Moral Confusion

I’ve had a nagging thought for a while now, something about how our society is beginning to view risk (or lack thereof) to be a central part of morality (and how this is not a good thing). I’ve never been able to articulate it as well as I would like, which is why I was so pleased to run across this essay by Dennis Prager: Would You Rather Your Teenager Smoke Or Cheat?

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Here are his opening paragraphs, I encourage you to read the whole thing: Decades of lecturing around America and of speaking with parents on my radio show have led me to an incredible conclusion: More American parents would be upset with their teenage children if they smoked a cigarette than if they cheated on a test.

How has this come about? This is, after all, an entirely new phenomenon. Almost no member of my generation (those who became teenagers in the 1960s), let alone a member of any previous generation, could ever have imagined that parents would be angrier with their teenage child for smoking than for cheating.

There has been a profound change in American values. In a nutshell, health has overtaken morality. Or, if you prefer, health has become our morality.

Read the whole essay.

College Matters

I just read this paragraph in the Ivy Jungle’s Campus Ministry Update and thought it worth posting here: In her recent book, Hillary Rodham-Clinton describes herself as a Goldwater conservative prior to her college years. The daughter of a staunch Republican, it was in college that she changed her political views. One catalyst for the change, she says, was the “MOTIVE” magazine published by the Methodist Church. The magazine, which ceased circulation in 1968, was designed for college students and helped her see the cause of social justice. Regardless of political your political views, this reminds us that college ministry matters. Press on.

Talk About Your Good Days

Yesterday was an astoundingly good day: I got up at 5am to drive to Sacramento for a meeting to appoint a new college ministries director for our district. The meeting went well, I offered some opinions and strongly recommended one of my peers for the position, and then I recused myself from the meeting (it just seemed proper since I was technically a candidate).

I waited out in the hallway for what seemed like an hour, and when I was invited back in I was asked to take the helm in an interim capacity while we seek someone full-time for the position!

To clarify: this doesn’t involve Paula and I leaving the ministry at Stanford. This is an added thing.

Although I didn’t seek the position (and I actually mean that–this wasn’t one of those I won’t seek it to make myself a more desirable candidate sort of things), I was very excited to be selected. There are more than 500,000 college students in this zone spread across over 40 sizeable campuses (and many, many smaller ones), and I’ve got some ideas I’m eager to try out.

After that I drove back and discovered that our ministry had received a pledge from a church. Woohoo!

Following that I did some piddling work until the workday ended and played my current video game, Brute Force, and beat a level that was vexing me greatly. Also a cause for celebration.

Following that I headed into downtown Palo Alto to the Stanford Theater to watch The Forbidden Planet and the original Time Machine (two fine movies) with some of our Chi Alpha students. I just loved watching those wonderful films in that cool old theater, and I was pretty surprised to realize that Leslie Nielsen was the star of The Forbidden Planet. The whole movie I kept telling myself I’ve seen this guy in some other films but I couldn’t place him. I was shocked at the end credits! In fact, I didn’t even fully connect the dots until Lynette Garcia said something about it.

Finally, I came home and read very briefly from Daniel Boorstin’s engaging book The Discoverers. The only complaint I have about his book is the giant chip he seems to have on his shoulder when he talks about religion (any religion). I’m very curious to see if that theme continues through the end of the book. Other than that it’s excellent (and his comments about religions and religious communities are insightful).

Then I fell asleep–it was 11:00pm!

All in all an excellent day.

The Worst Haircut Experience Of My Life

If I may be permitted to vent for a moment, I just received the worst treatment I’ve ever received from a barbershop–namely the The Haircut in the Stanford Shopping Center.

Once I sat in the barber’s chair everything was out of my control–my hair was not cut as I asked, my head was manhandled as though I were a fidgety three-year-old child, and at the end the protective drape was ripped off my body and an industrial-strength blowdrier was run over me to remove any loose hair.

They never even asked me if I was happy with my haircut. I had to remain seated and ask if I could look in a mirror to see the results!

I still have stray hairs prickling my skin as I type this.

Most disappointing…

Preaching in Lodi

Last night we had a great service with Chan Keith in Lodi, CA. A college-aged lady who was visiting the church that night chose to follow Christ!

I love my job…

Also, Nicholette Lockwood, a student from our former ministry in Springfield, MO moved in last night. She’ll be staying with us for a month this summer.

Right now I’m focused on two tasks:
1) Helping to select the Chi Alpha leader for Northern Cal/Nevada.
2) Helping to plan Chi Alpha’s Winter Conference in 2004.

Does The Bible Teach That Jesus Is God?

It is sometimes alleged that the Bible doesn’t really claim that Jesus is God. This is a list of passages that establish the doctrine. This list isn’t written to persuade nonbelievers that Jesus is in fact God, but to persuade everyone that the Bible indeed claims that He is.

Passages That Explicitly Assert Jesus Divinity

  • In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
    Word was God    . (John 1:1, NIV)
  • No one has ever seen God. But his only Son, who is himself God,
    is near to the Father’s heart; he has told us about him. (John 1:18, NLT)
  • Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your
    hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said
    to him, “My Lord and my God!”     Then Jesus told him, “Because you have
    seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
    believed.” (John 20:27–29, NIV)
  • Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has
    made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought
    with his own blood    . (Acts 20:28, NIV)
  • Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of
    Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. (Romans
    9:5, NIV)
  • we wait for the blessed hopethe glorious appearing of our great
    God and Savior, Jesus Christ,     who gave himself for us to redeem us
    from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own,
    eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:13–14, NIV)
  • to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus
    Christ     have received a faith as precious as ours (2 Peter 1:1, NIV)

Continue reading “Does The Bible Teach That Jesus Is God?”

Reno Rocks!

We got back from Reno yesterday. It was a great trip!

If you ever need to travel to Reno, you really ought to look into staying at the Peppermill, a hotel/casino. Their rates are great and the rooms are wonderful!

We stayed in three different hotels this weekend (for perfectly good reasons which I won’t go into here), and the Peppermill blew the other two away.

Reno and Roomies

Paula and I are heading up to Reno to preach this Sunday. We’ve got a ministerial meeting in Susanville tonight (about 90 minutes from Reno), so we’re just going to spend the whole weekend up there. I probably won’t be able to check my email again until Monday.

Side note–we’ve had students living with us the last few days. A lot of students are in-between housing right now, and so we offer our pad to those who are in a homeless zone. Nate left yesterday to go do his summer studies at Princeton. Jimmy is leaving Sunday to go do his military service in Singapore.

I guess today is the last time we’ll see Jimmy for a long while. In fact, it’s possible that we’ll never see him again. That’s an incredibly sad thought…

On a more upbeat note, Shih-Yang and Andrew will be moving in Sunday (while we’re still gone). Talk about roommate flux!