Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4108 )

• Lingua Franca

  

  The history of Israel and its neighbors has been appropriated deeply in the mindset of western cultures. Both the British and Americans, for example, have... Read more

  Posted on 07 March 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sustainability

  

  There comes a time, it seems to me, when each generation realizes it’s made a mess of things. Well, at least the thinking members of a generation do. I mentione... Read more

  Posted on 06 March 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Frankly

  

  Even in the 1960s, if I recall, Dracula and Frankenstein really weren’t that scary. I mean this in the sense of the 1931 Universal movies that began the entire... Read more

  Posted on 05 March 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Symbolic Delays

  

  Weather affects more than the Psalms, of course. With all the hype of the latest winter storm things were closed or delayed before any accumulation even started. Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Strange Ending

  

  Perhaps it’s from growing up as a biblical literalist, but I’ll probably always have problems with post-modernism. You see, when you’re taught as a kid that... Read more

  Posted on 03 March 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Stranger and Stranger

  

  Like many fans of the X-Files and the early years of Sleepy Hollow, I’ve fallen into the Stranger Things orbit. While I don’t have a Netflix account, I have... Read more

  Posted on 02 March 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• How Many, Now?

  

  One thing you can say for the Bible—it’s been interpreted six ways to Sunday. This point was brought home to me in reading Michael Willett Newhart’s “My Name... Read more

  Posted on 01 March 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Christianity Sans Christ

  

  Pieter Breughel the elder“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (Please pardon the sexist translation, but the King James is in... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Like a River

  

  It still gives me the creeps, to be honest. Although a myth, well, let’s not dignify it with that noble term—although an urban legend, the origin of the “peace... Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Tempestuous Wind

  

  There was quite a windstorm that blew through here yesterday. It reminded me rather forcefully of Weathering the Psalms. Firstly, it blew loudly enough to wake... Read more

  Posted on 26 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sixes and Sevens

  

  Few eras conjure mental images as readily as the sixties. As the first decade of my life, I idealize them a bit, I suppose. I wasn’t old enough to appreciate th... Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Edifices

  

  In a process that’s been going on for decades, church buildings have been sold and repurposed. Part of the reason is the fact that spirituality has come to... Read more

  Posted on 24 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Green Eyes

  

  All of us fall prey to the green-eyed monster once in a while. For an editor like me, it starts lurking when I see others make content production look so easy b... Read more

  Posted on 23 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Friends with the Devil

  

  The Pine Barrens of New Jersey strike the first-time visitor as eerily odd, even today. Stunted trees grow from sandy soil, crowded close together and growing... Read more

  Posted on 22 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Qaulity Education

  

  Perhaps it’s from having a stubbornly blue collar, but snobbery has never appealed to me. While in seminary at Boston University, I applied for a transfer to... Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Lore of the Folk

  

  Once in a great while you read a book that has the potential to shift paradigms. The unusual and provocative Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and... Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Yes Or No

  

  Reading about demonic possession is enough to scare you away from ever using a ouija board. In fact, I’ve never played with one; growing up my strict religion... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Type Right

  

  Image credit: Rama, via Wikimedia CommonsI’ve mentioned before on this blog that I’d like to get a typewriter. An old one, without electric capacity. Clacking... Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Caveat Emptor

  

  When you work in academic publishing, various higher education news sources find you. Not able to distinguish faculty from industry professionals that rely on... Read more

  Posted on 17 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Internet of Happiness

  

  Are we really happier for instantaneous news? Has the internet brought us paroxysms of ecstasy with the quality of information? Wouldn’t you just rather wait?... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY