2008-07-25

Saint Randy of Pittsburgh

Randy Pausch died today. Like millions who have seen his last lecture, I felt inspired hearing his lecture and felt sadden by his passing.

This title refers to a nickname given to Randy Pausch in some of the blogs after the video of his lecture started to propagate on the internet. Many like me are encouraged by his message, his courageous action in face of death and his encouraging words; we thought of him as a true saint. However, many use this name to mock him. In fact, I heard of an entire radio talk show program devoted to this. The talk show host started with a five-minute segment of Randy's appearance on Oprah Winfrey Show, and then post the question “whether Randy's was Christian?” to the audience. The host's tone was pretty clear that he disapproved what was said by Randy: too much worldly ambitions, too much talking about doing than believing, too theatric, and so on.


Guess the host did not read Randy's book, because the book clearly states that he is a Christian. It is quite unfortunate the talk show host spoke before he had all the information. The last lecture was his “swan song,” his attempt to summarize his life and leave a legacy. The talk show host did not like the nickname because the name “Saint” is reserved for Christians only. Had Randy invoked the name of God every few minutes like a preacher, he would be regarded Christian then. However, his lecture was uplifting, funny, and touching, complaining about the lack of references to God is quite petty and completely missed the mark.


Randy's message was definitely “Christian” as far as I am concerned. He used his own life as an example and encouraged his listeners to follow their dreams. In his presentation, we see plenty of examples of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. Those are virtues I hope a Christian would approve. No one is righteous outside of the Lord. However, it is hard to miss the fruits of the spirit on display there. These should be enough to demonstrate that he is in the Lord.


This world lacks a hero that people can identify with. Randy is a shiny example in recent history. He faced a terminal illness in the prime of his life with joy, strength, and self-control. Instead of dying quietly, he used his life experiences to inspire millions of people around the word. I believe that this qualifies as the action described in the book of James. James would agree that Randy is a Christian with works.


I am a little disappointed by all the people claiming to be Christians but failed to recognize the fruits of the spirit. Let me close here by offering a couple explanations as how this happens. The Christian community has been under the care of shepherds who put too much emphasis on words, not nearly enough stress on actions. This creates a generation of Christians without actions and can not even recognize actions when they see them. I am pretty sure that this criticism of “St. Randy” is also a reflection of certain political affiliations as well. An inspirational message typically has an element of helping others, this is generally marked as “Democratic” in the US. This is very unfortunate because “love thy neighbor” is a calling for all Christians. However, in the US, inspirational messages are typically from Democrats, such as John F. Kennedy and Barak Obama, and Democrats are generally assumed to be atheists. Furthermore, professors are typically regarded as a Democratic, atheist or extreme liberal. This makes Randy a natural target for Christian talk show host – a message from a professor about helping others and inspiring dreams must be from the devil himself. Too bad for his listeners, the truth that Randy is a Christian with works would have been much better for everyone.


James 2:26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.



Related information



  1. Last Lecture on youtube

  2. Last Lecture on google video

  3. 'Last Lecture' Computer-science Professor Randy Pausch Dies

  4. In Memoriam: Randy Pausch, Innovative Computer Scientist at Carnegie Mellon, Launched Education Initiatives, Gained Worldwide Acclaim for Last Lecture

  5. Dreamer Randy Pausch Dies

  6. Last Lecture – the book and more

  7. Some links to blogs and reports about Randy: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]