First, the GOP nomination process is Mitt Romney’s to lose.  While he only has the support of about 25% of the GOP base, he has their strong support, and the other 75% do not strongly support anyone other than “Not Mitt Romney.”  If Mitt can continue to distract and benefit from having multiple other Republicans to run against, he will win the nomination hands-down.

Second, Newt is brilliant.  Granted, I know he has the most baggage of almost any GOP candidate in decades, but the man can think, and no less, he can do so on his feet.  This is unheard of in politics, and the last person to do it well was Bill Clinton.  I was reminded of this in the debate tonight, when Newt handily turned the conversation of the legality of gays and the definition of marriage on its head by questioning the motives of the current administration which has discriminated against Churches and groups who do not actively support gays.  He is right – you can’t ask one question without acknowledging the other.

Third, Obama is gaining momentum.  Like it or not, at this point in the game, he is bringing about a supposed “economic recovery,” in which the unemployment levels continue to drop.  This will be viewed unconditionally as his doing.  He has also supposedly “ended the war in Iraq” by bringing our troops home.  This is good for him politically, but will destroy Iraq.

Fourth, Rick Santorum is a likable guy and I agree with him on much of his social conservatism.  I think that it’s important that we rediscover the meaning of the family and that it’s the most basic building block of our society.  There is no way to escape that, and I respect him for coming out and saying that.  On the other hand, he’s an earmark king and do not believe he can hold his lead at the top of the “Not Mitt Romney” party.  I think his decline is imminent.

Fifth, Rick Perry is a great governor, has a very strong conservative record, and is the most qualified candidate for the “Not Mitt Romney” category.  However, his self-mutilation at the beginning of his campaign has petrified him at the bottom of the polls and he hasn’t seemed to regain his footing.  I’m glad he decided to remain in the race through South Carolina, as he might pick up some Bachmann votes as well as some in the Santorum Sink, but I question whether it will be enough to pass Newt.  South Carolina loved him at the start of his campaign, though, and there’s just a slight chance he can recover there.  The jury is still out on that.

Sixth, we haven’t seen the end of the Obama power-grab, and this week is proof of this.  There’s only one thing worse than a liberal, government-growing president … one who knows it and revels in it.  Obama is ideologically opposed to the principles of liberty and freedom, and believes that our country must be built on a great infrastructure that runs directly from you and me as the individual to the federal government in Washington D.C.  We must depend completely on it and she must monitor our every move.  Only then will Obama be satisfied and pleased.

Seventh, as a result of point six, this election really and truly is (imho) the most important election in the last fifty years.  We are standing at the edge of a precipice, and there is little time for turning back.  Either our next president cuts programs, agencies and spending, or we go over the edge.  This is not a time for merely standing on the sidelines.  This is not a time for merely watching and hoping.  This is a situation.  ”Houston, we have a problem.”  We must make drastic changes, and I firmly believe that any one of the GOP candidates will do a better job in Washington than Obama has done.  We do not have a choice.  We have a duty, and sometimes the duty of an American is a difficult one.  Sometimes there’s not a “good choice” for getting out of a pinch.  Sometimes we have to be willing to make tough decisions, and without a doubt, if it comes down to Obama and a not-so-conservative candidate, we must actually choose between the lesser of the two evils.  God will change this world, and each election year where He gives us an opportunity to prevent immediate self-destruction, we must take that opportunity as He is continuing to do a greater work in our culture.  And culture-building will make a difference.

Over the next few days there will be much to discuss.  To name a few:

• The Iowa Caucuses and the Presidential Candidates
• What it takes to be a leader – a litmus test
• Schlossberg’s life-changing work: Idols for Destruction
• 2011 wrap-up
• 2012 preview
• The pending arrival of our first child – Trinity Helen

All that and more as I have time.  For now, as much as the liberals hate it when I say it, Merry Christmas from the Alders family to you and yours.  May blessings surround you as we finish out the year and begin another 365-day journey on this crazy planet where God has placed us.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.”

- Matthew 5:16 

“Those who ignore history, says George Santayana, are condemned to repeat it.  Those who neglect the roots of order, one may add, are compelled to water those roots desperately — after wandering in the parched wasteland of disorder.”

The Trailer

A Snippet

An Interview

The Website

1) Culture involves almost everything … everywhere

1. Your Home – family, books, music, entertainment, etc…
2. Your Church – worship, theology, friends
3. Your Community – workplace, entertainment, friends, organizations, etc…
4. Regional trends – Bible Belt, small town communities
5. National trends – pop culture, pop music, entertainment, sports, and anything that catches the eye of Mammon

2) Culture is your life and everything that affects that life.  If we’re not reforming our lives and our surroundings, we’re failing to live as Christians.  Reforming culture is crucial to the Kingdom – it’s all about the Great Commission.  Discipling the nations means impacting culture.  Living the Word to your friends and family.  Spreading the Gospel.  That’s what Reforming Culture is all about.

3) Politics is an aspect of our culture, and I’d like to think about it more generally than most.  I’m not just talking about Representatives and Senators and Presidents.  Politics includes:

1. Community involvement, particularly in volunteer organizations.
2. Negotiations between various groups of people.
3. Navigating possible disagreements in a way that preserves peace and achieves the end goal.
4. Community building and local change.

There’s a lot that goes into making a community what it is, and making it better, and most of it is political.  People have agendas, and they like to be represented well and see the fruits of their labors.   Helping these groups along takes some measure of political involvement.

4) What I’m interested in accomplishing with the “Reforming Politics” portion of this blog is providing commentary (both from experience and observation) on various political realms, and thinking through ways to accomplish the necessary steps that encourage smaller and better local government, more community involvement and problem-solving on issues that affect the local level, and proper political representation at the state and national levels.

5) What’s the goal?  Conversation that builds up and helps us think about what we can do to be more involved in our communities in ways that will build stronger relationships, fiscal responsibility, social responsibility and Christian charity.  The future of our country and ultimately the world depends upon local communities having those strong ties that enable them to carry their own burdens in faith that Christ is King and Lord over all.  It is not the state or the Fed’s duty to babysit us, but our duty to keep our local citizens from relying on the Nanny State for help that isn’t theirs to give.

6) Last, but not least, politics and culture are closely connected, whether we know it or not.  If we want to change the political atmosphere, we have to change culture.  Jesus is the Lord of Culture and of Politics.

In either case, last Friday saw a great deal of buzz over the longest-serving governor of Texas.  Will he or won’t he?  To be or not to be…

I believe Perry can run.  I believe Perry should run.  Why?  Because I believe Perry can win.

Allow me to explain.

I’ve been considering what is likely to be the #1 issue for the average voter in next year’s election, and it seems to look like this:

• Christians like to say that it is abortion, and push their pro-life agenda – demanding that abortion be declared illegal at the national level.

• Others say that it is war(s) and our level of participation in the Middle East conflicts.

• Most (and I believe the polls support this) flip between the issue of an overgrown and overweight federal government and the problem of unemployment and the need for jobs.

While I am repeatedly confused by the American public’s push for government-created jobs, I do understand their overall concerns.  Our country is in trouble financially, we are continually taxed higher than necessary, and unemployment rates are high.  The problem isn’t that the government hasn’t created jobs, though (that will only cost taxpayers more money – who do you think lines the governments’ pockets?).  The problem is that the government won’t step out of the way.

Enter Rick Perry, governor of the most successful state in the nation over the last decade.

Governor Perry has learned what it takes to create jobs.  Over and over again, Perry has done what he has needed to at the state level to make sure that government stays out of the way of businesses.  The result?  Texas added 732,800 jobs over the last 10 years.  Arizona came in 2nd at 90,200.  While California, which is wallowing in debt, has struggled for answers to their struggling economy, Texas has been sweeping up the tormented businesses leaving the Golden State with low taxes and little government intrusion.

“The door is open for business in Texas, and the Texas Enterprise Fund allows us to put that sign up in neon.” 
-Gov. Rick Perry

Perry created the Texas Enterprise Fund, which is designed to  to attract new businesses or assist with the substantial expansion of existing businesses.  TEF has been remarkably successful since its inception in 2003.  Perry also pushed the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which was created by legislation in 2005.  The $200 million fund is designed to help create jobs and to develop Texas’ economy over the long-term by expediting the development and commercialization of new technologies and attracting and creating jobs in technology fields. (See http://governor.state.tx.us/ecodev/etf  and http://www.texaswideopenforbusiness.com/ for more details.)

“In Texas, we understand that high-tech companies don’t just happen overnight but are a product of forethought, sound vision and planning, and strategic investments by both the public and private sectors. Through our Emerging Technology Fund, we are bringing the best scientists and researchers to Texas, attracting high-tech jobs and helping start-up companies get off the ground faster.”   — Gov. Rick Perry

It’s not without reason that for the sixth year in a row, CEOs ranked Texas as the #1 state for business and job growth. (Chief Executive Magazine, March 2010)

Perry has proved that he has the know-how to create an environment where businesses thrive and jobs are created by the thousands.  He knows what it takes, and he knows what it doesn’t need.  For instance, government involvement is almost always a bad thing.  At a time when the national economy is stuck in a rut and people are looking to the federal government for answers, someone in the federal government needs to be turning the focus on small businesses and encouraging innovation… by getting out of the way.

—

If the economy is the #1 problem needing solved by a 2012 candidate, there’s no better person with a proven track record than Rick Perry.  Every candidate will give their story and their plan to create jobs, but no one has said it better, or more consistently, than Perry.

—

Here are a few additional reasons for Perry to run:

• Perry is a figurehead.  His charisma and commanding presence attract people.  He’s not weak, he’s not afraid to speak out, and he leads.  Our country is in need of a President who will lead it toward a more conservative agenda.

• Relating to that, Perry is not too extreme.  Democrats can’t stand Perry due to his “in your face” attitude about some things, particularly the federal government.  Many Republicans wish that Perry was even more conservative.  But as extremely liberal as Obama is, an extreme conservative is not the answer.  A slightly moderate conservative will take the lead on what needs to get done, and will work with the current situation in a way that doesn’t completely destroy our current economy.  I believe Perry can make the right sort of changes at the national level.

• What we can’t have is four more years of Obama.  If we do, we’ll be working our way out of this mess because he has completely wiped out the US economy and destroyed our relationship with the rest of the world by making our country meaningless.  In order to do that, someone who has stood up against Obama ideologically from the very beginning will need to win the primary.  Romney doesn’t fit that description.  Perry joined up with the Tea Party before it was cool, and established himself as anti-Washington.  If he joins the race and runs with that attitude, he’ll win.

• Perry already has a national audience.  His track record regarding the Texas economy alone is enough.  Combined with his anti-Washington work, Fed Up, he’s made all of the right moves.  It’s time for that next step.

In order to do that, I’d like to collect some feedback on the following article, as well as any thoughts, questions, pros and cons of entitlement programs.

This 7-page article seems to provide a decent overview: http://www.helium.com/items/316120-a-history-of-american-entitlement-programs.

But, zealous for the prosperity of my country, I will repeat, and in these days it is of infinite moment to insist, that without religion – I mean rational religion, the religion which our Savior himself delivered, not that of fanatics or inquisitors – chimeras and shadows are substantial things compared with that virtue, which those who reject the authority of religion would recommend to our practice.  Ye, then, who love your country, if you expect or wish that real virtue and social happiness should be preserved among us or that genuine patriotism and a dignified obedience to law, instead of that spirit of disorganizing anarchy, and those false and hollow pretenses to patriotism, which are so pregnant with contentions, insurrections, and misery, should be the distinguishing characteristics of Americans; or that the same almighty arm which hath hitherto protected your country, and conducted her to this day of glory, should still continue to shield and defend her, remember that your first and last duty is “to fear the Lord and to serve him”; remember that in the same proportion as irreligion advances, virtue retires; remember that in her stead will succeed factions, ever ready to prostitute public good to the most nefarious private ends, whilst unbounded licentiousness and a total disregard to the sacred names of liberty and of patriotism will here once more realize that fatal catastrophe which so many free states have already experienced.  Remember, the law of the Almighty is, they shall expire, with their expiring virtue.

I was invited to New Saint Andrews College with the following words:

We invite you to join us in the exciting pursuit of an authentic Christian higher education, following a better paradigm. We won’t promise you a job when you graduate (and neither can voc-tech schools, of course), but we do promise to prepare you to be an intellectually, spiritually, and culturally faithful spouse, parent, citizen, worker, and church member serving in Christ’s Kingdom for the generations to come. That has always been the higher calling of Christian higher education—and of New Saint Andrews.

NSA held up their end of the bargain, and for that I’m eternally grateful.

I spent the following year after graduation working with NSA and in the Moscow community.  Having already spent four years living amongst the men, women, and children of Moscow, continuing the self-sacrifice and “community living” as a working (and married) adult was relatively easy.  I knew these people.  I loved these people.  I cared about these people.  They had taken me in as a foolish, young, immature 18 year old.  They fed me.  They listened to me.  They forgave me.  They gave and gave, time and again.

Over four years as an NSA student, I learned to give as well.  I had listened in the classroom about how much more important it was to give than receive, how we should love our neighbors, and what that looks like worked out in the Christian life.  The classroom teaching was important, of course, but what really engrained the idea of giving of oneself was seeing and receiving the continual gifts and sacrifices from everyone around me.  It takes a lot of grace to deal with a college student… to love one unconditionally and see the work that God is doing slowly but surely over the course of a college career.  Indeed, as NSA students, we were given much.

To those graduating today: As you walk across the stage, as you sign THE book for the last time, as you raise your glass and announce as a class,”Omni cui multum datum est, multum quaeretur ab eo“, don’t forget what you’re promising.  Don’t forget your duty and your responsibility to love with the same love you have received.

A year after graduation, I moved back to Nacogdoches, TX – my hometown.  Even though I was returning home, I returned as a different man – I had to make it on my own.  I had to make the decisions that would determine my path in life.  I was, in a sense, that 18 year old freshman who was just making it out on his own, but this time I couldn’t act as an 18 year old… I couldn’t wait to be loved and to receive, and later react to that love.  I had to act as an adult… I had to give.  I had to sacrifice.  I had to become a part of a new community, and love and get to know my new neighbors and community with the same passion and appreciation as I had as an NSA graduate in Moscow.

Unfortunately, I have seen many NSA graduates who leave Moscow and pine for what they had back in their “college days.”  They want their classmates and friends and the ability to sit around the Bucer’s table and drink coffee and talk theology and culture and what it means to be Kuyperian and whether or not that jives with everything they learned in Traditio.

Of course, such a reaction and feeling is all well and good provided that said graduate has completely thrown him/herself into the new community and church he/she has moved to.  Provided that said graduate has taken care to give of themself and push themselves to become a part of the lives of those that they are around.  This doesn’t mean that you go around swinging an NSA broom at all the dust and cobwebs you find in other peoples’ homes, announcing the good news of NSA graduate-ism to the world.  This means taking the time to listen.  Take the time to hear about their lives.  Get to know them.  Learn their names and their children’s names.  Learn what makes them happy.  Find something that you can do to make their life better.  Don’t talk about yourself and your experiences.  Talk about them.  Give.  Give.  Give.

Life will never be the same as it was when you were at NSA.  Life continues, and we have a responsibility to continue the tradition of giving of ourselves and learning what it means to sacrifice and live in community.  We reminisce, but we do not look back.  We recall, but only to tell the stories that we’re currently living and loving.

That higher calling of NSA – that preparation to be an “intellectually, spiritually, and culturally faithful spouse, parent, citizen, worker, and church member serving in Christ’s Kingdom for the generations to come” doesn’t have a specific location attached.  It means living where you are to your highest ability.  More than any specific history, theology, or philosophy lesson, NSA taught us what it means to live in community and live for others.

So live.  Live and die.  Die for others.  Sacrifice. And give.  For this is true for all of us: ”Omni cui multum datum est, multum quaeretur ab eo.“

It is difficult to explain the mix of emotions that we feel this week.  We rejoice, and yet we mourn.  We sing praises to God, yet we cry out to Him in anguish.  ”Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.  But He also commands, “you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death.”  Our God is a God of Justice, but also a God of Mercy.

It is natural for us to struggle with these conflicting emotions.  We are finite.  We are limited in judgment.  We fail to see with the eyes of God.

God is all Just and all Merciful, at the same time, in the same way, forever and ever.  God judged the Canaanites through the might of Joshua.  God brought justice to Sisera by the hand of Jael.  He brought down Abimelech by the hand of an unknown woman.

Israel was a fallen people during all of this.  They sinned.  They bickered.  They did what was right in their own eyes.  They worshiped false gods.  They turned away from Yahweh.

But God was merciful and called them back.  He appointed judges and rulers and gave them laws and duties and responsibilities.  He judged mercifully.  And yet He crushed those whom He saw fit to crush.  He returned to dust those who scorned Him.  He is the Potter who created that vessel for destruction.

The psalmist observes correctly that “He who sits in the heaves laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.  Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in His fury.”  This same psalmist was a man after God’s own heart.  He of whom the people praised singing, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands!”

Our God is a God of War.  He fought Sin and Satan and won.  He was murdered but death couldn’t hold Him down.

God is a God of Love, and yet He is a Violent and Jealous God.  He is the God who holds us in His Hand, yet can blow winds and waves of destruction towards our largest cities with the slightest of breaths.  He is not a Tame Lion.

….

God has brought Osama bin Laden to the grave.  He has judged him on earth, and is now judging him for eternity.  Praise God for His Justice and Righteousness.  God has used the rulers of this world, as He has since the days of the Israelites under the leadership of Moses, to bring down a murderer and an evil man.  This is how He has decreed justice be served.

But we are not to exult in our own might.  God has also judged our nation.  Americans are not His people.  Americans don’t deserve special treatment as a beacon of hope and liberty in the world.  America was founded on Christian principles but is populated by idolaters and pagans, just like every other country in the world.  For this reason our response should not be one of militant jubilation and shouts of “U.S.A.!  U.S.A.!”

Rather we should realize where we stand in the path of history.  As 21st century Americans, we are murderers and idolaters.  We fail to keep the Sabbath day Holy, and live our lives with the purpose of recreation and entertainment.  We do not labor to be faithful, but we labor to be selfish.  We have no business rejoicing in ourselves that we have killed a monster, when in fact we create the monsters themselves.  We are a lost and degenerate nation…

But God, who is rich in mercy and faithful to forgive, has in this instance been merciful to use our leaders and our military to bring justice in one area of the world which still largely hates and reviles God and His people.  As a result we should praise Him and thank Him.

At the same time, let us not forget our own divisive deeds, the blood that is on our hands, and the lives that we live.  God is merciful, but He is just, and He will judge this nation and this generation for its bloodthirstiness as He judged Osama bin Laden.

If you rejoice, look at your hands.  Look at your heart.  Make sure your heart and hands are pure in your celebration, and pray that God would bring justice to all of the murderers in our midst.