70% Of College Homework Excuses Are Lies

NEWS FLASH: Studens lie to get out of homework.

A recent news item highlights the need for spiritual renewal at America’s colleges and universities. Students lie.

More to the point, Dr. Joseph Ferrari (who teaches psychology at DePaul University in Chicago) has discovered that they lie to avoid the consequences of not doing their assignments on time. 70% of the time an assignment is late, the accompanying excuse is a lie designed to get them off the hook.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you the next generation of Enron executives…

This Sounds Suspiciously Like a Video Game Concept

Hermann Burchard, mathematics professor at Oklahoma State, has suggested that we invent a cosmic-sized airbag to bounce incoming metors away from earth.

Hmmm.…

That reminds me of what a friend of mine thinks might be the (unintentional) funniest line in a movie. In Armageddon, all the science gurus at NASA are trying to figure out how to avert the annihilation of all life on earth, when someone says (roughly), “What we need here is the world’s best deep-core oil driller.”

A Pentecostal and a Catholic Discuss the Essence of Christianity

In which I talk with a Catholic about the nature of Christianity.

I’ve been meaning to mention for a while now that I’ve started a blog conversation with Sean Gallagher (a Catholic who runs a blog title Note Bene) about the reason Petencostal missionaries seem to target Catholics.

Here’s the rundown so far: it all began when I read Sean’s August 24th post about Pentecostal proselytism. I made a comment on that posting explaining my point of view.

As a Pentecostal missionary (albeit to Stanford and not Latin America), I’d like to comment.

Some people who attend Catholic churches are followers of Jesus, and some are not. My strong impression is that here in the Americas the majority are not.

By way of disclaimer, I would like to add my belief that the same problem exists in most denominations (including mine): too many people are involved because of momentum and not because of faith. I do think the problem is particularly acute in the RCC.

That being said, I never deliberately seek to proselytize people who are faithful adherents of another Christian tradition. In general, if a student tells me they are a Christian I believe them, and I try to help them grow in their faith. If I am of significant help to them, they often wind up switching their adherence.

However, when I meet someone without a vibrant faith (such as the infamous Easter and Christmas only crowd), I try to help them either reawaken a faith grown cold or discover true faith for the first time. Whenever that happens, they almost always switch their adherence. This is what I believe is happening in South America.

The switch has two roots, I think: one is an emotional intuition that what’s working for us might work for them since we were so helpful to them, the other is that we express significantly different doctrinal positions from the RCC that if believed make a switch virtually inevitable.

He thought that what I said was pretty interesting, and brought it to the attention of his readers. Shortly thereafter, he posted a series of questions for me answer

.

I answered his questions via email, but for your convenience, here they are:

I’ll answer your questions as best I can, just remember that I’m not a spokesperson for my denomination (much less for all of Pentecostalism)… I come from the strand of Pentecostalism that values other traditions without compromising the integrity of my own (much like the founders of the Society for Pentecostal Studies).

First, what is a follower of Jesus? I should state for the record that I am using this term synonymously with Christian. The authors of the New Testament seem to have been incapable of conceiving of a Christian who was not actively seeking to emulate Jesus. Jesus’ call was (and is) to “come, follow me.” In fact the very label Christian refers to the concept of ‘little Christs.’ Having said that, I would define a follower of Jesus as someone who has embraced the teachings and example of Jesus as the foundation of their lives and has brought their lives under the influence of the God (become citizens of the Kingdom). The classic word for this action is repent: to turn from a self-directed life to a God-directed life.

Second, defining a faithful adherent is always tricky. I mean both faithful (consistent participant in a local community of Christian faith) and faith-full (conforms to the definition above). Allow me to demonstrate by way of counterexample what I’m getting at:

* Suppose that I’m in conversation with a student and they discover that I’m an ambassador for Christ. They make some sort of comment along the following lines, “Yeah, I was raised in church, but I just don’t find it meaningful. I stopped going when I was a teenager.” In my mind, they flunk both tests–they need to be introduced to the King and enrolled in a local community of like-minded believers.

* Suppose that I meet a student who says, “Yeah, I love going to church–that’s where all the cute girls go!” (and upon investigation I discover that they really are that shallow). They pass the consistency test but fail the follower of Jesus test.

* Suppose that I meet a student who says, “Yeah–I really admire Jesus. But I hate the church–they’ve really let me down. I’ll never set foot in a church again!” Perhaps they pass test #2 (further investigation is needed), but they fail test #1.

I would consider all these people in desperate need of God’s grace expressed through human love in the context of a community earnestly following Jesus. Please note that I never mentioned a specific denominational background for any of them–it’s irrelevant to these examples.

Third, how would I as a Pentecostal help a Catholic grow in their faith? That’s an excellent question! Basically I do it the same way I help anyone to grow in their faith: love them unconditionally, pray for them consistently, encourage them in righteousness, and rebuke them in sin. Teach them the lessons of Scripture (I should note that my interpretation of Scripture differs from the Catholic understanding at points. I obviously teach what I believe to be true). Give reasonable answers to honest questions. In addition, here are a few other actions I’d take with someone from a churched background:

* I’ve noticed that many college-aged people engage in liturgy by rote and fail to understand its significance (confirmation notwithstanding). I’d try to help them see it with fresh eyes: as a heartfelt expression of worship and devotion to God. I’d probably also give them a copy of something like Peter Kreeft’s One Catholic to Another.

* I’ve also noticed that many students raised in church (of whatever tradition) have a very juvenile understanding of faith–their religious education stalled at a junior high level and they’ve never probed their faith at an age-appropriate level. Incidentally, I think that’s one of the reasons so many college students bail on the church. They’re trying to incorporate irreconcilable worldviews in their minds: one a 7th-grade understanding of the good news and the other a college-level understanding of secular philosophy. Guess which one wins? To that end, I’d try to help students reframe their questions and seek answers in a more sophisticated manner.

* Another high priority on my list is to help students experience the immediate supernatural power of the Holy Spirit (including the charismata). The Bible portrays charismatic Christianity as the normative model for followers of Jesus. We are to exhibit not only the fruit of the Spirit but also the gifts of the Spirit.

Fourth, I think I’ve addressed this question in my response to questions one and two. A vibrant faith is a combination of belief and trust that makes a difference in one’s day-to-day opinions, feelings, and behavior.

I hope I’ve answered your questions meaningfully. I’m sure you’ll have some comments in response.

So far he’s posted his reponse to my answer to his first question: What Defines a Follower of Jesus? I’ll try to respond as soon as I can (although my in-laws are visiting and that will make computer time harder to come by).

Traumatizing My Mother-In-Law

On how the little details we learn in seminary can really upset some people.

On a personal note, my in-laws are visiting right now.

It’s pretty amazing–relatively few people wanted to visit us when we lived in Springfield, MO. Now that we’re in the Bay Area, it seems as though we have a new guest every weekend!

In any event, my in-laws are visiting. At one point we began discussing Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper, and I mentioned that there were no chairs at that meal–the participants were all reclining.

That little tidbit of trivia traumatized my mother-in-law. I think she felt slightly betrayed. I always try to bear in mind that the little details I learned in seminary can really disturb people if communicated improperly, but this one kind of caught me off-guard.

Sorry!

Stanford One Step Closer to Hosting 2012 Olympics

San Francisco (and Stanford) move one step closer to being the US nominee to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

San Francisco just moved one step closer to hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. As I mentioned in my earlier post, if San Fran lands the games Stanford will be the centerpiece of the ceremonies!

The United States Olympic Committee has selected two finalists to compete with one another for the honor of being the United States nominee to host the 2012 Games: San Francisco and New York.

Read more about it: pro San Francisco spin, pro New York spin.

She Never Saw It Coming…

A British girl was struck in the foot by a meteorite.

Yeah, you read that correctly. She was hit by an object falling from space.

If you’re like me, you’re first thought is to assume that she should be dead (or at least footless). The article doesn’t even mention that the impact hurt.

So I did some quick research. The meteor would have reached terminal velocity well before impact. Terminal velocity for medium-sized meteors is only around 45 miles per hour. This one was much, much smaller (looks to be only around 1–2 inches in diameter). That means its terminal velocity is below 45 mph.

So I guess it felt like getting hit in the foot by a baseball.

Former Stanford Provost Condoleeza Rice discusses her faith

Just a quick aside about Condoleeza Rice and her faith in Jesus.

There’s a fascinating excerpt from a Sunday School lesson taught by Condoleeza Rice in which she discusses her faith in God. If you didn’t know, she was the provost (chief budget and administrative officer) of Stanford prior to becoming National Security Advisor.

Dr. Rice is a believer, and since she’s been so closely acquainted with Stanford I thougth the interview was worthy of mention. Thanks to blogs4God for the link.

Just another example of Stanford changing the world!

Just Thinking…

In which Glen clambers atop The Thinker’s pedestal and begins to muse…


Yeahthats me atop the pedestal that usually holds The Thinker. We were walking across campus and I saw that it was temporarily vacant, so I just had to jump up and have my photo snapped!

Doing a little research, I learned that Auguste Rodin originally created The Thinker as part of his masterpiece The Gates of Hell. The figure sat atop the gates and reflected on the fate of the damned.

Yikes! I suppose that makes Stanford a good site for The Thinkertheres certainly an ample supply of lost souls to ponder.

And so Paula and I are here to give him less to think about. Pray for us as we represent Christ on this strategic mission field!

Incidentally, youve probably seen The Thinker at other locations: thats because there are 25 castings of the famous enlarged version.

Sculpture follows different rules for reproduction than other art forms: there are several originals. That was news to me: if you’re interested read more here.

Join The MP3 Discussion!

I’ve just kicked off a discussion over at The Idea Exchange (national Chi Alpha’s peer-learning site) about the ethics of downloading music and movies.

You can find the discussion (along with a poll) over there, so why not join in the fray?

My initial posting poses three questions:
1) What is the law?
2) What should the law be?
3) What should we do?