Primaries, Caucuses, and the GOP...

As many of you know, I am in working to get a well on line for our farm in Tlacolula, Oaxaca. I got here in mid-January and will not return to the states until well after the Nevada Caucus dates. That means I will not be getting a chance to participate in, or read all of the breathless blather that will try and tell folks that anyone else other than Mitt Romney has a shot at the Republican nomination. Folks, here is what the GOP needs to understand. The nomination is going to Mitt Romney barring an 11th hour move by the party big-wigs to choose a different type of candidate. No matter what their supporters think, the reality is that Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul have absolutely no chance to actually capture the nomination. Santorum has no money and is too far to the right on social issues for the average GOP voter. Paul is too old and not enough of a military hawk to appeal to the military industrial wing of the party. And Gingrich, well he’s Newt. In spite of all of the money Las Vegas zillionaire Sheldon Adelson is pumping into his campaign, Newt can’t out run the facts... he makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of moral virtue. And so that leaves Mitt. And a bunch of questions as we move achingly slow to the Republican Convention in Tampa later this year. Why are these folks still in the race? In 2008, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battled all the way through June. Why? Because there was a conceivable path to victory for both of them. Not a single partisan supporter of the three GOP losers can give a reasonable explanation of how their candidate will get the nomination. So I ask again, why are they still in the race? It must be because while they believe Mitt will be wrong for America if he wins and that he cannot beat President Obama, they are hoping to get something out of staying. Is it a nice book deal? Is it the Vice Presidency? Is it a cabinet spot? Or is it front runner status in the 2016 presidential elections after Obama wins reelection this year? There has got to be reason, or maybe these guys are all just folks with oversized egos who can’t understand that they have already lost the election to a man named Mitt. You tell me. PS... the postcard is in honor of Dmarks, a big post card guy and another blogger who occasionally checks in here at the mission...

On the Road to Oaxaca...

I am heading to Oaxaca... to help people like this... Who typically live in homes like this... Get more of this... By using this... our water well drilling rig... Pray for safety, water, and God's blessing on what we are doing the next few weeks... I will post updates as I am able...

Brian McLaren Speaks

Is he political? He can be. Does he confound conservative thinkers in the church on a variety of issues? Yes he does. Is he guilty of pushing young evangelicals to consider theology from some non traditional angles? Most certainly. And do I love reading him, wrestling with his conclusions, and seeing how he challenges the established church? You know I do. Here's the latest article from one of my favorite writers, Brian McLaren, a former New England Pastor who has really connected with a new generation of Christian leaders. Mainline thinkers and Pastors ignore him at their peril. Even if they do not agree with him, he is speaking the language of the people with whom they are are trying to connect. In “America the Exceptional,” an article published in the January 2012 issue of Sojourners, I intentionally misquote Genesis 12 as follows: “And the Lord said to Abraham, I will bless you and make your name great. I will make you a great nation and all nations will submit to your exceptional status. They will kow-tow to your interests, submit to your invasions, and defer to your economic policies. You will act unilaterally and lead, not cooperate with, unexceptional nations. You will use and abuse the alien and stranger among you as you please, for they are not my chosen people blessed by manifest destiny.... For I am the Lord who shows favoritism to whom he will, and you are my chosen people.” Then I added, “Oops! That is not Genesis 12 -- but it might as well have been,” based on projects and attitudes promoted via distorted notions of the theory of American exceptionalism. Read the entire article.