Steve Hickey

Personal

Hickey is married to Kristen Kay (Olson) Hickey (November 19, 1988) and they have three grown children; Caleb Edward (March 21, 1990) and wife Alaina, Thomas David (December 2, 1992) and wife Melody, and Katherine Lynn (April 7, 1992). He currently resides in Old Aberdeen, Scotland with his wife and daughter. In 2013 he was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis which resulted in his early retirement from active pastoral ministry and politics.

Education

Hickey earned his BA from Mid-America Nazarene College (now MidAmerica Nazarene University), and a MDiv from North Park Theological Seminary, and a Masters in Theological Ethics [M.ThE.] from the University of Aberdeen. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Aberdeen focusing on Leo Tolstoy's interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount.

Career

Hickey is a native of Kansas City and served as a youth pastor at Hillcrest Covenant Church in Prairie Village, Kansas from 1986-1991. He served as youth pastor and then interim pastor at Edgebook Covenant Church in Chicago from 1991-1994. He is the founding pastor (1994-2015) of Church at the Gate in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and a three-term South Dakota legislator. Since 2002 he served as chaplain for the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office and the Sioux Falls Police Department. He was ordained by the Evangelical Covenant Church of America.

Hickey was an activist statewide in two ballot measure attempts to ban abortion in South Dakota, 2008 and 2008. In the South Dakota legislature he led two attempts at repealing the death penalty (2013/2014) contending for a consistent pro-life position where issues of development, deformity/disability and depravity have no bearing on one's humanity and the sacredness of all biological human life. His position was outlined in An Open Letter To Lawmakers. He has opposed death with dignity and euthanasia arguing that killing is not compassion.

In 2013 Hickey responded to the escalation of violence in society by resisting attempts to legitimise cage fighting in South Dakota by establishing and state athletic commission. His comments, "cage fighting is perhaps the child porn of sports" created a stern kick back from sport enthusiasts nationwide and promoters and fighters in the industry. He subsequently met with UFC fighter Shayna Bazler and to express his regret for using an analogy that far overshadowed his point.

In 2014-2016, Hickey as a conservative pastor joined with an openly gay former Obama campaign manager Steve Hildebrand to form South Dakotans for Responsible Lending and together they successfully led a statewide ballot initiative to cap the interest rate on payday and title loans at 36% effectively driving the payday lenders out of the state.

Books and Publications

Hickey has written several books including Obtainable Expectations: Timely Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (2012), and Obtainable Destiny: Timely Exposition of the Apostolic Letters 2004, Creation House Press) and The Fall Away Factor (2013) and Momentum: God’s Ever-Increasing Kingdom (2009 Creation House Press). His 2016 masters dissertation at the University of Aberdeen is called Tolstoy's Novel Idea: Obey the Sermon on the Mount. His blog is called The Other Cheek.

Elections