Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4522 )

• Holy Ghost

  

  On a family trip to Cape May, New Jersey, some years back, a ghost tour caught my eye. My daughter was old enough not to be unduly scared, and appropriately... Read more

  Posted on 17 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Dagon Cthulhu

  

  Cthulhu has taken over the world, thanks to the internet. I wonder what H. P. Lovecraft thinks as he lies dead, but dreaming under the loam of Providence. Read more

  Posted on 16 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Blessed Art Thou?

  

  “Con man” derives from the disparaging use of the term “confidence man,” as applied to those whose promised deliverables never appear, if they ever existed at... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Shadowy Futures

  

  A thoughtful, if prescient commentary by Andy Crouch in this week’s Time magazine takes us into the uncanny valley. Despite the boastful protestations of the... Read more

  Posted on 14 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Bridge Over Troubled Waters

  

  “Let not many of you,” wrote the wise James, in a widely ignored admonition, “become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” The same coul... Read more

  Posted on 13 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Best Nowledge

  

  Back in the day when paper books ruled, New York City used to be known as the publishing capital of the country. Even though many publishers still call New... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Of Cuckoos and Kings

  

  Having a life-long phobia of mental institutions, I shy away from situations that refuse to make sense. Some have attributed this to my having had an alcoholic... Read more

  Posted on 11 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Loving Haiti

  

  Few religions are as routinely maligned as Vodou. I have to admit that my own interest was originally spurred in an uncouth manner—a combination of Live and... Read more

  Posted on 10 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Religious Education

  

  The elephant in the room is exposed in a New York Times op-ed piece last week. “Indoctrinating Religious Warriors,” by Charles M. Read more

  Posted on 09 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• 2013 in Books

  

  According to goodreads.com, I read 83 books in 2013. The beginning of a new year seems a good time to assess what is memorable among the reading material of... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Lead Serve

  

  For never having been a Catholic, my life has been strangely tied to the Roman Catholic Church. Like many in my diminishing profession, I was raised in a... Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Ethics of Swallowing

  

  Mary Roach never fails to please. I first discovered her during a jaunt to my local, lamented Borders (not a weekend passes when I don’t mourn the chain’s... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Utterly Ineffable

  

  Sitting in an office full of Bibles, I feel well equipped for an apocalypse. At times, however, the irony of editing Bibles is almost overwhelming. Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• An Odyssey

  

  I learned of Jorge Luis Borges through the recommendation of a friend some years back. Of course, knowing about a writer is never quite the same thing as readin... Read more

  Posted on 04 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sail Away With Me

  

  Fascination with Noah’s ark is never-ending. It represents the salvation of life in the face of deadly catastrophe, the concern of the divine for humanity, and... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Read Until Ragnarok

  

  “The play’s the thing. Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king,” quoth Hamlet. Shortly after the Velvet Revolution, my wife and I were shown about Prague... Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• New Century

  

  Time is the ultimate commodity. New Year’s Day is one of the ten standard holidays to the business world, a grudging nod in the direction that those who are... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Writing the Cosmos

  

  On occasion those with great wealth try to give something back to society. One such gift takes the form of libraries. The J. P. Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Silver and Gold

  

  “He has also set eternity in the human heart,” old Ecclesiastes lamented at the end of the most famous passage in his book, noting that it is nevertheless... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Vive La Différence

  

  Scientists, those to whom society has passed the responsibility for knowing, have an increasingly difficult time defining humans as opposed to other animals.... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY