Atlas Shrugged, the movie

Rachel the woman born on the wrong continent

Remember Mike and Rachel, the two brits who are more american than should be healthy for a European (of course Britian isn't "Europe" *Wink* *Wink*) that I wrote about in this post. Well it turns out Rachel has a blog of her own (actually two of them).
Peace,
Chris
PS check it out, she's learning/praying about all 50 US states!

I’m a Lutheran Because

LZ asked "Why are you a Lutheran" and I’ll answer.
I am a Lutheran because they are gracious. Really that’s what it comes down to. Catholics have the authority thing, Methodists have the perfection thing, the Presbyterians have the double predestination thing, the Baptist have the altar call and choir. The Lutherans though hold the trump card, grace. We may have a mad anti-Semite as the regenerator of our Catholicism, but damn, we got grace right. And on top of that, or more likely because of that, we have paradoxes, which are icing on the cake.

Projecting the I into the Thou

Last night Yan and I got talking about perceptions of reality. By the end of the discussion I’d decided that Dialecticism the process of having a Thesis (within this conversation label this personal preception), anti-thesis (label this opponents perception), and considering the first with the second coming to a third perception, or Synthesis, is a very Christian action. That is, to remove our faces from our bellybuttons (Luther) we need to consider the bellybuttons of others. That is, to realize the weaknesses of our own arguments we need to view ourselves from the enemies point of view (MLK Jr.). That is, to truly love our neighbor as ourselves (JC) we must allow him the same benefit of the doubt, the same tottering inconsistencies, the same assumptions of good intention, which we give ourselves. So, when we consider our own subjective view, and that of another, with equal weight. That is when we "project the I into the Thou" (MLK Jr.) only then can we enter into dialogue and form a synthesis that reaches closer to that thing we often call Truth.
This morning while showering I got to thinking that, while Dialecticism may fit into the very specific context of last night’s discussion, what does it mean to the wider world. Is it possible to project the We into the Thous? With a global world how does dialectacism work? Does it become a bunch of collective ideologies synthesizing with one another?
Or, do we move to a Polylectic, that is each individual enters their personal perceptions into an ongoing web of perceptions and is pulled in multiple ways, in probably a continuous and ever-living discussion with a whole host of anti-thesises. And if this is the case, and there are presumably going to be new anti-thesises popping up, where does that leave the synthesis within such a system? It seems a lot like the "Web of Power" that Foucau (sp) talks about (though that seemed to be a more coercive form of thought... maybe).
Just some thoughts this morning. Does anyone know of a more proper term than Polylectic, I'm guessing there is some sort of post-modern term out there?
Peace,
Chris

I won't be able to make it to the rally, anyone willing to go for me?

I'm over in Jolly old England so there is no way for me to rally against Genocide. This is really important, with all eyes focused on Iran, with talk about Human Rights in China, the current killings have once again been hidden behind the headlines of the day.
One cry only.
NEVER AGAIN!

Religion Map

I saw these cool demographic maps of religion in the States. Check it out!
Peace,
Chris

The books I got from Spring Harvest

You may ask, what caused Chris to give up a week of vacation time to work at a Christian book store? For one I was excited about the idea of going to Spring Harvest, and I was intrigued by the idea of working at a book shop (after all I’m a bookworms bookworm). But the other incentive was 75 quid worth of books! And here is what I got.
Gods Politics, by Jim Wallis
A Generous Orthodoxy and The Church on the Other Side, both by Brian McLaren
John Calvin: His Life and Influences, by Robert L. Reymond
Simply Christian, by Tom Wright
The Christian Handbook (by Augsburg Books, this was the only book I found at the shop by a Lutheran Publisher)
Pastors under Pressure, by James Taylor
Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell
Emergingchurch.intro, by Michael Moynagh
And The Gospel According to Tolkien, by Ralph C. Wood
As you may have noticed a lot of the books are about the Emergent church. The Emergent church is a movement that is big in the UK and is starting to catch on in the States. I don’t know what to think about them, their opponents hurl all kinds of attacks against them, one has even said they are too Lutheran, so I want to decide for myself what they are up to. Beyond reading the books I intend to find an Emergent Church and go there sometime, be it in Cambridge or the heart of London.
Peace,

I’m back from Spring Harvest

I spent the last week in Skagness working at a Christian book stand, Wesley Owens, at a Christian event known as Spring Harvest.
Spring Harvest was exhausting, exhilarating, non-liturgical, phony, and deep.
It was exhausting, we worked a full day, and this last day a 10 ½ hour day. Starting midnight last night I stood "security" for a Christian rocker named Chip K. as his Christian-punk fans got stuff signed. As the british would say I’m cream crackered/ shattered/ and nackered.
It was exhilarating. I met a ton of new people who I found really cool. From Peter, a Nigerian who’s invited me to a missions conference in his home country next year, to Mike and Rachel, two Londoners who love America and I could see them one day immigrating to the Carolinas.
It was non-liturgical. Holy week was not a good week to go to Spring Harvest. There were so many hustle/bustle Christian events going on that no one seemed to know it was Easter (let alone Good Friday etc) until I told them. Also the worship was very, very, very evangelical (well, to be fair it was an evangelical event) people holding their hands up high, people talking about Glory, without Cross, redemption without exile. Still, the songs and the atmosphere is quite energizing, and I very worshipful.
It was phony. Somehow evangelicals have a way of cheeping faith and a way of mimicking the culture around them (not that Lutherans don’t, it is just a different type of mimicking). For example there is bible for everyone, the Woman’s Bible, the Man’s Bible, the Extreme Bible, the Slacker Bible, etc. And by and large the only difference is the cover, and a few pages in the front of the Bible. Further the Christian bands seem to all be described as "it’s like X, only Christian." For example, one of the bands that signed CD’s, TBC, was "like the Spice Girls, only Christian."
It was deep. There was a "debate" on the Trinity at one point. Afterwards two members of the audience who had asked anti-trinitarian questions were hanging out outside discussing things. One guy was a Christadelphian, think Baptist that sees the Devil as our evil inclinations and believes the Holy Spirit is simply a) God’s actions and b) Jesus’ spirit. The other guy was an eclectic, believing YHVH was simply a deity among deities, who all work for "El Elyon," the Most High. Most of the other deities drowned in the Flood (Gen. 6. Sons of God etc), YHVH was the only one who made it, and Jesus showed us how we can be without sin, but we are not allowed to explore his other gospels because of Constantine. But in fact he chilled with the Essene and probably went to Asia. As a Religious Studies guy I found his interesting, it was like I had an Essene in front of me, just projected through modern/historical critical eyes… Then that all crumbled away when he started sighting The Davinci Code.
I ended up chilling with the Christadelphian. We discussed our faiths (you see a Lutheran is just as weird sounding as a Christadelphian to the English), and sparred a little. He made some good points about infant baptism, I made some good points about the Holy Spirit (as base he couldn’t explain Pentecost and Paul’s Trinitarian language).
Overall it was a good experience, the only thing I regret is the timing, and that couldn't be helped.
Peace,
Chris

1/2 a chapter or so up at Universal Bones

Just wanted to let you know "Days in the Cold" continues. I'd love to hear your comments as to where you think it is going, where I need to flesh things out, etc.
Peace,
Chris
Ps I won't be online until after Easter, so I'll say it now, "He has risen, he has risen indeed!"

Matters of the Heart

No, I’m not talking about Tracy Chapmen’s wonderful song. On my trip with the kids I found out something interesting. When I lay down to sleep on a wooden barn floor with a bunch of other fellow campers they can hear my heart beating through the floodboards… Very Poe-ish isn’t it? More than that my murmering heart may in fact actually change the rhythm of their hearts! Vik told me he could no longer hear his heart beating in his chest, only mine! Learn something new every day!
I'm off to Spring Harvest in the morning.
Peace,
Chris

"Eating Faithfully"

This is an article by Clint from Lutheran Confessions.
Peace,
Chris

Yan and I (The Giant and the Dwarf)

Just thought I'd promote flatmate Yan's internet art over at Deviantart. Check it out!
Peace,
Chris

The Phenomenon of Man

I finished The Phenomenon of Man, by Teihard de Chardin recently. A book that, in truth, I probably only fully understood 40-60 percent of. The reason for this is two fold, first Jesuit logic may work well for Jesuits, but I’m a Lutheran, clarity above logic! Second, while Anthropology is my science of choice Chardin, a biologist/palaeontologist, knows too many specific things for me to get it all, it is a very technical work.
So real quick who is Chardin? Aa French Jesuit as well as a scientist. Most of his work was only published after his death (1955) as the Catholic Church believed his ideas to be heresy. In The Phenomenon of Man he tries to unify Catholic thought with the theory of evolution. It’s an astounding feat. The two most impressive (not necessarily good, but impressive) bits were
1. His pronouncement that science and empiricism is flawed because it can only calculates the outside of things. He argues that if you look at man as just a phenomena, that is if you look at man empirically/objectively, you can simply deconstruct the hell out of it and we are just so many nuts and bolts, so many odd movements, nothing more. Yet! Yet! A third time I say Yet, as Teilhard is human he recognizes that more goes on in a human than is observable, and therefore he makes the leap and says, what about the rest of the world? Does not the ape have a within? Yes? Does not the fish have a within? Yes? Does not the microbe have a within? Yes? Does not the mountains and rocks themselves have a within? When I read this my heart jumped some when I thought of Romans 8 where the world/universe itself is groaning in expectation of the revelation of God’s Children. Also, as it is Palm Sunday didn't Jesus say the Stones themselves would speak of his enterance into Jerusalem?
2. Chardin’s second impressive bit is the bit that caused my previous caveat about the word impressive. Chardin sees the whole universe thing heading (consciously, because it after all has a within) towards a certain point. First there was pre-life, and then came life. When you might ask, Chardin responds, "can we draw (a line) between ‘living’ protoplasm and ‘dead’ proteins?" Basically that life was innate within non-life, that this change was a gradual thing, and that you can’t pinpoint when pre-life became life. Fastforward a bunch then came human-ish things, they only became fully human when they got scrunched together and began to perceive itself etc. Anyway at some point humans reached a point where they can effect their own destiny, that is they can point their evolution in a specific direction. This is where things get interesting, Chardin advocates eugenics. This is where Christianity comes in. He sees Christ’s entering the world as creating an almost subspecies of human, that is Christians, and the traits of Christians/Christ should be selected to catapult the human race into a new level of being. (he has seen Nazism and sees it as a warping of a genuinely good thing).
There are tons of other issues in Teilhard’s philosophy, the Noosphere (in my head this seems like an onzone layer of human thought)/the difference between individuality and personality (actually this is worth a mention, our personality only fully comes out in relationships)/Christian panthism (basically one maintains their own integrity within the system of relationship with all others in the love of God instead of loosing their personality as a drop of water in an ocean).
Peace,
Chris

Class Warfare? You want Class Warfare!

Well then, I'll give you Class Warfare.
Days in the Cold a gripping online novel by Chris Halverson (yours truly) follows William and Frank, two angry liberals, outraged at injustice, inspired by Toni Morrison and 18th Century Anarchism, and unwilling to take prisoners, as they practice class warfare in the most classical sense, by becoming murderers.

Yeah, so here's the deal. I'm going to be writing this story in chunks, updating the site quite often, and when I get a chapter done I'll fit it together and link it to the side of Universal Bones, that means you will actually see the novel as it develops from thoughts in my head to words on the page, to polished piece of work.
Peace,
Chris

The Foundation is back, this month Immigration!

This month's topic over at the Foundation will be immigration, a hot topic in the States right now.
Also I'm thinking of changing Universal Bones into purely an online serialized novel. What this would mean is I would be continuing Days in the Cold on a more regular basis, basicly you would be reading the novel as I write it instead of as I finish a chapter. This would also mean I am no longer accepting your creative writing submissions, then again I've yet to recieve a single submission yet. This would, of course, in no way effect the way I run The Foundation, as it is still a site driven by submissions by the reader. What do my faithful readers think?
Peace,
Chris