Author: Glen

Truth Or Dare

I was reminded how much our ministry matters as I reflected on two very different events at Stanford: the Veritas Forum and a campus Playboy shoot. The two played out like a real-life version of truth or dare.

First, truth. We were delighted to co-sponsor The Veritas Forum at Stanford. We brought in leading Christian intellectuals such as Dallas Willard, Gary Habermas, and Michael Behe to engage students and faculty in discussions about life’s hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ. It was incredible! The highlight for me was observing Christian philosopher Dallas Willard debate Richard Rorty, one of the most influential philosophers in America today. The whole week was a powerful reminder that the Christian faith is reasonable and worthy of careful investigation.

But we went from truth to dare as Playboy came to town and students disrobed to pose for the magazine’s annual college issue. The Stanford Daily urged readers to participate, saying that prejudice against pornography “is an unfortunate product of our society, and one that ought to be addressed.” The editorial went on to make the case that Playboy was a high-class, upstanding literary magazine. (source)

The difference between the two events was inadvertently summed up by a hopeful model. When asked by a local paper about some consequences of her decision to pose, she said, “I guess I hadn’t thought it out too thoroughly.” (source)

And so we’ll keep sponsoring events like the Veritas Forum, we’ll keep hosting Bible studies in the dorms, and we’ll keep talking about things like the reliability of the Bible, because today’s students desperately need to be challenged to think.

Robot Monkey Arms

As you may recall, scientists at Duke have figured out a way to wire robot arms directly into a monkey’s brain, and that the monkey can then use the arm quite effectively.

There’s an update: the monkeys seem to view the arm as a part of their own body.

That’s wild.

Expect some absolutely amazing body-enhancement devices faster than you’d think but slower than you’d hope.

It made me think for a second: if I could directly wire control of any technological device into my brain what would I choose?

Assuming I was limited to one, I guess I’d pick a multipurpose wireless I/O device. Like a bluetooth controller but with way better security.

That would rock.

What My Students Probably Do When I’m Not Looking

I stumbled across this guide to steam tunneling at Stanford.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, steam tunneling is an old college pastime wherein students crawl around in the tunnels that run under campus.

I had two thoughts:
1) How cool.
2) I bet a large percentage of my male students have done this.

I am very confident of number two because I know have students who have nefariously rappelled down the side of buildings on campus. And that’s way less a part of the college tradition than exploring tunnels.

Surprise Birthday Party

When I returned from church today I was genuinely shocked to find a house full of students waiting to wish me a happy birthday.

I was touched.

Also, I got one of the coolest gifts I’ve gotten in a long time. One of my students took a picture of me playing with Dana, developed it herself, and framed it. It’s the kind of photo I’ll probably wind up keeping on my desk until I don’t have a desk anymore.

Thanks to everyone for the Apples To Apples game, to Jin for baking the cakes, to Desirae for shopping, and to Karen for the photo. Thanks to Paula for organizing the whole deceptive shindig and to whoever did the decorating. I’m sure other people did things I don’t know about, and I’m grateful to them as well.

It was just great.

Birthday Desires

As a service to my friends and family, I gladly provide the following birthday wishlists:

Glen’s Amazon Wishlist (mostly books, although some other stuff is there as well)

Glen’s General Wishlist (stuff not for sale on Amazon)

As always, these are just my everyday “I want to get these someday” lists. They haven’t been especially concocted for my birthday or anything. So some things might seem odd. Or even bizarre.

Spirituality In Higher Education 2004–2005

The Spirituality In Higher Education project has released a new report for the 2004–2005 school year.

Some highlights (and my thoughts):

80% of college students attended a religious service within the last year.
MY THOUGHT: if they’re not coming back to the church it’s not out of ignorance–they don’t like what they see.

50% of students are “seeking” “conflicted” or “doubting” when it comes to their faith.
MY THOUGHT: that’s half my audience–is my ministry structured accordingly?

26% of freshmen consider themselves born again.
MY THOUGHT: they don’t know what that phrase means 😉

There’s a very readable article, Religiosity Rising On Campus, that covers the same data as in the official report.

Heh

Andrew Wright, friend, fellow blogger, and student in Chi Alpha, refers to a positive impact I had on his life:

[Tobias] Wolff destroyed any residual interest I still had in Ayn Rand and Objectivism, completing the process begun by a series [of] summer conversations with Glen in 2002.

I hoped I was making sense back then. That was really one of my first ministry challenges at Stanford. Andrew was our very first student in Chi Alpha (and he turned into our housemate within weeks of our arrival).

It’s bittersweet seeing him graduate in a few months. On the one hand, my job as a minister will be MUCH easier without Andrew ;), but on the other hand he’s our last link to the beginning. We will have officially cycled a student generation.

I was pretty heartened by his last paragaph:

Commencing the last quarter at Stanford – the last 3 months of indiscretion of my life, but to cram all of the fun and folly of the past 4 years into one quarter would probably kill me. Rather than resolving to live it up, I’m hoping to end on a note that is simultaneously reflective and forward looking, a sort of transcendent Buddha-like coasting into the next higher phase.

We’ll be watching, Andrew. 🙂