It's finally here!

For those of you who have been living under a rock or else only keeping up with me on this very blog, I have spent the past year or so working on a thesis for my minor in Interdisciplinary Studies. That is, the Honors College. This project has taken me through more books and journal articles than I care to admit, through many iterations of application for research approval (and subsequent rejection), as well as around the world, into the Old Testament, and on a personal journey that I did not anticipate. All that boils down to this Friday morning. I'll be giving a presentation (I don't like the word "defense") of my thesis.

The thing started out as an anthropology research project, plain and simple. It was going to revolve around the different strands of Christianity in current-day People's Republic of China and how there are conflicts between Christian morality and aspects of PRC law. Well, after spending several months with my nose buried in books and eyes watering from the illumination of LexusNexus online articles, I wrote an Institutional Review Board proposal to study the House Church, Three-Self Church, Chinese Catholic church, et al. this summer while I would be in the PRC anyway. The IRB shot me down a few times and once their final denial came the week before departure for a summer in China, my adviser, Dr. Adam Frank, and I came to a different conclusion. I could do my research more passively by observing people and situations (but not doing "interviews") and using that to fuel the creation of a piece of fiction.

So, now we have my novella, In the Land of Silence, about a Chinese couple and their lives as Christians in the face of an accidental pregnancy under the PRC's One Child Policy. That's the short version of what it's about. I am excited to have written something fictional (my first attempt at this in a piece of any length) and to have written something I think is worthwhile. This is definitely not intended to be classified as Christian fiction in the traditional sense, but rather a short piece about Christians in the regular world around them where things don't work and life doesn't always make sense. The ending is not tragic, but it certainly isn't happy, and to me, that reflects life as a struggling Christian (I defy you to find any other kind) in the real world.

This book took a lot of emotional and spiritual energy out of me as I looked at situations I've never experienced and tried to come to terms with situations I have that hold similar implications. I've never been pregnant and needed to have an abortion, but I've certainly felt like God was either not listening or unwilling to help. I hope that the piece is something that will be a springboard for further work spiritually and academically.

That said, come to my thesis presentation!

Friday, December 11, 9 a.m.
UCA Student Center, room 214

I'll be the one dressed up and looking frazzled.

T