Sightings Articles
Football Religion
The Monday Sightings is back, after a hiatus occasioned not by any lack of topics or scenes on which to focus but by the academic calendar at the University of Chicago, from which post we do our scanning, skimming, and probing. Surveying the places w...
September 11, 2017
Taking a Knee as Critical Civil Religion
What happens when we compare Colin Kaepernick to Tim Tebow? Here we have two professional football players “taking a knee” not for a coach’s huddle but to express personal convictions outside the boundaries of their sport. I understand how much th...
January 5, 2017
Refusing to Stand: Can America's Civil Religion Tolerate Dissent?
Even people who do not follow the National Football League likely have heard of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem before games this season. "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a fl...
September 22, 2016
Football and Ethics -- Martin E. Marty
The Religion News Service headline, “What’s God Got to Do with Football Devotion? Plenty,” prods me to sight “Sports” this week. During the sixty-three years that I have lived in Chicago, I have attended one Hawks, one Cubs, one Bears (exhibition)...