The NY Times reports today that “four Republican presidential candidates [Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio] are expected to appear at Bob Jones University, an evangelical institution in Greenville, S.C., for a forum.“
When I was a child no politician would consider – even for a second – seeking the support of Bob Jones, the President of the fundamentalist Bible college named after him. All these years later, Bob Jones and Bob Jones University have become part of what is considered “normal” in America. It’s not normal. I’m sorry. It’s not normal. It’s nuts! See for yourself.
Did I mention…this is nuts?!
Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Feb. 12, 2016 [at least 54 years before “the Rapture” according to Bob Jones, regarded by his followers as the prophet vested with the “100 Year Prophecy”].
Views from the Edge 
These days there are plenty of nuts to go around.
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Kay and I continue to pay for our mixed nuts at Costco. They belong in a jar or a can. Bob Jones University is one big jar full of nuts. But there are many there jars and cans. Take Liberty University, for example, where Bernie spoke to the crazies about Christian virtues, values, and ethics. Have you never seen so many nuts in your lifetime? Your lifetime is a few years longer than mine. I’m looking for a word from the wiser, more elderly, elder!
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I just remember the graduate student from one of those nutty places, with a straight A record in psychology, who countered every bit of research evidence in Social Psychology with “but that’s not what the Bible says.” or something akin to that. He finally dropped out of the course. What I love about Social Psychology is its rootedness in some really creative research. And that’s the kind of rejection of reason that propels those nuts wiggling around in you bottle of nuts.
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Mona, I may have to re-post this! So good. So real.
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Nothing so scary as a “good evangelical Christian.” Whatever happened to following Jesus?
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Try Jim Wallace or Cornel West for a partial answer.😇
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The question was rhetorical. Did you hear Jim Wallis at his most recent appearance? To tell the truth, I always love his message, but I did feel that he had come to the pulpit a bit unprepared. That is, the info was wonderful, as usual, but it felt like he’s delivered the massage so often in the process of the book tour that he has reached the point of winging it, and maybe getting a little bored with it (?). I love him and Sojourners anyway.
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I knew it was. Just wanted to put some stuff out there for other readers. I didn’t hear the Forum but can easily imagine how a speaker gets tired of saying the same thing over and over again. That would be a stand-in for hell.
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He did do a good job of pleasing his publishers by mentioning and showing the book frequently. Still worth hearing.
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Yes. I wish I had a publisher! 😩
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Mona, I may have to post this. So good. So clear.
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