology
Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience do not speak univocally.
November 8, 2018
What Trump's "Lies" Have to Do with (Political) Religion
Reviewers of former FBI director James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership (Flatiron, 2018) have fixed on the second of the three terms in the book’s subtitle. In one widely disseminated quote, Comey compares the flagrant dishonesty...