When Imitating Christ Is a Bad Idea

Mark Galli has a neat little editorial in Christiantiy Today talking about
when imitating Christ is superficial theology, using the book What Would Jesus Eat? as an sterling example of good intentions gone loopy.

While I have to concede his basic point (what would Jesus eat?????), I think he dismisses the concept too quickly. Dallas Willard and John Ortberg (who doesn’t seem to have a website) do marvelous jobs of demonstrating how it is possible to imitate Christ in a thoughtful, productive manner. In fact, I highly recommend Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines as a life-changing guide to the imitation of Christ.

Colleges Teach Truth Is Relative

75% of students say that their professors teach that moral truth is relative.

According to a survey sponsored by the National Association of Scholars, 3 out of 4 college students report that their professors teach that morality is determined by individual and cultural differences (as opposed to universal moral principles to which we are all accountible). The poll was conducted by Zogby, and the detailed results are available here.

This study only underlines the urgency for campus ministry and for solid, intellectually responsible discipleship!

A Mystery Worshiper Visits Stanford’s Memorial Church

What happens when a Mystery Worshiper from the Ship of Fools visits Stanford’s Memorial Church? Read on!

Thanks to the Stanford Christian Faculty for finding this funny review of Stanford’s Memorial Church.

This is part of the Mystery Worshiper series at the Ship of Fools website, wherein someone walks into a church service and then posts an online review of it.

I mention the link because
a) it amused me and
b) I think it reveals something about the state of religious life at Stanford.

Christian Faculty at Stanford

There are plenty of Christian faculty here at Stanford. Don’t believe me? Check out the Stanford Christian Faculty Fellowship directory. Interestingly enough, the majority of them appear to be in the physical and life sciences. Stuff that in your theological pipe and smoke it…

Be sure to check out The Journey With Jesus, a set of musings by Dan Clendenin about what Jesus would look like in contemporary society.download night on earth divx

Meeting More Students

The night I met Kwasi Adu and Nathan Mitchell.

God has really been opening up some neat doors for us. We just had one of Andrew’s friends, Kwasi Adu (rhymes with greasy shampoo) over for supper. Kwasi is from Ghana, and his name means “Sunday.” Evidently every Ghanian (or at least every male Ghanian) is named for the day of the week on which they were born. How interesting…

Anyway, Kwasi and I have read a lot of the same books, so we had a really good time talking. He, Andrew, and I also had a fun time trying to figure out whether or not you could cook a chicken with a sufficient density of radio waves. We decided that you probably couldn’t actually cook it, but you could do some pretty unhealthy things to it.

Afterwards, I gave Kwasi a ride home and met one of his roommates, Nathan, who seemed open to checking out Chi Alpha. How cool!

Don Knuth’s 3:16 Project

I mentioned this on my personal website, but I thought it would also be of interest to the students at Stanford XA. Donald Knuth, a retired computer science professor at Stanford, undertook a project many years ago to analyze every chapter 3 verse 16 in the Bible. It’s supposed to be quite fascinating, although I’ve not read it yet.

In any event, I just ran across the coolest thing on his website: John 3:16 in beautiful PDF calligraphy. The translation is pretty neat as well.

Stanford Chi Alpha Website Now Up

I’ve been getting the Stanford Chi Alpha website ready for launch, and now it’s ready! You can visit it at http://www.xastanford.org/.

I’ve been getting the Stanford Chi Alpha website ready for launch, and now it’s ready! You can visit it at http://www.xastanford.org/.

Here’s what I’ve posted so far:
*What Is Chi Alpha?
*What’s Important To Chi Alpha?
*What Does Chi Alpha Believe?
*What Does The Name Chi Alpha Mean?

One thing I’m very excited about is that the students will be able to make posts as well, so this will be a true representation of our community!

Don Knuth’s 3:16 Project

A link to Don Knuth’s calligraphy of John 3:16

Donald Knuth, a retired computer science professor at Stanford, undertook a project many years ago to analyze every chapter 3 verse 16 in the Bible. It’s supposed to be quite fascinating, although I’ve not read it yet.

In any event, I just ran across the coolest thing on his website: John 3:16 in beautiful PDF calligraphy. The translation is pretty neat as well.

We Got A Screamin’ Yellow Ford Focus

Wow–this has got to be the brightest car in the world!

Yellow Ford Focus 2001Check out our extraordinarily yellow Ford Focus. We’re conducting an informal survey to decide what to call it. Current contenders are:

1) The Bumblebee
2) The Banana
3) The Taxi
4) The Lemon
5) The Happy Car
6) The Curious George Mobile

Let us know what you think! Either post a comment below this message or just send me an email. Incidentally, if you’re looking to buy a car, I highly recommend checking out CarBuyingTips.com and CarsDirect.com. The advice in that first site saved us tons of money, and the second site helped us find good dealers in the area and gave us a great starting point for our negotiations.

Stanford Wins Sears Cup Again!

Stanford rocks in every area!

On a triumphalist note, I should mention that Stanford has won the Sears cup AGAIN

meet wally sparks online

! That makes 8 in a row. And not only did we win–we won by a lot. Here are the point totals:

1. Stanford 1499.0
2. Texas 1110.5
3. Florida 1078.0
4. North Carolina 1065.5
5. UCLA 1026.0

See how each individual sports teams did.

In case you’re wondering, the Sears Cup is awarded each year to the best overall collegiate athletics progam in the nation. In other words, we rock!