Alum speaks on student life at Yale:

Interview with Christopher White

Anticipating his visit to Yale, April 13-15, to present a series of talks on Jesus and Yale, The Yale Standard conducted this interview.

I’ve been involved in the Yale Standard Bible study for almost 30 years, and was part of Yale Christian Fellowship. I sang in Living Water while I was an undergraduate and also the year after my graduation. Since then, Living Water has stayed at our home on many occasions. I’ve also been a guest speaker at the invitation of the Yale Standard and Yale Students for Christ.

Interview with Christopher White: Alum speaks on student life at Yale

Anticipating his visit to Yale, April 13-15, to present a series of talks on Jesus and Yale, The Yale Standard conducted this interview.

When did you attend Yale?

From 1971 until December of 1973. I left the university because I couldn’t afford it. So I went into contracting, working on apartments and homes in the New York City area. Then in 1985 Yale gave me a full scholarship to come back and finish up my degree, so I finished up between January of 1985 and May of 1987.

How have you stayed involved with Yale since your graduation?

What was it like being a Christian at Yale when you were a student?

When I was a student the first time, we were coming out of the Bobby Seale trial and rioting. There weren’t many Christians in the university. It was a difficult place to be as a believer, but nevertheless, I still enjoyed being here and had very special Christian friends. I was involved in daily prayer meetings for the campus as well as Bible studies. I learned a great deal more about the preciousness of salvation. If you’re a Christian at a place like Yale, your life is automatically going to be different because you are not doing some of the things other people do. But I’ll never forget overhearing a conversation between two young men in the dining hall. One was saying how Christians wait until marriage to have physical relationships and he was very impressed. He said you have to give Christians credit because they have character and stand by what they believe. The other said they’re crazy and there’s no sense to it at all. But the first young man said, no, you have to at least respect them that they stand by what they believe and they’re willing to be different. You really don’t have a choice on [being different]. You’re not going to wild parties, you’re not getting drunk, you’re not sleeping around, because you have a very different aim in life.

What was a key lesson you learned at Yale?

I had decided I wanted to serve the Lord in high school, but I didn’t really know what that meant. I’ll never forget the time my freshman year when a sophomore friend took me aside and said, “Chris, you’re like a person living in two worlds, one foot in the kingdom of heaven and the other foot in the world. You’re in two boats and they’re going to separate, and you’re going to have to get into one or the other.” That was the toughest day of my life. I couldn’t sleep until late into the night. Would I decide to serve the Lord with all my heart and not try to be like others but be all out for Christ? It was that night that I decided whatever it cost, I wanted to be like Jesus, I wanted to serve him, and I wanted to be a Christian here at Yale. Then I fell asleep and woke up the next morning ready to leap with joy. I was so happy because I knew what I was at Yale to do and that was to serve the Lord.

I decided whatever it cost, I wanted to be like Jesus, I wanted to serve him, and I wanted to be a Christian here at Yale. Then I fell asleep and woke up the next morning ready to leap with joy. I was so happy because I knew what I was at Yale to do and that was to serve the Lord.

Chris in his Yale days in Branford Chapel.

Can you give us one memorable story of a time when you shared your faith in Jesus with someone at Yale?

My second time at Yale, I sat down to dinner with a bunch of my classmates. Out of the blue, one of them asked, what does it mean to be born again? I started answering him. Well, there were many conversations going on at the table, but before I realized it, every single person at the table was quiet and listening. It was striking because you can say, oh, at a place like Yale no one believes in God, but every one of those young men was seriously concerned with what was real, what was true, can we really know God? It was an extraordinary opportunity and a very rich discussion. There was no argument, no back and forth. They just wanted to know what my experience was. It was very special.

Your senior thesis, which the then Chancellor of Tel Aviv University called “brilliant,” was on the Christian involve-ment in the Jews’ return to Israel. Why did you choose this topic?

I’ve always been interested in Israel and in the history of Jewish people. Obviously it’s the whole background to the Bible. I’ve been to Israel a couple of times and wanted to study that very important period because in the 1820’s through the 1850’s there were believing Christians who were highly interested in the return of Jews to the promised land. These Christians, like the believing Jews, understood this was the time for the Jews to be returning to the land. It was an interesting conjunction of religious Jews and reli-gious Christians believing this was the hand of God, that Israel would again be a nation more than a hundred years before that ever happened.

In your view, where does God fit in at a place of learning?

In my math classes at the high school where I teach, so often it comes into the discussion, why are things so mathematical? Why are things so organized? Well, it’s because they didn’t happen by accident. God is very careful and very thorough.

You look at a molecule and you realize there is a Creator, and it becomes much more interesting than memorizing formulas. All of a sudden you realize there is a reason for all of these things. Real faith in God makes it all much more fascinating and richer.

What concern has the Lord given you for Yale?

Yale has a long history of revival, not just as a place having Christians, but a place where many who came to Yale not knowing the Lord became believers in Jesus Christ. That certainly has been my prayer, that we would once again see revival as at other times, and see many who don’t know the Lord come to a knowledge of His saving grace.

What is revival?

Revival goes beyond just the desire to see people saved. It occurs when there’s a move of the Spirit of God and all of a sudden people who are totally uninterested are coming, asking how they can be saved. There’s a very supernatural element to it in that there is the power of God there. The last major revival at Yale was in 1909. By the time it was over, there were more than 1,000 undergraduates out of 1,250 involved in Bible studies. And that’s not because that’s how the campus was four years earlier.

What would you say to a confused Yale student who wants to know God?

I can certainly say to students that God cares about them coming to know Him much more than they want to know Him. We are not just offering a religion. I didn’t come to believe in a religion; I met Jesus personally. It happened to be for me in a barn in New Hampshire. He is real. He rose from the dead. A person can start by reading the Scriptures, and praying, God, if you’re real, I want to know you and the truth. The wonderful thing is that God being God, He has infinitely creative ways in getting through to people. We’re not preaching something we made up ourselves, but we are preaching the God who changed our lives and who wants to change them too. If I can wish anything for many a Yalie who is confused about God, it’s that he or she would come into a personal relationship with Him. This isn’t just studying religion or theory; this is knowing the Lord.