Good job Bush!

Yes, you heard me, the President did something pretty darn good. In his budget proposal he gives 300 million bucks toward peacekeeping in Darfur. Send the man a thank you note!
In other news the latest Foundation article is up.
Peace,
Chris

Redefining liberalism

Check these folk out, they seem quite interesting!
Peace,
Chris

Pope's Sermons on Creation

Read the current Pope’s sermons about Creation. He writes on the subject of Sabbath like Abraham Heshel, which is absolutely brill. His environmental ethics are a little unclear, he seems to be against exploiting the earth, as well as for using it as humans see fit as long as we recognize we are creature not Creator. One disturbing thing is that he talks a lot about Nazism, and not always in the negative. He uses a Nazi slogan to exposit a point about man being dust. On the plus side he points out that an ethic of "anything is possible" coupled with the idea that ascetics and efficiency are automatically good (sort of the idea of… Plato or Aristotle I don’t remember which, where doing what you are good at the best you can is the purpose of life) ends up with Openhimer and Auschwitz. He also talks about chronology of scripture, texual redaction, stuff like that, which surprised me.
In short people quit listening to all this "he's a Nazi" "He's the Anti-Christ" "he's absolutely conservative" etc and read what he's writen, if nothing else you will realize he's a very bright man.
Peace,
Chris

What will we do about Darfur

Protests and Counter-protests

Check out he link above. Two pro-free speech Frenchmen launch a counter-protest. (Video)
I have to say I'm siding with the West on this one, while the cartoons were in bad taste and insulting to a large section of Islam, Western Governments should in no way shape or form appologize for what some newspapers within their country do.
Peace,
Chris

A book to read "Miracle at Sant' Anna" by James McBride

I've been meaning to write about "Miracle at Sant' Anna" for a while. Then my mom came, then I had to write a newsletter, then I was at a confrence in London and now I have to give the book back to the library before they hunt me down and stake me to a church door (they actually used to do this to invading vikings (aka my relatiks from way back) in this area of England). I read it for my book club "Novel Approach" and was blown away. It is by James McBride, who happened to speak at the U of O's new students convocation when I was a Freshman!
"Miracle" is the story of a group of Buffolo soldiers in Italy who get seperated from their platoon and find themselves amongst the Italians, and with a little extra luggage, a small crazed Italian boy. It is a story of real fleshyness, yet filled with a certain spirit and even religion. It exposites the personal quirky faiths of each character then throws these ideals out into the reality of the world and see how they survive. McBride captures the accent and exact quality of Italy in a very profound way!
So, read Miracle at Sant' Anna!
Peace,
Chris

Three poems

So, most of the my January Newsletter has already been on this site in some way shape or form, so here is the only really new thing for those who are regular readers.

Three poems to sum up our tour ofBath/Windsor/Stonehenge

Stonehenge
Old ruins
Knocked down by Rome
Like the Temple of old Jerusalem
All that remains, a circular wailing wall
Cordoned off, gawked at
Speculated about
Old ruins
Yet fascinating still

Windsor
Ah, Queen, here we sit
Surrounded by sabres of conquered foe
The Empire’s glory encased in glass
Large rooms encasing
You dear Queen
In a splendor
That is now curated by young women
And fashionable men
Dressed as of old

Bath
The Romans were here too
Syncretism run amuck
You water gods
Dryads, nymphs
Crumbled Gorgon’s head adorned with Celtic wings
Stone embracing water bubbling
Toss in a prayer (though archeologists find morecurses than prayer)
Kneel in the water (be healed)
And now, now we, like those of old
Throw in our own valuable refuseI see them all,
Dollars, Pounds, Rial, Dinar, Euro,Shekel
All of it goes into the bubbling, bubbling, water.

Emergent Church

There is a newish movement out there call the Emergent Church. I've been hearing about it quite a bit as of late. Here is some information about it. I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet.
Peace,
Chris
PS
The new issues of the Blogozines, The Foundation and Universal Bones are up. Check them out.

Call Bolton about Darfur!

I did my dogooder's deed of the day, calling Bolton asking him to try to stop the genocide in Darfur.

"Please join today’s National Call-In Day organized by Africa Action by calling the U.S. Mission to the United Nations at (212) 415-4050, and asking U.S. Ambassador John Bolton to introduce a Security Council resolution calling for a multinational intervention in Darfur in support of the African Union with a mandate to protect civilians."

Peace,
Chris

Mum's pics of Saffron Walden, Bath, Windsor, Stonehenge, Cambridge, Audley End... England world tour.

Mom leaves in the morning, but has uploaded the pictures from her time here. Enjoy!
Peace,
Chris

Mom's coming!

My mom shows up in England tomorrow morning!!!! I'm excited!

Baby Joy Halverson

Baby is dead. Mom and dad carried her one more time through the park she used to run around in like a little puppy. Then she was put down as she was suffering and couldn't eat.
She was like a little sister to an only child. I'll miss her.
Peace,
Chris

Thoughts on MLK

I've listened to MLK's "Declaration Against the War on Vietnam" and his "I've been to the Mountaintop" speeches. I have to say I know why they killed him. His views on love and the way we should live with one another is so radical! He basicly wanted us to take Democracy to its utmost reaches, making it much more radical than any Marxist idea.
I couldn't help but cry at both speeches. The "Declaration" because of where we are now, "Mountaintop" because it was as if he knew it was it, it was the end and he was Moses. Beautiful.
Peace,
Chris

New Essay up at The Foundation and other thoughts

There is a new essay up at The Foundation. Other than that I fell down a flight of stairs yesterday and hurt my ribs so I've been taking it kind of easy.
Here are some stuff I've been thinking about:

• I read "Paul" by E. P. Sanders. Two big things struck me:

1. "A doctrine of the work of Christ was never achieved and one can only speak in theories of the atonement." This was a bit of a relief, I always kind of wondered if I just missed a specific explaination of how Christ saved us.
2. The French destroyed the Anglo-American understanding of Paul (I'm sure Dan will be pleased to know this). As most of us know when the French conqued England English vocabulary changed. For example the "swine" is what the English peasant in the field tended, whereas "Pork" is what the Norman French ate at the table. For the most part this just made our language more descriptive, but in some cases the old Anglo-Saxon words were removed completely. This is especially true with legal words. Sanders contends that we translate Paul's "dikaioun" and "pistis" were improperly translated with the French "Justify" and "believe" instead of the Anglo-Saxon "rightwisian" (aka "to make right") and "to have faith." This makes us assume that when Jesus died for us he Justified us in a court sense, that is he kind of made an excuse for us, for our opinion of him, instead of that Jesus actual makes us right by our faith in him.

• Also I've been reading some exestantialists and have concluded that they are bookish elitists who have gotten so caught up in studying truth and life that they have lost sight of both. Their only out is to find a worldly woman who pulls them out of the world of the book they are trapped in (no! This post is NOT autobiographical!!!), or fall asleep and be transported to a world that pays ultimate homage and ultimately manifest their ideas about utopia (again, not autobiographical)...or at least thats what they write about. Not entirely sure what to make of them other than they have a lot of angst.

That's actually about it. Right now I'm reading "The Pain That Heals" which is a very mystical look at suffering from a Hinduish Anglican Priest/psycologist... Very weird. I'm also reading Rumpole Of the Bailey, a very British, and very comical collection of short stories about Rumpole, a lawyer who would just as soon quote poetry as defend his client.

Peace,

Chris

My dog isn't doing well

Baby, my old dog from long ago and far away, a little blond mutt that looks like a 6 pound sheepdog isn't doing well. She's not eating in days and is sluggish, now my parents took her in to the vet and it turnes out she's got a bum heart (just like her master), she also has an enlarged liver, spots on one lung, and a small kidney stone. Doesn't sound too good.
This dog is really quite amazing. If I believed salvation was works based she'd be way ahead of me. She's visited the sick and elderly for most of her life, she's been signed up to listen to children read, when I had my seizure she first lept upon me ready to defend me from the Fireman with tooth and claw for her life, then when my mom told her it was okay she allowed the fire man to pass. In short she's a damn good dog, and as pittiful as it may sound one of the best friends I've had. We've walked countless miles together connected by leash and heart. She sat on my lap, listening to me read allowed whatever poetry moved me, Yeats and Aeschylus, are the one's I most remember reading to her, and of course Robert Service.

Peace,
Chris