February 17th, 2011 
Harry Nelson 
Winston Churchill
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
November 18th, 2010 Harry Nelson Generic ballot polling leading up to Tuesday’s election was extremely favorable to the Republicans. Tsunami and Superwave were common terms used to describe the unprecedented voter energy on behalf of the Republicans. But, this overwhelming “enthusiasm gap” manifested itself differently in the two houses of Congress. Republicans gained over 60 seats in the House of Representatives – historic. In the Senate, control remained with the Democrats, though, as the Republicans ONLY gained 6 seats. Now, some Senators are laying the blame for the Republicans’ shortfall at the feet of the Tea Party. They claim that had the “establishment” candidate been on the ballot opposite Chris Coons in Delaware and Harry Reid in Nevada that those seats would have turned Republican.
Yet, in the House, the Tsunami actually came on to shore. Over 60 new Republicans will show up in January for the new Congress – many of them carrying the fiscal conservative philosophy of the Tea Party with them. So, which was it? Was the Tea Party a good thing for Republicans in 2010 or a bad thing? “IT WAS A GREAT THING!”
October 18th, 2010 Harry Nelson 
Sunday show roundtables. Op-Ed pages. Based on the amount of mainstream media coverage received by Christine O’Donnell recently, you would think that she is the Republican nominee for Potentate of the Universe. Mainstream outlets lead their newscasts and front pages with stories lead about her Tea Party backing and her latest verbal gaffes.
Ms. O’Donnell burst onto the national political scene through an unlikely confluence of events. First, she was the perennial conservative Republican candidate in a state that elected Joe Biden for 30 years. After Beau Biden passed on running for the seat (sort of like abdicating the throne in England) against the state’s only Congressman, moderate Republican Mike Castle, Democrats nominated Chris Coons for the seat. Coons was the sacrificial lamb of the Democrats. He had no chance against the popular Congressman.
May 3rd, 2010 Harry Nelson I’m still procrastinating on responding to my 8 yr old daughter’s innocent observation during the NFL draft. Out of the blue: “Black people must really like or be really good at football.” A soft, thoughtless “yep” doesn’t do justice to the teachable moment that’s there.
On the other hand, I could be overthinking it.
February 27th, 2010 Harry Nelson 
Book Review – Salvation and Sovereignty by Dr. Kenneth Keathley
Though published just a few months ago, Dr. Keathley’s Salvation and Sovereignty – A Molinist Approach is a book I’ve been searching for since 1999. It was then that I first really engaged on the subject of Calvinism with an advocate of the approach, whom I was partnered with in ministry. We were co-chaplains of Roush Racing, one of the elite NASCAR teams. We had traveled to the Saturday night Richmond race together, and following the race (Tony Stewart won), drove back to Charlotte directly in hopes for an hour and a half of sleep before church. During that car trip, my friend argued for a Calvinist view of salvation with me. He was a seminary trained principal of his church’s school. Although I did not become a Christian until adulthood, I was your typical “grassroots” Southern Baptist. I had studied the Bible, and memorized verses, but had not ever really engaged my mind with the Calvinist approach. Upon hearing the T-U-L-I-P acrostic and their meanings, three I could buy, but two I couldn’t. But, as Paige Patterson points out in his Foreword, though the Reformed systemization was appealing, there were “disturbing implications” of the approach.
