Category: Stanford/Ministry News

I got to hear the Dalai Lama speak at Stanford on Friday. I was actually a few minutes late because I was walking up from a non-standard direction and so I was trapped on the other end of his motorcade and the accompanying security detail. At one point I was about 15 feet from him.

A few thoughts in no particular order:

• A student asked me why in world I would want to hear the Dalai Lama speak since he’s a leader of a rival religion. And then I read an article describing how some scientists are having the same reaction to the Dalai Lama’s scheduled appearance at a neuroscience convention: This merger of serious neuroscience with a particular religion is a practical joke because the very recognition of the Dalai Lama relies on the belief in reincarnation,” said Yi Rao, a neurology professor at Northwestern University. (source). I always find it funny when I see a scientist getting all fundamentalist. This is the flaw in that criticism: to say someone is wrong about one thing is not to say that they are wrong about all things. Of course I think the Dalai Lama teaches a lot of absurd ideas. That doesn’t mean none of his ideas are good ones. Plus, I figured I’d probably get a sermon illustration or two out of the mix. I was right, too–check out the next bullet point.
• The talk was about nonviolence, and the Dalai Lama is a well-known pacifist and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, so I was fairly shocked when I heard him say that the jury was still out on whether or not the Iraq war was justified. I am not taking this out of context at all–this was in direct response to a question whether or not war was ever moral. I don’t think the audience knew what to do with that at all. I was laughing pretty loudly on the inside.
• He has a wonderful lack of decorum. In the midst of one question he took off his shoes, rubbed his feet, and tucked his legs underneath him.
• He contradicted himself quite a few times, but it could have been a byproduct of not being fluent in English. He was talking about some subtle things and he may have used a few words imprecisely.

update 11/7/2005: the Stanford Daily just released an article about his visit echoing many of my points above (including the Iraq war thing).

Yesterday was our last day of tabling on campus for the fall kickoff, and it was worth every minute for one really unique experience: I actually saw a Jewish open-air preacher on White Plaza. Unexpected, given that Jewish adherents are rarely noted for their evangelistic fervor. He had a bullhorn and everything.

It was a bit hard to make out what he was saying, given that concurrently:

• about 160 students and workers were holding a rather loud protest rally. “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”
• a hip-hop group was blaring tunes from their turntable set up about 15 feet behind the aforementioned preacher.
• two acapella groups were also projecting music (although less thumpily than the hip-hoppers).

Still, it was interesting to speculate about the content of his message. I do know that at one point a dozen Jewish students were blowing kazoos while Rabbi Mychal Copeland blew a full-on shofar. I also was able to hear the occassional Hebrew phrase and a few English words like “inner brokenness.”

All in all, a most surprising development. 

We had a welcome brunch today for new students that we called, Bagels, Donuts, and Other Holy Things, which I thought was a rather clever play on words.

Bottom line: it went great. Our returning students did an awesome job of welcoming and hosting new students. This year is really looking solid, and I can tell that our returning students are getting excited about it as well.

Plus I just got off the phone with two freshmen who want to go to church with us tomorrow who weren’t even at the brunch. How cool is that?

Presented without any context whatsoever:

I’m from Malaysia–the bigger the rat the better the food.

Student: What’s a sphincter?
Me: I will spare you the gory details–suffice to say that the question was answered
Student: You say that so matter of factly. Is that common knowledge? 

Student A: You know, it took me days to realize that calling our brunch Bagels, Donuts, and Other Holy Things was a pun.
Student B: Oh my God–I just got it.

Me at the aforementioned brunch: Some of you may not have realized that Bagels, Donuts, and Other Holy Things is a play on words.
1/5 of students: Oohhhh.…

Also, I should mention that the sunbathing sirens were at their stations again yesterday. Reflecting on the available data, I’m offering three conclusions:

1. They really want to be noticed.
2. They may actually be frosh (note that this is a reversal on my part).
3. At least one is Canadian, judging from the white maple leaf on a red background that covered the leftmost portion of her rump.

Which leaves me with one burning question–why do they make bikinis in Canada? Don’t they own thermometers?

Stats at the end of the third day of New Student Orientation:

• Hours on campus: 12
• Number of new students who have expressed interest in Chi Alpha to the extent of giving us their email address: 39
• Number of models who have signed up: 1 (really)
• Number of atheists I’ve had prolonged discussions with: 3
• Atheists who have helped me work the table and told those who walked up that Chi Alpha was really cool, if religion is your thing: 1
• Number of Ph.D. candidates who have helped me work the contact table: 2
• Number of students I have told we are a transgender group: 1
• Number of students I have told that sacrificing chickens is what makes us different from the other ministries on campus: around 10
• Number who laughed: 9
• Sunbathers I have mocked from a distance: 3

Today while working our contact table I saw a great t‑shirt:

My friend went to Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction, but all he found was this crummy t‑shirt.

I don’t care what your political bent is–that’s pretty funny.

As I was working our contact table today on campus, a freshman gal walked up and asked if we were a sorority (which makes me think I should wear something less frilly tomorrow).

As we are not, in fact, a sorority I tried to muster the necessary words to communicate that we welcome both males and females.

The obvious word is coed. What I should have said is, “No, we’re a coed Christian ministry.”

But I had one of those sudden inabilities to remember the appropriate word. My brain frantically raced up and down the halls of my mind to seize a word that would help her understand that Chi Alpha was both male and female.

I settled on transgender.

As in, “No, we’re a transgender group.”

Not my finest verbal hour.

As my brain slowly began to process the words that had come out of my mouth (which, distressingly enough, appear to be the overflow of my heart) I become less and less coherent as I tried to throw more words into the ensuing silence, not unlike trying to repair a bullet wound with more rounds of hot lead.

In the end, I think she understood. 

I suspect she also thought I was a sad, strange little man.