Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4573 )

• Bible Riots

  

  One of the more embarrassing questions I get asked is “What do you do?” This has been true throughout my career (if what I do can be called that). Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Solstice Blues

  

  The relief is so real that you can feel it with your fingers. Or brushing your cheek. The feeling of being done with another semester, and knowing you’ve got... Read more

  Posted on 21 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Evil That Men Do

  

  Theologians, for the most part, gave up studying demons a long while ago. With the advent of modern medical science, the descriptions of demonic possession in... Read more

  Posted on 20 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Naked Truth

  

  As my regular readers know, I’m struggling. The shock is palpable. Even over a month and a half later, I still keep going over in my head the many, many... Read more

  Posted on 19 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• My Stranger’s Keeper

  

  He was a bearded young man, maybe in his twenties. He kind of reminded me of my own youth, only cooler. I was at a stop sign on a snow-covered hill with tires... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Identity Crisis

  

  It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day. The movie, I mean. As a child I was taught never to talk to strangers, but that’s a little hard to maintain in New Yor... Read more

  Posted on 17 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Right to Remain Silent

  

  My daughter has a set of nesting Russian dolls. “Matryoshka dolls,” as they are known, fit one inside the other so when you open one you find another inside. Read more

  Posted on 16 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• American Possession

  

  Exorcism seems an especially appropriate trope these days. Embedded evil has to be faced squarely and forced out before it kills its host. I recently rewatched... Read more

  Posted on 15 December 2016 RELIGION

• Making Believe

  

  Sanity is always temporary. I can say that because we all know that no one acts rationally all the time. Our brains evolved (or were created, if you roll that... Read more

  Posted on 14 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Engendering Fear

  

  We live in fear. At this point in history, it seems, with good reason. Horror films, apart from being considered low art, teach us to deal with some of these... Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Surfeit of Ego

  

  In a world with finite resources, many commodities are in short supply. One clear overabundance is that of ego. We’ve seen that clearly in the long, long... Read more

  Posted on 12 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Stand Up

  

  At first glance, we had little in common. In fact, of all the people in the room the only one I knew was my wife. We were gathered together to find ways to... Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• What You Eat

  

  The future of Sleepy Hollow is uncertain. The successful FOX television program has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous scheduling over the past year... Read more

  Posted on 10 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Publishing Weakly

  

  Those of you who aren’t professional religionists might not understand the cultural impact of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literatur... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Somewhere out There

  

  If last month’s election taught us anything it’s that nobody really knows anything. For many years now I’ve been saying that the sign of an educated person is... Read more

  Posted on 08 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Monsters and Men

  

  Horror films are something you either “get” or you don’t. I have no empirical evidence for that, but then again, “getting” is hardly a precise verb. Read more

  Posted on 07 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• December Demons

  

  Conversations with friends, inevitably, turn to the fiasco this country faces with Donald Trump. My response, apart from attempting a measure of optimism and... Read more

  Posted on 06 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hoping for Light

  

  Although the stores have been playing Christmas music for some weeks now, it is technically Advent. I think we could all use a little Advent as days grow shorte... Read more

  Posted on 05 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Protest Reading

  

  In these days of bold ignorance, reading in public is an act of resistance. A world that follows the uninformed to perdition requires those who stand as... Read more

  Posted on 04 December 2016 RELIGION

• The Wicked Man

  

  I confess, it was a moment of weakness. Or I could say that it was dedication to research. In either case, I subjected myself to watching the remake of the... Read more

  Posted on 03 December 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY