Sightings Articles

unlicensed rehab groups | Alcoholics Anonymous | Pentecostal Christianity | This American Life | addicts | shaming rituals | cults | brainwashing | monastics | nuns | penance | Karen Armstrong

Intense Addict Shaming: Possibilities and Perils

Is shaming through intensive and sometimes harsh therapy sessions at America’s unlicensed rehab groups cause for concern?Too little researched, these rehab groups are present in Spanish-speaking communities throughout major U.S. cities and embedded w...

February 25, 2016

Chicago Archdiocese | St. Adalbert Church | Catholicism | suburban churches | Blase Cupich

Closing and Reopening Sanctuaries

“Trending Now…” is a familiar category in pop culture. ...

February 22, 2016

Marc Gafni | Center for Integral Wisdom | sexual abuse | Orthodox Judaism | Renewal Judaism | David Ingber | John Mackey | Esalen Institute

A Disgraced Rabbi Re-Emerges and His Past Is There Waiting for Him

The urge for a reckoning of past wrongs draws victims from the shadows of anonymity....

February 18, 2016

gravitational waves | theory of relativity | science vs. religion | evolution vs. creation | Raymond Nogar | Lord of the Absurd

Evolution

Even bigger news this week than U.S. presidential campaigns came from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, a group of over 1000 scientists who have been working to detect ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves.Dennis Overbye, in ...

February 15, 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

Southern Baptists | Russell Moore | Jonathan Merritt | Southern Baptist Convention | Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Southern Baptists

Recent on-line religion stories bout Southern Baptists....

February 8, 2016

What Makes 'Religion' News?

January ended with a fifth Sunday, a calendar item that occasionally prompts an appraisal of what gets covered and what public-media assessors of the scene assume their publics will find of interest. While Monday’s Sightings pay close attention to...

February 1, 2016

Midwest | decline | rural life | imagination | adaptation | enterprise

The Ups and Downs of Religion

Those (of us) who do sightings of religion in public life are schooled to notice not only the “what” of religious phenomena and happenings, but also the “where” of each....

January 25, 2016