Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4573 )

• Ash Monday

  

  I was traveling abroad with a friend. We’d just arrived back in the United States and were making our way through customs. Since he was from another country we... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Alma Mater Matter

  

  I was a teen-age religion major. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but I did start college at 19 and, being a first generation matriculant, had no idea about... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ode to Zibaldone

  

  Scribbling. All it takes is a margin of an agenda paper or the back of an envelope. I don’t remember when I started doing it—I’ve been writing my own blend of... Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Where Arthur?

  

  Arthur Rackham – “How at the Castle of Corbin a Maiden Bare in the Sangreal and Foretold the Achievements of Galahad,” Wikimedia CommonsWe’re all grail... Read more

  Posted on 17 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Know Your Monsters

  

  Edward J. Ingebretsen is one of the most intelligent analysts of monsters about. That may seem like a small order, but it’s not—many people write about monsters... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Made of Clay

  

  Investigating a new field, at least on an academic level, involves a little disorientation. Part of this derives from the fact that academics didn’t use to writ... Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Come Forth

  

  Horror movies provide a strange consolation at times such as this. When evil has overtaken democracy, it’s almost like strategy, watching how fictional... Read more

  Posted on 14 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Animal Ways

  

  Noah’s Ark has a way of showing up in many literary forms. Familiar to many from Genesis, it actually predates the Good Book by hundreds of years. Read more

  Posted on 13 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hidden History

  

  History involves perspective. We sometimes forget that. I was alive when human beings first reached the moon, so maybe I’m a bit blasé about what a great... Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Theoretically Speaking

  

  I’ve been brushing up on my literary theory. All writing tends to get classified as fact or fiction, and we don’t stop to think, generally, about what... Read more

  Posted on 11 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• An Anatomy of Lies

  

  I had an email from Mike Pence. Mike Pence doesn’t know me from Adam, but if he met me he surely wouldn’t like me. His email tried to explain, in tottering... Read more

  Posted on 10 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• A Glimpse at the Future

  

  Last month one of the three remaining Shakers died. In this era of religion unawareness, not many Americans, I expect, could identify this dying religion. Read more

  Posted on 09 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• In Poor Taste

  

  I remember seeing a television commercial once (not during the Super Bowl) where an older guy, a lawyer, complained at the camera, “It used to be that lawyers... Read more

  Posted on 08 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• By Any Other Name

  

  Good and evil. Well, mostly evil, actually. No, I’m not talking about Washington, DC, but about horror movies. Cynthia A. Freeland’s The Naked and the Undead:... Read more

  Posted on 07 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Cheap Faith

  

  “If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the... Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Big Chill

  

  It’s cold. It may not be Alaska, or even Wisconsin, but I can’t feel my fingers and the temperature hasn’t risen above freezing all day. Read more

  Posted on 05 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• I’m Saying Nothing

  

  It used to be called argumentum e silentio, the argument from silence. It didn’t take very long into my post-graduate reading to learn that arguments from... Read more

  Posted on 04 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Jericho

  

  Those who think walls actually keep people out have never ridden the train through North Philadelphia. Or into Newark. I have to admit that I’ve always found... Read more

  Posted on 03 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• System Reboot

  

  I think Steve Bannon has already taken over my computer. How else can I explain everything stopping in the middle of a word, fingers flying, building up to... Read more

  Posted on 02 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Celestial Politics

  

  Two things about my childhood: I grew up religious, and I grew up learning you didn’t talk about religion or politics. Now I see that that combination leads to... Read more

  Posted on 01 February 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY