Sightings Articles

Crowd with hands raised in praise and illuminate by dark red light

Evangelicalism | racism | morality | tribalism

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
Ozymandias

Confederate flag | racism | democracy | politics

Toppling History?

A reflection on the debate about Confederate monuments and the enduring truths that ought to guide us

July 15, 2020
Protest

George Floyd | Race and religion | racism | #blacklivesmatter | protests

Protest and the Raging Messianic

How do our responses to pestilence and protest reflect the value of human life in our religious imagination?

June 5, 2020

Alt-Right | American Civil War | Charlottesville | Civil Religion | Frederick Douglass | Lady Gaga | racism | Robert Bellah | Twitter | white supremacy

#TheLateUnpleasantness

The war came, again, in August, this time in the guise of what The New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb dubbed “The Battle of Charlottesville.” Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” hopped their basket and marched on the Lawn of the University of Virginia on the eveni...

September 28, 2017

Alt-Right | American religion | Mormons | racism | white supremacy

Nonwhitesome Mormons

Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, represent only about two percent of the American people, but “everybody” knows something or other about them. Ask your neighbor to discuss the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)...

September 25, 2017

Beloved Community | Christianity | LGBT rights | racism | Reinhold Niebuhr | violence

Love Your Enemies: Moral Absurdity or Genius?

The Autumn 1942 issue of Christianity and Society published an article by Reinhold Niebuhr that began: “In times of social and political conflict there are always Christians who obscure the very genius of the New Testament conception of love by their...

July 13, 2017

Alt-Right | racism | Southern Baptist Convention | Southern Baptists | white supremacy

For Southern Baptists, a Sudden Awakening and Turn on the “Alt-Right”

In a classic essay on “Denominationalism,” Sidney E. Mead observed that “[t]he denomination, unlike the traditional forms of the church, is not primarily confessional, and it is certainly not territorial. Rather it is purposive.” When Mead published ...

June 19, 2017

Alt-Right | Dylann Roof | Jared Taylor | racism | radicalization | Richard Spencer | violence | white supremacy

Dylann Roof, the Radicalization of the Alt-Right, and Ritualized Racial Violence

Dylann S. Roof, the self-professed white supremacist known infamously as the “Charleston church shooter,” was convicted last month of killing nine black churchgoers at (Mother) Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolin...

January 12, 2017

African Americans | Barack Obama | Black Studies | museums | racism | slavery

An Event to Celebrate

September 24, 2016, marked one of the most significant moments in America’s history when its first African American president, Barack Obama, opened the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the nation’s mall in Washington, D.C. T...

November 10, 2016

Kendrick Lamar | Grammys | Black community | Queen Ifrica | Joss Stone | racism | Kanye West

We gon' be alright: Rap and Reggae as Black Sacred Space

Celebrated hip hop rapper Kendrick Lamar and his album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” are poised to make history at Monday’s 58th Grammy awards. Giving voice to the underside of Black communities in which marginalized persons seek to establish a sense of id...

February 11, 2016