Sightings Articles
InterVarsity Blues
The world of Evangelical higher education keeps making news. Wheaton College in Illinois recently dealt with a flap over a faculty member’s theological comments about Christianity and Islam. She is no longer at Wheaton. And last week, the InterVarsit...
October 17, 2016
Google vs. ISIS and Freedom of Information
“Don’t be evil” has since 2004 been Google’s unofficial corporate motto. Like other mottos, it’s vague but difficult to disagree with, and like other companies, it’s arguable to what extent Google lives up to its own self-declared moral standard. (I’...
October 13, 2016
Mormon Leadership
“Leaked Videos Pull Back Curtain on…” were six words placed above a New York Times story on Friday. Readers are used to such tantalizers and might ask, “… on whom? On Celebrities… Magnates… Professional Athletes… Entertainers… Politicians…?” Such lur...
October 10, 2016
Redefining the American Civil Religion
Editor's note. This is the third in a series of essays on the Trump phenomenon—or "Trumpism," if such a thing can be defined—and what it reveals about the relationship between religion and politics in America today. Be sure to check out the previous ...
October 6, 2016
"Just a Parish Priest"
Assignment: to make sense of this week’s Sightings, please take 15 minutes or so to read Evan Osnos’s New Yorker story from this past winter (see “Resources” below). It focuses on a Chicago Catholic priest who has tended ferociously to the faithful i...
October 3, 2016
The Moment
Rarely does the name of a Protestant denomination receive mention in a headline. Unless an article refers to a churchly scandal or schism, it’s not news. Community-building, counseling and consoling, engaging in voluntary acts of service—activities w...
September 26, 2016
Refusing to Stand: Can America's Civil Religion Tolerate Dissent?
49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the national anthem...
September 22, 2016
A Crisis of Faith in Laïcité
A few weeks ago in late August, a woman was napping on a crowded beach in Nice when a group of police officers approached and ordered her to remove her shirt. In a striking sequence of photos, a photographer for AFP captured the scene (see Gillman, e...