Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4647 )

• Disorganized Religion

  

  In an Advice column in last week’s Chronicle of Higher Education, subtly pseudonymed Madalyn Dawkins contributed a piece entitled “Dodging the God Squad. Read more

  Posted on 02 September 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Which Way to Eden?

  

  We don’t have television service, and I haven’t watched TV regularly for about two decades. Over the years, however, we’ve collected the DVDs of the shows we... Read more

  Posted on 01 September 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Playing Civil

  

  In a piece written for the Los Angeles Times, Joseph Margulies warns of the potential dangers of civil religion. I first learned about civil religion in... Read more

  Posted on 31 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ivory Doghouse

  

  Some months ago I wrote a post about a book I had not yet read. In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: The Truth about College, by Professor X both entertains and... Read more

  Posted on 30 August 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Personal Dogma

  

  Dogma is a movie that many seminarians discover at some point in their theological education. Smart, funny, and irreverently reverent, the film follows the... Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Back to the Future

  

  When I leave work, I’m in a rush. It would seem that Third Avenue and Eighth Avenue shouldn’t be that far apart, but you can’t see from one to the other. Read more

  Posted on 27 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Gold Digging

  

  To relieve the mangled up snarl of sadness, fear, and loneliness where my internal organs used to be after dropping my daughter off at college, I’ve been... Read more

  Posted on 26 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Amish Paradise

  

  Once upon a time, intelligence could be found on cable networks such as Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet. Like higher education, however, these ventures soo... Read more

  Posted on 25 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hemlock and Crucifixion

  

  Rhetoric is dying a slow, painful death. In this world where literalism reigns, the use of words to elicit an illicit truth deeper than the factual is no... Read more

  Posted on 24 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hire Education

  

  Physicians are trained to notice symptoms before a condition becomes fatal. That’s their job and our society pays them well for it. Who wants to die? Read more

  Posted on 23 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Super Women

  

  Divas, Dames and Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Gold Age Comics, by Mike Madrid, is a stroll down a memory lane that many of us never previously walked. Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Slippery Logic

  

  Last week NBC reported on a baby in Tennessee. Babies in Tennessee, one might suppose, are pretty common. This one, however, was given a name stricken down by... Read more

  Posted on 21 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Corn is King

  

  For those who no longer believe in Hell, the DMV can serve a very useful function. Actually, the Department of Motor Vehicles is truly the great leveler of... Read more

  Posted on 20 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Garden of Earthy Delights

  

  I’ve self-identified as a feminist for as long as I’ve understood the word. I know that such a statement from a man must sound somewhat disingenuous, but I... Read more

  Posted on 19 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Esoteric Goddesses

  

  One of the nice things about the internet is that you can indulge your unorthodox interests and nobody will much care (except, of course, the US government). Read more

  Posted on 18 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Thar She Blows

  

  Any survey of “armpits of America” will laughingly include New Jersey. Having lived here for nearly seven years now, I know the apocrine insults are undeserved—... Read more

  Posted on 17 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Class-less Society

  

  Dated, yet still relevant, The Hidden Injuries of Class by Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb brings to the limelight that which much of the world wishes to... Read more

  Posted on 16 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Great Caesar’s Cost

  

  College has been on my mind quite a bit lately. Thinking back to my own experience, I chose a school, as a first-generation college student, based on what I kne... Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hair to the Throne

  

  Absalom was the first of the big-hair rock stars. According to the book of 2 Samuel, his hair was so luxuriant that he had it cut once a year and it weighed... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Grand Delusion

  

  “The problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world,” Rick memorably quoted in his once safe haven in Casablanca. Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2013 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY