Unfair? This is a web forum. A martial arts web forum.
LFJ, point taken on lumping Yanfan in 'with all the people making large claims of monkhood' and recant that. Those others can warrant their own threads someday perhaps.
However, I don't think it controversial for controversy's sake. Shaolin has a lot of controversy. It always has. To not engage that is to be mindless and that flies in the face of Shaolin's fundamental philosophy of mindfulness.
I've met Yanfan. We met at Songshan Shaolin Day last year. We broke his story in The First American Branded at Shaolin Temple By Melissa Leon-Guerrero Do in our November/December Shaolin Special 2007 issue. I think being the first Westerner to get jieba at Shaolin is pretty **** cool. I wish it had been me. Nevertheless, Yanfan's controversy will continue, as it will for every one who steps up to claim that 'first Western Shaolin monk' title. This is exactly as it should be. That's a title that really needs to be earned.