Vote According to Faith

As a republican pastor friend of mine once pointed out to me, I am a very opinionated person. I will make no attempt to deny that characteristic, and by writing this blog post, I assume that trait will only become more apparent. Because I will here give my take on the presidential election that is coming up, and explain why I hope my favourite candidate will be re-elected.

First of all, let me defend my right to have an opinion, since this may not be obvious to everyone. I am a Norwegian citizen, and do not have a permanent residence in the United States. I have, however, lived in the US for the last three years during the undertaking of my bachelor's degree. More importantly, the United States is the leading nation of the western world, is the major player in the NATO military alliance, and has an enormous cultural, economic and political influence around the globe. The course that America is taking has had, and will have, a direct impact on the life of me and my family, my country and our common world.

Still, the most important reason why I am entitled to have an opinion is because the US represents me, whether I like it or not. The actions of America represent the actions of the entire Western World. The actions of America are by many also (mis-)understood to represent the actions of Christianity. I love my home, my heritage and my faith, and it is important to me how these are represented. Therefore, I have an opinion.

Secondly, let me make it clear that my opinions are not representative of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Woodland Hills Church, any other faith-society I may or may not associate with, or Jesus Christ himself; my political view is merely my personal opinion, though of course influenced by my faith and worldview. In fact, Jesus specifically stated that his kingdom is not of this world.

"My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm."

 - Jesus (John 18:36)

"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

 - Jesus (Matthew 20:25-28)

The job description of a Christian, then, is not to pass laws against people, like politicians do, but instead to be a servant for the people around us. The job description of a Christian is not to participate in election campaigns to protect our rights or take America back for God; rather, the Kingdom of God is manifested whenever we pick up our cross and sacrifice in love for the weak and the oppressed. The job of the church is not to dictate a certain moral for people outside of the church, but to worship God by merit of how we live our own lives.

At this point I was supposed to tell you whom to vote for, and why. But that will be for another time. I temporarily persuaded myself to shut up.

Woodland Hills Church: The cross and the sword

Jeff Figearo's blog: The cross and the sword
Warrior of Agape: What has faith got to do with it

Greg Boyd on the difference between the two kingdoms:

Why do we work?

My heart is in the work

 - Andrew Carnegie

Update: Full video now available! See end of blog post.

There was a great event today! A group called the The Veritas Forum* had invited four professors with different perspectives to discuss the meaning of work, the universe and everything. One of the professors was my employer David Kosbie, whom I have been working with for three semesters (or four, if you count the semester when I took his course), and he presented a "pragmatic humanistic" view on work ethics. Along side him was the Christian, Mike Smith, and the agnostic Marie Norman. Paul Johnston was moderating the debate.

* The Veritas Forum was sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Asian Christian Fellowship, Newman Club, New Life, Knowing and Understanding the Passion of Christ, Graduate Christian Fellowship, Lutheran Student Fellowship and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Co-Sponsors were the Student Senate, Student Life, Student Affairs, Life Matters, Impact, Agape, Awareness of Roots in Chinese Culture, Society of Women Engineers, Asian Student Association, Lambda Sigma and the Muslim Student Association.

The conversation, as it was called, was great. All of the professors had great insights and stories, and I could nothing but agree with all of them. Of course, I was familiar with Kosbie's strong work ethics, which I keep in high regard, but I was also deeply impressed by the views of professor Smith and professor Norman.

Kosbie was the strongest defender of hard work, which in his experience leads to greatness and fulfilment. However, being motivated by grades, money or status is ridiculous; no, hard work must be motivated by that inner passion that is somewhere inside of there. The hard work we do at Carnegie Mellon is not the goal in and of itself, but it is what we choose to do with the tools we learn here that brings the greatness about. For instance, only this last week, Kosbie had received e-mails from several former students involved in great projects were they applied their programming knowledge to save babies. That is fulfilment and life quality right there, and it is possible because of the hard work these students pour into it.

At the other end of the conversation was Marie Norman, who brought up the point that the second most common regret on our death beds is "I worked too hard." She argued that it is important to find a healthy balance between work and leisure, and that the most important things in life might not be related directly to work, but perhaps to play, rest and family. When asked if her view on work would have any application in personal relationships, she said that some distance might be good sometimes in marital relations as well. You get a different perspective if you put work a certain distance away, and that distance may even help you do your work better when you are there.

Paul Johnston had a short anecdote in which he philosophised over the noun work as used in his field of study, music. In music, you create a work, and you can read and comment on someone's works. Funny thing is, when you perform a work, you play it...

Mike Smith presented a view on work which was very strongly dependent on his Christian faith. As opposed to other religions and the concept of "karma" found in most world-views in some form or another, Jesus says that we by grace are accepted without respect to our works. Whereas the idea of karma dictates that you are judged according to your works, grace doesn't put that kind of fear-like pressure on people. The motivation for doing any work at all is then found in the joy of it. He illustrated this by a quote from the movie Chariots of Fire, where a Christian runner responds to accusations of him caring more about his work than about his faith:

"I believe God made me for a purpose. But he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure."

The questions that were asked afterwards were also tremendously great. I don't even understand how people come up with such great questions! For instance, a question addressed to Kosbie was "What if you keep working hard, but never see any success in your endeavours?" Such a great question! Another great question was "how should your philosophy on work be reflected in your personal relationships?" In response to these and other questions many more interesting topics were brought about, such as the community that hard work will create (for instance, Kosbie's class has a very strong community).


By the way: I recorded, mixed and mastered the soundtrack of the video above. Great times with Kwadwo and friends. Also: great job catching Kosbie on film, Kwadwo!
Also: Kosbie just recently won the Herbert A. Simon Award for Teaching Excellence. We (CA's and tutors and everybody) are all very proud to be on his team. Congrats, David, you deserve it!
Thirdly: (or fourthly?) Great job, and thank you so much to everybody who volunteered to make the Veritas Forum happen. I'm so glad I know you all! Thanks also to the panelists for making this such a great and honest conversation.



CMUVeritas
Kosbie.net
Department of History: Marie Norman
Heinz College: Mike Smith
School of Music: Paul Johnston
Wikipedia: Chariots of Fire

Everything matters

It matters how it is built. It matters how the electrons are moving through transistor to form gates, final state machines, processors, operation systems and computers for use in industry and in our homes. It matters how the atoms and molecules are holding on to each other to create the taste of pineapple and chocolate. It matters how gravity is holding us in place, and how the speed of light is related to space and time.

Academics matter. Philosophy matters, history matters. Discussions about life, the universe and Douglas Adams matter. Science matters, sociology matters, medicine matters, law matters, computer science matters, yes, even politics matter. At least a little bit. Engineering matters.

It matters if there is an airbag in the car. It matters what energy rating your house has. The quality of the wood; the sharpness of the knife; the accuracy of the pencil; it all matters. How the chair is formed, how hard the mattress is, how many birds you can count on one hand.

It matters how white blood cells and doctors are eager to heal us from terrible diseases. It matters if we wash our hands. It makes a difference if we walk to work, if we take the stairs and where we go hiking. It matters. What we watch on TV, what we buy in the grocery store, what we do for a living.

Who we chose as our friends. Who we chose as our girlfriends and boyfriends. It is actually important. It matters also how we treat our friends. Heck; it matters how we treat our enemies! It matters that we visit grandma. It matters that we say hi on Skype once in a while. Skype matters.

The words we say. The blogs we write, the comments we leave. The conversations we have. Words have matter. As WikiLeaks so eloquently have shown us, words is the most amazing matter. Because words are always more than just words; words are feelings, agendas, love and hatred. Words really matter. But hearts matter even more, for the mouth only speaks what the heart is full of.

Attitude matters. How you dress, what shoes you wear, if you hold your head high when you walk down the street, if you look people in the eyes when you shake their hand. What seat you choose in the bus. What perfume you wear. How much makeup you use. How you do your hair. What tone you use in your voice. How genuine you are when you say you care.

The birds in the sky matters, as do the fish in the sea, the mammals of the earth, the reptiles, the dinosaurs, the bugs, algae, mushrooms, and every tree and every flower. Every star at night, every drop of rain and every ray of sunshine. Everything matters.

You matter.

Can I matter together with you?

Unity and disagreement

When I was in the army, there was only one Christian fellowship in the garrison where I was stationed. The official Norwegian Lutheran church ran a chapel, and a Lutheran priest was employed by the military to hold service every week, which was all Lutheran psalms and liturgy. However, many of the young soldiers that attended the church, like myself, were not Lutheran at all. We were Baptists, Roman Catholics, followers of different protestant traditions, and non-denominational Christians. Yet, we all shared the same bread and wine, we all sung the same songs, and we all ate the same waffles. It was beautiful.

Many of the best discussions I’ve had were in the discussion group in that chapel. The discussion group was open for everybody, and many that showed up weren’t Christians at all, but adhered to different spiritualities, to quasi-philosophical agnosticism, or even atheism. Much to learn and much waffles to consume. I really got to know a lot of good hearts in those discussions. Honest hearts. We were not united in beliefs, far from so; but in mutual respect we built something as rare as a unity in heart. It was not a perfect heart; but I believe we were headed in the right direction. Those of us who simultaneously were intentional in seeking Jesus’ heart, were amazed how these discussions brought such light to our quest. Or at least I was.

I fell in love with unity.

So I was distressed when the Catholic Church didn’t want to share in communion with me. And as I left the army and moved to Pittsburgh, I was heartbroken to find that the Lutheran church, which I had come to love so much, didn’t want to share communion with me unless I was Lutheran, or at least something close. I probably could have passed the “test,” but then what I loved about the church was lost. On top of this, in a non-denominational church of the faith-movement I visited, they didn’t allow undergraduates to share in communion. Nowhere, it seemed, did they acknowledge me. I was rejected.

Mark 14:17-25 (NIV)
When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me — one who is eating with me." They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, "Surely not I?"

"It is one of the Twelve," he replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."

Look at it: Even Judas Iscariot was allowed in communion. Man, if Judas Iscariot was allowed communion, then who should not be? And imagine the atmosphere at the table. Everybody is suspicious towards everybody. So much tension... Is it Peter that is going to betray Jesus? After all, Jesus called him Satan just a few chapters ago. Is it Simon the revolutionary zealot? Or Matthew the tax collector? It surely is not I, is it? Suspicion. Mistrust. But Jesus made his disciples share the communion nevertheless. Because Jesus himself is what communion is about. It is not about the agreements between those who partake in it. Rather, communion is about looking past the disagreement in style, looking past disagreement in politics, and looking past disagreement in doctrine. Even looking past our suspicion that the other partakers are betraying Christ and his ideals. It is about looking past the dust and focusing everything on Christ himself. That is communion. That it is beautiful.

In the last weeks, I have realized this is difficult. You know those fundamentalist Christians that just make you so ashamed of your faith? Like when televangelist Jerry Falwell in October 2004 boldly proclaimed his support of the Iraq war: “You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops and I am for the President — chase them all over the world, if it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.” How can I invite such a man to communion with me? Can I partake in communion with him? Really? Fact is I can’t stand the man, by knowing nothing more than that very quote. I just can’t. He repulses me, and I am highly suspicious he is betraying Jesus big-time. I do not want to be associated with that man. At all.

But pause for a moment. Is it not sad how I have made myself such a demonized image of Falwell? I most certainly am doing the man injustice. What do I really know about his heart? Well, nothing. I am still suspicious, sure, and I do not expect to agree with him in much. I am allowed to disagree; I am allowed to be suspicious. But Jesus made his disciples share the communion nevertheless. (though sharing with Falwell truly is a tough reputational sacrifice)

What do you say: Jehovah’s Witness claims that Jesus is just one of several expressions of God. Should we invite them to communion? Really? Hard core Calvinists claims that God does not love everybody. Should we invite them to communion? Really? Are they not worshipping a different God altogether?

Should we draw a line?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gives the book of Mormon equal weight as the Bible. The Adventist church is obsessed with the Sabbath as opposed to Sunday. The Catholic churches pray to saints. Churches of the faith-movement emphasise emotional experiences. Some churches show signs with “God hates fags.” Some churches do that. Some churches do this. Churches disagree on everything, even on Jesus himself. And the churches are allowed to disagree. But Jesus made his disciples share the communion nevertheless.

Say we actually draw a line. That man is allowed communion, this man is not. That man is one of us true Christians, this man is not. By doing so, are we not making ourselves judges? Jesus himself, the only one righteous to judge, did not.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a good discussion. I am all for confronting views such as “we should blow them all away in the name of the Lord.” It was trough discussion (which surely was heated at times) that we gained this rare unity in the army chapel. It was through honest struggles with challenging questions we shed light on our path to a kingdom heart. But even as we usually ended up disagreeing at some point, we shared the waffles nevertheless.

How much more, then, should the church be able to share communion, we who all are intentionally seeking the heart of Christ...

What has faith got to do with it?

I’ve now submitted my synthesis paper in my class on religion and power. My previous paper in this class was a summary of one of Dawkins’ chapters from The God Delusion, and you can read that in its entirety here on this blog. Sadly, you say, I will not publish my synthesis paper here. Let me explain why.

I am simply not at peace with distributing the synthesis paper as it is right now. It is not so much the style issues I am worried about, nor do I worry about my academic analysis of the positions I am synthesising; it is not the quality of the paper I am concerned with. But frankly, I am not sure if I am being totally honest; I am not sure if I am fair, because I searched for what I wanted to find, I dug, and I found it. I need to feel more solid ground beneath my feet before you can all read it.

Nevertheless, I’ll give you the short version of my thoughts, without all the quotes and different authors and positions and that jazz. It is like the paper without the academic evidence. And only dealing with the Christian case. And more personal. In short, a more sincere heartsong. So, what has faith got to do with it?

But wait! What has faith got to do with what? Well, with religion and power of course. More precisely, what is faith, and how does your answer to that question affect your view on the relationship between the church and political institutions? For instance, a Christian may think it is a good thing for the church to invest much time and money in politics and lobbyism. Another Christian may think that is the worst thing the church could do. What is the difference between the faith of the first one and the second one?

In my personal Christian terminology, the body of all believers is referred to as “the body of Christ,” so in my mind, the church and the body of Christ is equivalent. Therefore, I’ll start off by substituting the word “church” in the hypothetical sentences above:

For instance, a Christian may think it is a good thing for the body of Christ to invest much time and money in politics and lobbyism. Another Christian may think that is the worst thing the body of Christ could do. What is the difference between the faith of the first one and the second one?

I mean, are these two Christians really part of the same body? They may have a somewhat similar vision of the future world, but they are headed in two profoundly different directions to get there. It seems to me as though there are two bodies of Christ, then. (So I’d love to ask, which of these bodies looks the most like Jesus? But I won’t really emphasise that question, it’s slightly off the point.)

This black and white analysis is of course not accurate at all. And neither is my next assumption, namely that faith is either factual doctrines, or hope and confidence. Of course, to most believers, faith is both hope, confidence and doctrines. But for the sake of the argument, bear with me.

Faith is many times depicted as knowing something for certain without really knowing it. For instance, young earth creationists argue that we should teach creationism in schools because that is what Genisis seems to suggest (at least by the literal interpretation these guys pledge to). They are pretty certain this literal interpretation is about what happened back then, so they rule out guided evolution and Big Bang as scientific non-sense. You see, to them, faith is to take the Bible seriously – and by seriously, they mean literally. Faith has become this exercise to believe in something they really have no reason to believe, the Bible aside. The same can be said for moral truths; “If you take the Bible seriously, you understand that homosexuality is sin,” and “If you take the Bible seriously, you understand that abortion is murder” etc. In this version of faith, to take the bible seriously has become to believe in certain historical and moral doctrines.

My guess is that most young Christians today that vote against homosexual marriages do so because it is part of their moral doctrine, not because they are homophobic.

The other version of faith is described as hope and confidence. In this version of faith, doctrines are less important, and having faith is really more about living in the hope and confidence that God will provide. This is the kind of faith we find when people are “taking a step in faith” and do something even when they cannot predict the outcome; sometimes they even have little to fall back on. Such faith can make a believer change his career plans, humble himself to ask for forgiveness in difficult situations, pray for random people on the street or open his house to strangers; this faith is confident that God forgives the past, and is living in hope for a world were God reigns and the lion sleeps with the lamb.

To me, it seems like the two faces of faith have little in common. Can they really be the same thing? Some even argue they are completely distinct. I can only examine myself, and find that I probably have a little of both. But, and this is the main point of the entire blog post, I strive to emphasise hope and confidence, because that is where the beauty in faith is found. What is beautiful about being certain the world was created 6000 years ago? Nothing! What is beautiful about being certain homosexuality is sin? Nothing, nothing, nothing is beautiful about being certain of other people’s sin! Nothing!

Being aware of your own sins, on the other hand, is quite useful. You need to acknowledge your sin if you want to be cleansed and beautified. That is what repentance is all about! But the process of beautification is first and foremost a fight with your own demons. As Jesus so wisely put it, “first take the plank out of your own eye.” This is why I believe there are so many moral guidelines in the Bible; not because being certain of the truth to them is a point in itself, but because we in the process of beautification sometimes need to be remained of what we are up against. And so can we struggle with were we find ourselves.

This focus on hope and confidence - life - of faith, also has another particular merit to it worth of mention: It allows for a much more honest discussion of the Bible, without shaking the foundation of faith. For instance, if someone has difficulties reconciling the creation story of the Bible with their scientific worldview, this can now be discussed without putting their entire faith at stake. If someone struggles with the passages condemning homosexuality, now at least it doesn’t shake their foundation of faith.

Finally, I argue this approach makes one less inclined to fight politically, for two reasons: The first being precisely that moral and historical truths are more ambiguous and open to discussion. To clarify: You may of course still argue this and that politically, but you are more hesitant to attribute these opinions to Jesus and his body of believers. The second reason is this: if faith is to give up life to be fully beautiful in hope and confidence that God provides, then you have all these planks to fight before you would even think of the sawdusts of those other people. You still have a moral and factual platform, sure; but exactly what that looks like is not a question you care too much to answer. “Rather,” you say, “ask what is the most beautiful thing to do right now.”


Read more:
Warrior of Agape: Why Dawkins is so hostile

Pjeff

On behalf of Pjeff and myself, I want to express our most sincere thanks to everyone who embraced us in this new and strange land. We also wants to thank Delirious? for playing "Waiting for the Summer" over and over again.

Pjeff and I also deeply apologize to all who for various reasons didn't make it into this montage. It turns out the camera didn't always do what the I thought it did, and so some of those hugs are only immortalized in Pjeff's memory. But what is worse, not all of you has yet had a chance to hug Pjeff at all. Which really is too bad, because

- we love you.

Friends in eros

One of my fellow warriors once posted a note about her love life on Facebook. Not too personal, nor too general. Interesting and profound, but not specific, at least not for an uninformed person like myself. Inspired by that and other notes, this is my first take on the matter. However, I will (of course) write in the perspective of a guy.

To be clear, the love life in question is for once not the agape love to which this blog is devoted. Rather, it is the kind of love that occurs when a boy flirts with a girl, or when a woman kisses her man. It is the love that in greek is called by “eros,” at least so I think. Native Greeks or scholars in New Testament linguistics can probably elaborate the nuances to the word, but I wouldn’t know or care too much about it. You get the idea. It is that girlfriend/boyfriend thing.

So then, what does it mean to have a girlfriend? First, I think most agree that being a boyfriend is a temporary state. You are not meant to be just a boyfriend forever. There is a purpose to that state outside of itself. So, and I hope this doesn’t cause too much headache to grasp, if I choose to be someone’s boyfriend, I do not intend for that to be the final state of our relationship. And neither do I intend for us to break up at some point in the foreseeable future. No, the intent of going out with someone is to examine if we can grow to become husband and wife. If not always spelled out with writings on the wall, it is clear to me that this is the direction the boyfriend-arrow is pointing.

Thus, it would make sense to find out how a husband and wife should relate to each other, since that is were we are headed. I strongly believe, from observing my own and other families and couples, that a happy family is one in which the husband and wife not only have a passionate eros love for each other, that is they desire each other, but were they also are best friends. It can and will cause a lot of stress if your best opposite sex friend is outside of your marriage. All sorts of awkward situations will occur, and eros is not always as reliable and faithful as one can wish. There will be pain and heartache.

That is why I think it is a good thing if you know your girlfriend well, from even before you ever thought of being with her. If she was a good friend to you before, the chances of you becoming bestest friends with a little common effort are quite high. This can sure be achieved with some random girl, but those chances are far more - yes - random.

At the same time, it strikes me this can be somewhat dangerous. You do not want to lose a good friend – especially not one of your best friends – just because some stupid coupling attempt went wrong, do you? No, of course you don’t. And can things go wrong? Well, I guess. However, when the worst heartache is over with, I know many who have overcome and still are close friends. In the two cases I have in mind, they took a break for six months or so. Then, when the eros deficiencies were fading, they could again be those good friends, happy to work together and again inviting each other over for dinner. I wouldn’t know how much it would take to become “besties” again, though. But that one spot is reserved for that special one anyways, right?

Urban dictionary definition of “besties:”

Friends who have each other's backs, look out for each other, spend lots of time together, and are just really good friends. They have inside jokes together, they go to the park and swing on swing sets, get ice cream, go to the beach, go to concerts, go bowling, and basically any activity that they like doing together as friends.

Does this strike you as your perfect girlfriend, or what? Only, you can also hold her hand.

Read more:
Urban dictionary: Besties
Btw, I'd also like: Newfoundland
or, maybe a: Papillon
or something in between: Shetland Sheepdog

Oh, as I recall now, my previous official take on the matter was a song I wrote and recorded in 2005, "Jentesangen" (The Girl Song)

Christmas wishes

I used to distribute my Christmas wishes to my family as a neatly organized list of nice things for a boy my age to have. It was only the latest years the list included actual useful stuff, like clothes, and most items were usually way to expensive for anyone to buy. Thus, also included in the wish list was a step-by-step procedure for how to collaborate when buying presents. I was always ambitious writing the Christmas wish list.

I have stopped distributing these. I no longer feel they are appropriate. In fact, I am kind of ashamed I sent out those lists for so long. They were more than slightly materialistic, and totally without any self-awareness of it. Now, I am still materialistic in nature, and would be happy to receive a lot of expensive stuff, and I enjoy unwrapping those packs with nice things in them. However, this Christmas I’ve decided to wish for something more noble:

Support for my spring break trip to Monte Cristi in the Dominican Republic, were I am going to help an organization called “Orphanage Outreach” alongside a bunch of fellow Carnegie Mellon students.

So, instead of buying me a sweater for, say, 200 kr, then buy me a cheap pair of socks or a fair-trade chocolate plate for 30 kr, and then donate 170 kr to Orphanage Outreach. Or, instead of buying me a fine vintage wine (dunno why you would do that, but if so), then buy me some exotic soft drink you found in the Asian food store, and donate the difference to Orphanage Outreach.

You can donate and read one of my very short scribblings about the trip here:
Donate to Orphanage Outreach

If you want to donate, beware that the amounts are in dollars, not in kroner. Adjust accordingly, I don’t want to ruin ya’ll so you can’t afford lamb ribs for Christmas! And you are of course most welcome to donate even if you didn’t plan to send me a present this year.

Orphanage Outreach: Donate
Calculate amount: Valutakurser (Norwegian)
YouTube: Villanova University on similar trip
Carnegie Mellon University: Alternative Break
Charity Navigator: Charities with the Most Consecutive 4-Star Ratings

Change we can believe in

I asked Professor Rouse if he believed things could get better.

We had just watched a documentary (China Blue) on child labour and exploitation of manpower in China, at a factory that produced pants. We had been talking about the difficulties of implementing regulation and minimum standards for how the companies treat their employees, and how widespread such problems are – they are not only present in the clothing business, but also in markets of food, diamonds, toys and electronics. As a teacher of courses in globalisation, Rouse pointed towards the new shape of capitalism that has evolved in the last thirty years as a cause for such conditions’ continuous deterioration. (I don’t know what exactly type of capitalism Rouse is aiming at, but I still think it sounds perfectly reasonable. To me, practices of the European Union such as open borders and same currency comes to mind, and also a high pressure on developing countries to open their markets)

Did Professor Rouse believe things could get better? Yes, he did. He knew from his own experience and his own life, things could indeed get better. Before the late 1970’s, things were getting better. What hinder us from improving again? Rouse believed in change, so it was worth the effort for him to come and talk to us students about this in his spare time. Professor Rouse’ heart and effort made him a beautiful person; his faith – his confidence in what he hoped for – was allowing him to be so.

Al Gore was asked the exact same question concerning his campaign to stop global warming. “Do you believe the world can change?” And Al Gore did believe. His belief that things can change allows him to be beautiful in fighting for that very change. Just as Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, Henrik Wergeland and Martin Luther King Jr also were warriors of beauty when they fought for changes that they believed in. Now, none of these I have mentioned took the change for granted. None of them were certain change would actually happen – the only thing they knew for certain was that it was possible for change to happen if a sufficient number of citizens would decide to join their faith, be beautiful and “get the finger out” (an anglified expression from my gorgeous home country right there:-).

Let us consider for a moment what it means to have faith in Al Gore. Then you obviously also have faith in Al Gore’s project, and believe that it is actually possible to stop global warming. However, this belief alone does not automatically make you beautiful; in fact, if you believe that Al Gore is going to save the world single-handedly, or by the help of all those other people, is that not hypocrisy? To be beautiful, and “follow” Al Gore if you will, you need to actually make an effort yourself. You actually need to sort the garbage – because you are confident it can make a difference.

I also consider to put Jesus on that list. May give the phrase “believe in Jesus” a new flavour.

Learn more:
Teddy Bears Film: China Blue
TED: Al Gore's new thinking on the climate crisis

Healthy homesickness

A returning question that I get asked from time to time is whether or not I’m homesick. It surely is a legitimate question, as the distance from home is greater than any other place I’ve lived, and never before have I been continuously away from my roots for this long. “However,” I usually tell my friendly inquisitors, “keep in mind that I have lived away from home for five years already.” I moved in to my first apartment at age 16 to go to high school in Knarvik, which was a prolonged one-hour drive away from home. After four years at high school and two more apartments, I spent a year in the barracks of the Norwegian infantry, far north of any sophisticated civilization, before I ended up in Henderson House here at Carnegie Mellon.

So in general, I am used to be away from home, and I am not homesick. At least I am not as homesick as one of my roommates in the army was, I mean, he was seriously homesick; he was on the phone with his family for at least two hours a day. Occasionally he would smash his head against the wall and scream in frustration of not being home. While others said “anywhere but here,” he would say “nowhere but home.”

He had my sympathy, and I learned a lot from observing him. I learned that there is value – real value – in loving your home. The more I think of this guy, the more impressed I am with how much he appreciated home, and the more I realize that value for myself. He inspired me to draw my beloved home city Bergen and post it on my cork plate. The Bergen drawing followed my plate throughout my time in the army, despite changes in room and roommates. He also, though more indirectly, inspired me to bring a camera to Stoltzekleiven and Fløien to take pictures of my favourite trail before I left off to the states. I now use one of those photographies, one with the exact same motif as the drawing from the army, as my desktop wallpaper. See above.

I regret that I don’t have a photo of my Bergen drawing on this computer, but if it happens to strike me as a good idea to post the drawing whenever I come back to our family computer, then maybe you will have a chance to see it. It won’t be soon, though.

I haven’t talked too much with my parents, and I haven’t smashed my head to the wall. I don’t feel like I’m missing my pre-college life, and I don’t at all consider to transfer to the University of Bergen. Yet, I am proud to announce that I, at least a little bit, miss home. I love to talk about home with my friends – I like to portray for them the beauty of Bergen. I enjoy to explain what the narrow streets looks like, how they climb from the fjord up the abrupt mountain sides, twisting and turning as they were shaped by time and topology; I like to describe how you can bath in the sea in the middle of the city, and how the taste of the salt water compares to that in the fresh lakes only 30 minutes of hiking away. And of course, I am super-excited to show people my wallpaper, point out all the different places, buildings and restaurants, and tell why they matter to me.

However much Pittsburgh is a fabulous place – it is not home.

Read more:
Warrior of Agape: WeHe
Wikipedia: Bergen
Visit Norway: Bergen

Prayer of Peace

Almighty, eternal God,

You who can bend the hearts of men, we ask You:

Help and brace all those who today have the great responsibility for peace on earth.

Take in your mighty hand the heads of the nations, bend their hearts towards You and give them strength in the war against evil.

Give peace on earth, and help your church promote peace between the peoples.

Protect our world against war and discord, and let us settle and live on this our beloved planet, which You have given us.

Bless our leaders and their houses, and give wisdom to all who have authority and responsibility in society.

Help us to serve You with faithfulness, and together with all the peoples of the earth to stand firm in the war against evil.

Through Jesus Christ, your beloved son, our Lord,

Amen.

Lutheran liturgy from the Norwegian State Church

Freely translated by Warrior of Agape

Awesome, Ole!

Today, I’ve been studying the international laws of war. The subject raises many interesting philosophical questions, and can be basis for intense discussions; the curriculum, however, is probably the most boring read ever created by man. Thus, I’ve spent half my study time sleeping, playing Tap Tap Revenge on my iPod Touch, and surfing the Internet.

It was while reading my local newspaper Bergens Tidende online, I found this article about a guy, Ole, who got best grade on all his 21 subjects through high school; a truly impressive accomplishment. Made me proud of Bergen (not the point). He thought, as I do, that engineering would be awesome. So, of course, he also thought he’d be going to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Just like I did.


But then I suddenly thought this: What about Stanford? How awesome wouldn’t that be? I didn’t get best grade on all my high school subjects, though, so I wasn’t admitted at Stanford. However, people supported me so much during the application process that I decided to explore the options abroad further while doing my national service.

Now I am enrolling at my first choice, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this fall; I can’t wait to get there. It will be awesome.

According to the QS World University Rankings 2008, there are 143 universities worldwide that do better than NTNU within the field of technology. Only five does better than Carnegie Mellon. I hereby strongly encourage my fellow Bergenser to consider studying abroad. Bergen needs top engineers. It will be awesome, Ole!

Read more:
bt.no: Fikk 21 seksere (Norwegian)
Tapulous: Tap Tap Revenge
QS World University Rankings 2008: Technology
Define: Awesome

Prayer Hoax

I received a text message today, with a message sort of like this (freely translated from Norwegian):

“Please pray for the 22 christian missionary families that will be executed today in Afghanistan. Please spread, so we will be many who pray.”

I hesitated. First, it was because I didn’t like the intrusive way of communicating, and I kind of felt bad that I didn’t want to forward the message. After a moment of rational thought, though, I concluded that intrusiveness in itself wasn’t necessarily bad. No, certainly not, you should indeed be intrusive if nobody wants to listen to your important message.

This was of course an important message. But I still hesitated, still scared to act intrusive. I decided to find out more about the missionaries. If I could get to know these missionaries a little better, I’d probably care for them a little more, and if I were to forward the message, I’d be able to stand for it.

As I googled it, I found two things:
1. The message had been circulating in countries all over the world for about a week. If the story was true, then the missionaries would have been dead already.
2. Nobody wanted to confirm the message. No news agencies, no churches, no missionary organisations. Anyone with an informed opinion seemed to call the message a fake, with the exception of the World Periscope blog. The post concerning the matter at World Periscope is now removed, but you can se a screenshot if you click on the picture to the right.

Kind of relieved, kind of disappointed, kind of angry, kind of glad. Let me end by recommending a trustworthy alternative to these hoax text messages: NMIØ, Norwegian Missions In the East, regulary sends e-mails with updates and prayer suggenstions on the situations in different areas of Asia. Unfortunately, it is in Norwegian only. But I'm sure you'll find an alternative in your language as well!

Read more:
A similar view: Davy Mull
A contributor to the story: World Periscope
An islamic view on a relating matter: KavKaz Center: Afghanistan flooded by Christian missionaries
NMIØ: Bli en forbønnsvenn (in Norwegian)

My Dream of Good Times

Exhausted after two weeks in the mountains, living in tents and training for a war that nobody can see coming, I'm finally home in the garrison. It is a little weird to call the garrison for home; but at least there is electricity and warm water. I am still at good health, I've had some sleep, and I've just read the week's curriculum in Ex. phil. (Examen philosophicum). It has been a good exercise.

The only bad thing about today, is that the Saturday quiz is cancelled. And I am a little bothered that some of my fellow soldiers found the exercise to be dull. But it was not. And that bothers me. I was most certainly not dull. It was good. Almost as good as a home-made pizza. It was cool. Never mind.

Later today, I plan to watch a sermon podcast from Woodland Hills Church, and then I'll post a few pictures to Facebook, and maybe watch a movie or go to a concert. Or join my friends for a pizza at the nice, local pub. I actually took a course in bartending two weeks ago, and learned a lot of things about drinks and stuff, things that I wouldn't have known at all, considering my unalcoholish lifestyle. I have never been drunk, and I plan never to be. But if I'm invited to pizza at the pub now, I might order a drink. As a simple gesture of appreciation for the invitation. As an act of agape war.

You see, I have a dream of this combined restaurant and electronics workshop, where you can work with electronics projects, order a pizza or a lasagne, tidy up and store your project while you wait for the food, eat, have a good time and informal chats with like-minded friends in the relaxation area, and maybe continue to work on the project afterwards. Whether you prefer coke, wine, beer, a drink or, like me, chocolate milk to go with the food, this should of course be available. A kind of electronics geek's heaven.

There is a lot of things to be done in order for my dream to come true. First, I have to learn some more electronics, so that I can be of any help for my customers, and also so that I can fully enjoy being in my own establishment. The plan is to study for a few years at the ECE Department at Carnegie Institute of Technology, starting this fall. During my education, I'll maybe try to start a webshop selling electronics assembly kits and useful electronics production tools. Or not. I've heard the regulations on the F1 visa is quite strict.

After graduation, or at least after I've finished my master's degree, or PhD, or at the very least after the other jobs that I might take, I'll have to make necessary arrangements for the physical appearance of the workshop-restaurant. I have to find a convenient and nice city, a beautiful wife and an appropriate venue. I have to tell about my establishment to the government, try to understand the tax regulations, learn to lead accounting, get necessary permissions for serving food, and for serving alcohol.

After my small business has been running for a while, and becomes increasingly popular due to it's ingenious concept and welcoming atmosphere, it becomes clear that it is time for an expansion. We establish workshop-restaurants in major cities, I eventually have to take an MBA, and becomes CEO of the multinational chain, giving generously of my wealth to the poor. Or we simply live happily ever after as a small business, I guess I would be just as happy.

The business could also serve as an agape warfare garrison. We would play uplifting music, contribute to our local society in educating children, and give people a healthy hobby alternative. I also hope we can invite interesting speakers that can give average Joe glimpses of insight into complicated science. So many possibilities!

Read more:
Warrior of Agape: How to Make Pizza