Well. Went to another College Dems meeting. Looks like Hate the War, Love the Warrior is going to continue on. We have 160 soldiers over in Iraq to send care packages to. I can get CD's and Books, just need to get money for shipping.
I think I'm going to the Jewish frat tonight, they are having a classic video game night. Might be fun.
Peace,
Chris

The Questions
1. Under what circumstances should a Christian be willing to be martyred? Is it not a specific circumstance, but instead a specific calling or feeling?
2. To what extent should faith influence politics? Politics faith? Can there be a great difference between the two? If yes how, if no why not?
3. Is there a grave departure in theology between Jesus and Paul? If so how should the church keep to the teachings of Jesus? For that matter should the church do so?
4. What/where is the Kingdom of God, which Jesus talks about? Is it here and now? Is it in the future? Is it his own actions? Is it him?
5. Is there a non-resurrection heaven?
6. Can God break his promises?
7. If God is the root of both good and evil should one try to protect themselves from evil?



Here is an update from my parents. Mom had a bit of a crash it sounds like.
Well, we now have phone service, so are once again in touch with the outside world! Phone # is XXXXX.
Work is going fine, nice co-workers and patients, nearly new facilities, etc. I have a 20 minute commute to work, & see deer & a variety of birds, including eagles & a pair of swans on a little thawing lake. Quite a difference from a city commute!
Our apartment/cabin is on a lake. The ice should be going out soon, but for now we can walk on the water!

Sunday night it rained/froze/snowed. I left extra early on Monday to allow for slippery driving conditions--should have left late, to allow for thawing! I came to a corner, turned the wheel, & quickly realized that this had no impact on the direction the Honda chose to go. I suppose my whole crash took a matter of seconds, but it seemed to stretch out forever. Anyway, lots went through my mind as I headed for the ditch on the left hand side of the road. Here's a summary:
1. I hope there's nobody coming around the curve--shouldn't be, as I rarely meet a car on my commute. Whew, nobody coming!
2. That's a big ditch, high berms around the snowmobile trail--hope I don't roll over. Whew, I'm still upright!
3. Whoa--that's a telephone pole looming in my windshield--oh, no!
4. Am I really stopped? How'd I end up facing the road again? My coffee hardly even spilled!
Anyway, I got out of the car & saw that I was truly fortunate--I came within 2 or 3 feet of hitting the telephone pole, but did hit the guy wire supporting it. I guess that is what spun me around facing forward again. The airbag didn't go off--I guess it was a slow enough crash--and I am not even bruised. However, the poor Element/elephant is in sad shape. The hood is crunched big time, the bumper & grill are ruined, the radiator is leaking, & who knows what else. The towtruck is coming tomorrow AM to take it to the Honda garage in Fargo. Insurance covers a rental car, so I guess it'll all work out, but what a bummer! I haven't yet decided whether I'm really lucky to be unharmed, or really unlucky to have crashed to begin with!

I get to go to Violence in the Workplace training at the Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen tomorrow AM--should be a good break from work.
Life here is quite unique--remote, to say the least! Feels like a totally different world in many ways.
We visited family in Int'l Falls this past weekend--not sure what we'll do this weekend coming up--I guess it depends on the rental car situation.
I'll download & e-mail a picture of the wounded car and of the frozen lake soon.
Val

Well. I've been to all my classes. I think this is going to be a good term. My creative writing teacher is quite the card, he throws out quips a mile a minute. Our first assignment was to write our own obiturary, which was a bit morbid. Maybe I'll post mine soon. Pope, the professor for History of American Radicalism seems like a nice guy. He is a short leftist with a big brain, or at least that is my initial impression of him. Hebrew... is going to be interesting. My Hebrutta (that is Hebrew studying partner) is quiting, so I'm on my own this term. My Martyrdom class is taugt by Professor Green, who also taught Hebrew first term. I didn't think she was bad as a Hebrew professor, but I could tell she wanted to get off on the backstories of the text instead of keeping to the dry art of learning language. She proved me right, she had an excellent run down of 2000 years of biblical history for the first class.
Oh, someone told me the draft is coming back. Since I gave up news for Lent I don't know if this is true. If someone could confirm or deny this that would be nice.
Peace,
Chris

A Drake and a Duck Per this site

Oh, question. Does anyone know what male and female ducks are (I used geese for poem, Goose and Gander) Are they malards and...? Drakes?
Thanks in advance,
Chris

Here is a poem I wrote yesterday.

My Pond
Little ducklings, branded as such with U of O nametags waddle through my pond
They are squished in teenage defiance between goose and gander, mother and father
They preen in preparation for and in prefiguration of, the Freshman hookup
They squawk and quack and billow at their rivals
Sensing danger a mother looks up her wings outspread, her feathers ruffled
There I am watching their little gaggle ooing and aaahing at Mac Court
I am in the graveyard, with the squirrels and the gravestones and the pen
Looking back, at my pond

Chris Halverson’s top 25 books

1. Dawn by Eli Wiesel
2. The World as it is by Voltaire
3. Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
4. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
5. Various Poems by Emily Dickenson
6. The Chosen by Chaim Potach
7. The Hyperium/Endemion series by Dan Simmons
8. Song of Solomon by Morison
9. Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck
10. Dune by Herbst
11. Candide by Voltaire
12. Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck
13. Lord of the Rings JRR
14. Animal Farm by Orwell
15. Invisible man Ellison
16. We by Zamyatin
17. 1984 by Orwell
18. The Promise by Chaim Potach
19. The Orestrian Trilogy by Aescyus(sp)
20. Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi (or Night by E. Wiesel)
21. The Foundation Trilogy Azmov
22. Red Badge of Courage
23. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
24. Tale of Two Cities
25. Catcher in the Rye

Check out Central Lutheran's website
For that matter here is another Lutheran's blog, Lutheran in a Tipi!

Indeed, may we preach so truthfully that people will call us terrorists. If you preach that way you will never again have to worry about whether a sermon is "meaningful."
Check this out!

Finished Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz last night. Here is a great quote.
"The conviction that life has a purpose is routed in every fibre of man, it is a property of the human substance. Free men give many names to this purpose, and many think and talk about its name. But for us the question is simpler.
Today, in this place, our only puropse is to reach the spring. At the moment we care about nothing else. Behind this aim there is not at the moment any other aim. In the morning while we wait endlessly lined up in the roll-call square for the time to leave for work, while every breath of wind penetrates our clothes and runs in violent shivers over ouor defenceless bodies, and everything is grey around us, and we are grey; in the morning, when it is still dark, we all look at the sky in the east to spot the first signs of a milder season, and the rising of the sun is commented on every day: today a little earlier than yesterday, today a little warmer than yesterday, in two months, in a month, the cold will call a truce and we will have one enemy less."

Another day of big news. I just sent my "Application for Entrance to Candidacy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America" off!
Man, if this week without school is any indicator this summer I should be able to write a couple of novels, a few screenplays, a dozen sermons... heck, I might even be able to conquer the earth!
Peace,
Chris

Good news! Fun news.
Not only did I call a literary agent, I also sent out 6 query letters! Hopefully Faith and Grace will actually be published sometime within the next year or two!

Just called my first literary agent since in the last 4 years. Sure, they can turn away 16 year olds, but now I'm 20 ha ha ha. We'll see. I think I'll call a few more today.
Peace,
Chris

Why Miriam? Maybe she was the Author...So I was going along reading Numbers, and the footnotes note for Numbers 12:3 says "This verse is an age-old stumbling -block to the belief that Moses wrote the whole Pentateuch." Well... who else in mentioned in this verse, talking amongst themselves w/out Moses' knowing? Miriam and Aaron. Why do I say Miriam must have wrote this, not Aaron? Because In 12:1 it is Miriam who is written first, not Aaron. It could be that Aaron was just being polite, sort of like writing "you and I instead of I and you" yet, looking at the context, that of ancient patriachy, that does not seem likely. Further in the hebrew it is not "Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses..." but "She spoke, Miriam and Aaron" or something to that effect! Of course it also can be seen as a anti-feminine piece, see, it was Miriam that spoke against Moses, and Miriam who is punished by God.
Just a little brainstorm/midrash for the morning.

Some quick shout outs, check out the following blogs, some meaty stuff
Progressive Protestant
Bizzaro Chris
Sick Soul