Author: Glen

Christian Professors Help Out In Afghanistan

Rebuilding Afghanistan U is a fascinating story of how well-educated Christians can make a difference.

It talks about how the International Institute for Christian Studies sent professors to Afghanistan after the war against the Taliban to rebuild their higher-education infrastructure.

The group is very picky about its candidates’ credentials (a graduate degree is a must), experience, and Christian witness. Only one of 10 applicants gets accepted. When Communist countries ask CEO Daryl McCarthy for teachers, he says something like this:

“You want experienced, hard-working, ethical professionals? We’ll get them for you. In fact, IICS is so particular that we make sure that every one of them is a Christian.” Says McCarthy: “It’s fun to hear the foreign officials say, ‘Ah, yes, very good. That’s what we need.’ ”

The article is fascinating and well worth a read.

Dick Staub Interviews Mary Poplin

I just ran across a transcript of an interview with Mary Poplin.

Dr. Poplin is the Dean of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University and she’s currently writing a book (title unknown) about integrating faith and academia. (see her faculty bio page)

You should really read the interview on Dick Staub’s website, but I’ve excerpted the most fascinating bits…
Continue reading “Dick Staub Interviews Mary Poplin”

The Importance of College Students

I just ran across an interesting article in the LA Times that I deemed worthy of comment: The nation’s leading lawyer [Jay Sekulow] for evangelical Christians was born and raised a Jew in Brooklyn, but decided in college that Christ was the Messiah. (read the whole article: Evangelicals’ Champion to Argue Case at High Court)

Sekulow has argued 11 cases before the Supreme Court and is the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.

Jay Sekulow is an excellent example of what I keep telling people–college students are the leaders of tomorrow and they are uniquely open to rethinking their belief systems. Reaching students today changes the world of tomorrow.

Chi Alpha in Boston

The Boston Globe has a neat article that references the Boston area Chi Alphas:

“When I came to MIT, I was expecting it to be full of nerds — people who don’t really put together science and religion,” says Benjamin Brooks, a senior from Paterson, New Jersey, who belongs to the MIT chapter of the evangelical group Chi Alpha. “I was really surprised — and still am — by the volume of Christian fellowship here.”

and later The Boston University chapter of Chi Alpha holds regular “The Gospel According to The Simpsons” gatherings.

The article is called God on the Quad and talks about the evangelical presence on the Boston campuses.

Updates

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything to the site–I feel as though I’ve barely had time to check my email lately, much less update the site.

In any event, Paula and I are settling in to our new place. Stuff is actually getting hung on the walls and the few boxes that remain dwindle daily.

Things have Stanford have been pretty good–as always some bits are encouraging and some bits are discouraging. Our small groups are the real highlight for me this quarter.

On another encouraging note, I just got an email from Josh Wong (one of our alumni from last year) and it contained this exciting little snippet: Ming Fai has also gone to Myanmar! He said that I encouraged him to go there, so I am glad to hear that. He is now driving the production of a movie-CD about Myanmar to promote awareness and to raise funds for the orphans and missionaries there. I am helping him on that.

That was very neat to hear!

What Does It Mean To Be A Christian?

A fellow Chi Alphan (Lynette, if you must know) asked me to recommend some online explanations of Christianity that she could forward to a friend who is interested.

There are a ton out there, but here are some that I really like:

Power to Change is probably my favorite. It eschews over-the-top flash animation and focuses on the stories of changed lives.

The next three are all variants on a theme–make the gospel look cool through use of snazzy flash and soundtrack. They are actually quite cool. To each their own:
1) Got Life?: a play on the “Got Milk?” campaign.
2) Wuzup God?: a youthy variant of the billboards asking questions. It’s not quite as clear as I would like it to be, but it’s still nice.
3) The Kristo: very cool, but it annoys me that I can’t skip the intro to get to the interactive part nor can I pause it (if something cool comes on tv or I get a phone call then the inability to pause becomes a real drag).

Faith Cards: this is an e‑vangelistic twist on the widespread electronic birthday and holiday cards out there. I almost never open them myself, but some people love them. If that describes your friend (which it almost certainly does if this is a friend who forwards you cute stories), they might appreciate getting one of these.

If you have one that you really like, post it in a comment. If I like it too, I’ll update the post and include it in the main text!

Bayesian Analysis of God’s Existence

This caught me off-guard (kudos to Christianity Today Blog for finding it): a scientist has done a Bayesian calculation to determine the probability of God’s existence (which he pegs at 67%).

The scientist’s name is Stephen Unwin (read an interview), and the book detailing his thoughts is The Probability of God: A Simple Calculation That Proves the Ultimate Truth

The opening line of his book is “Do you realize that there is some probability that before you complete this sentence, you will be hoofed insensible by a wayward, miniature Mediterranean ass?”

How cool is that?

I’ve not read it yet–so I have no further comments except to say that it looks extremely interesting.