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12/8/23 I've been coming to Stanford Memorial Church ⛪ for many years now, & tonight I attended the sing-along Christian worship ("festival of lessons & carols") which I thought would include the Catholics & be ecumenical, but it turned out to be mostly composed of the group led by the black leader from the Sunday 11am progressive service, which is fine (although I'm not progressive, but conservative). However I would have liked if it had included the Catholics.
Nonetheless, it started out nice & peaceful -very Christmas-y music . However, around halfway through the service I noticed a lady standing in back of me pacing & then she was kind of wandering around almost like a tourist looking at the walls maybe taking pictures I wasn't sure, & apparently not interested in being here for the service. This is usually frowned upon during a worship service. So I looked back and kind of gave her a hard stare to tell her that she was being bothersome. She apparently didn't care if she was being bothersome, but she did disappear for a while.
Then, near the end of the service she reappeared and stood closely behind me. I noticed a few others looking back at her as well as if wondering what she was doing. Stanford students aren't used to being watched by a security guard- you don't get into Stanford by being a bad boy or girl. And you don't need a babysitter. Anyways, I decided to leave a few seconds early because of her creepy presence (yes, some females can be creepy too sometimes) plus I had to get somewhere.
So I went out the side door & she followed me. At this point, I'm like what the heck is going on? This is turning into harassment. Apparently she didn't even know what was behind the door that I went out, so I don't know what she's doing- like she's pretending to be a security guard or what's going on?! she obviously doesn't know the way things we work around Stanford. Police & security here are usually very low key and cool, NOT suspicious of everybody.
I think she was kind of African-American, or dark skinned, but it wasn't obvious exactly her race or ethnicity. She watched me go out the door and looked outside as if she had never seen this side of the church before. So either she was an imposter, or they assigned her to be some kind of attendant even though it was her first time there, which isn't very wise- if she doesn't even know the layout of the church, & so everything seems suspicious to her.
There's also a restroom in this hallway . which would be another practical reason to go through this door & happens periodically during church services. Needless to say, if this happens again I will make a complaint about her & whoever assigned her to do this, if such is the case. If you just grab people and ask them to be an attendant or "play security" you need to have give them a little training first, & make sure they have practical skills as well as people skills, and aren't suspicious of everything that moves, or hopefully not just because I'm white at a black-led service. Can you imagine a white person doing this towards a black person?
Furthermore, my family are big donors to Stanford and they will not be happy to hear about this. None of us here need to be watched or observed or monitored. I am a very good person & a good citizen & apparently I've been coming here much longer than this lady who appeared to be here for the first time. And suddenly she's a security guard, or a wannabee? That's not the way it works around the Stanford I know. Never has, never will. And at a Christmas service of all things. Good grief. Shame on you 👎.
