Sightings Articles
Religion, Politics, and Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Fall from Grace
Hulu's new documentary about the Falwell family sheds light on entanglements of religion and politics and has important implications for the current moment.
November 11, 2022
Moral Indignation and Reflections on Evangelicalism
The embrace of Herschel Walker by Georgia's white evangelicals reveals the betrayal of values once publicly espoused.
October 20, 2022
A Global Perspective on American Evangelical Politics
White American evangelical Trumpism is a lot more white and more American than it is evangelical.
September 13, 2022
Evangelical Critics Are Turning Red
Outrage over a recent children's film illustrates the narrowness of evangelicalism and the experiences it has failed to understand.
April 22, 2022
A Biblical Attack on the Capitol?
The alternative facts and faulty exegesis behind Evangelicals' "Biblical worldview."
January 14, 2021
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
How Evangelicalism is Shaping College Football
Considering Evangelicalism's role in shaping the economy of college football.
September 26, 2019
They Called Him Billy
Several years ago, my wife, Katherine, and I spent a week researching letters that Americans sent to the evangelist Billy Graham, who died in 2018 at age 99. One day we stumbled on an undiscovered cache of children’s messages. They provide a window i...
September 5, 2019
Tangled in Apocalyptic Thought
President Donald Trump had a historic day on August 21, 2019. In less than twenty-four hours, he was declared “like the King of Israel” by conservative commentator (and Jewish convert to Christianity) Wayne Allen Root, and declared himself, in an ent...
September 2, 2019
A Pilgrim and Her Progress
I’m not able not to read Jia Tolentino. Initially compelled just by her name, she has easily held my ongoing attention with a prose at once lyrical and smart, and a perspective apposite in its topics and utterly different from my own. She teaches me ...