Category Archives: Adam

Love, Sex and Religion

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love-sex-religion

Two years ago I participated in a panel made up of several MIT chaplains called “Love, Sex and Religion” hosted by PLEASURE @ MIT. I had always meant to post the audio recording of that, but I’m just finally getting around to it now.

In this audio file you’ll hear Swami Tyagananda (Hindu Chaplain) followed by me (Blue Ocean Faith Chaplain) followed by Kari Jo Verhulst (Lutheran Chaplain) followed by Gavriel Goldfeder (Orthodox Jewish Chaplain). My part starts 14 minutes in. I was very impressed by the level of wisdom and nuance in what my esteemed colleagues had to say. I aspire to be that insightful and articulate.

Interfaith Dialogue – The Gift of the Other

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Interfaith_TreeI’ve recently accepted the opportunity to coordinate MIT’s awesome interfaith dialogue program: The Addir Fellows. Addir is an ancient Sumerian word that means ‘bridge’.

Here’s my latest Tuesday’s in the Chapel talk where I discuss some of the reasons I’m so excited to promote interfaith dialogue (mp3).

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BON VOYAGE: Leaving Faith on Good Terms

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Bon Voyage

This was an IAP event that I co-hosted with MIT’s Secular Society. I’ve heard too many stories from people who have been mistreated and traumatized for being honest with themselves and engaging in a sincere search for what’s good and true and helpful. We’ve lost sight of the fact that many people have very good, legitimate reasons for wanting to put distance between themselves and church/Christianity/God.

Here’s a recording of the introduction that I gave at this event.

It was followed by some really powerful and heartbreaking stories of what people experienced as they deconverted. The hope was to provide a space that could provide both catharsis for healing and catalyst for productive dialog.

Why I Care About Sleep at MIT

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from sleepingmitstudents.tumblr.com

Sleep deprivation is often part of the MIT student experience. One of my dreams (pun intended) is that MIT can come to have a healthier sleep culture.

In this week’s Tuesday’s in the Chapel, I talk about why I see this as such an important issue—both based on my personal experience as an MIT student and from a spiritual perspective.

There’s no transcript this time because this was talk was completely unscripted—which is very unlike me. In addition to the audio, the text selections1usually in these selections I like to include some connection to non-religious stuff for the sake of inclusivity, but since I did this one with virtually no prep, I defaulted to Bible verses that were top of the mind. I used are below.

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Notes:   [ + ]

1. ↑ usually in these selections I like to include some connection to non-religious stuff for the sake of inclusivity, but since I did this one with virtually no prep, I defaulted to Bible verses that were top of the mind.

What’s at the Center? – Centered Sets Part 2

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theGoodLifeIn my previous post about centered sets, I proposed the idea that there is some “Good Life” that serves as the center of the human set. To reiterate, even if all of us would have very different ideas about what that good life is, the idea is still that there’s one center. Now, I have no idea if this is true and I’ll make no attempt to prove it. But I wanted to talk a little bit about how I personally think about this idea of a “center”. Continue reading →

Just think of me as the Marlboro Man of faith

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I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in an event hosted by MIT’s Addir Fellows Interfaith program. I’m a big big fan of Addir and think MIT is super-fortunate to have this offering.

addir-bridgeThis particular event (and the audio is embedded below) was a panel of four different types of Christian clergy each speaking to how their tradition responds and is responding to social change movements. I was joined by three of my colleagues from MIT’s Board of Chaplains. Specifically: Catholic, Lutheran and Mormon. And, me you ask, what tradition was I representing? Check out the event poster. Continue reading →

My Complicated Love Affair with MIT… and That Special Somethin’ That Was Missing

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It was my dream to come to MIT since I was in 5th grade. When I visited MIT for the first time as junior in high school, I just fell even deeper in love. And I very much still remember the day when I got my acceptance letter (though it wasn’t nearly as cool as the ones used today). So when I showed up to start classes here, I was a little surprised to find that not everyone loved MIT as much as me.

Tech is Hell

In fact, it seemed the longer somebody had been here the more they strongly disliked MIT. The place was nicknamed “Hell” and the acronym we used to express how much we hated it got five letters when most only got three. Upperclassmen told me that “MIT teaches you to hate the things you love” and it was taken for granted that the primary emotion of seniors (if not juniors) was bitterness. What on earth was going on? This was supposed to be the greatest place on earth for us nerds! Continue reading →

Allow Myself to Introduce… Myself…

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I was a perhaps a bit hasty in introducing myself in my first post. There’s probably more that my multitudes of readers want to know about me.

I should probably say a bit about my chaplaincy. I am the Blue Ocean Faith Chaplain here at MIT. Blue Ocean is a small and very new collection of churches with, what I find to be, a refreshingly simple (yet deeply thoughtful) approach to faith in God.

My big hope for my chaplaincy is that I can help everyone at MIT to thrive spiritually—with no pressure to change their religious affiliation or lack thereof. And I’ve promised to hazard some embryonic ideas about how this might happen in upcoming posts. Continue reading →