Jogye Order says Korean government of favoring Christianity
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Originally posted by Bodhi hut:
Hi,
I was referring to the post "
I remember reading somewhere that one of the Korean presidents attended a Christian rally where the reverend in charge prayed to the Christian God to cause all Buddhist temples in Korea to collapse."
which i wrote"I believe christainity emphasis alot on LOVE...the love from the Lord...having to do such prayers...that aint Love"
I not pointing a question to anyone..just referring to that article posted...
did the korean buddhist temples "collapse"? and Christians dont pray for devastation, we pray for world peace. I know, every religion focuses on peace, but its easy to find little little "rumours" to defame a religion. But we must respect all religions.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Atheism has not had any significant changes or rise in numbers.
Buddhism and Christianity are the only grps that have significant changes and rise in numbers both in Singapore and internationally.
Nor any great losses, hence it is the most stable in numbers. -
Originally posted by ~b1RD_m4N~:
did the korean buddhist temples "collapse"? and Christians dont pray for devastation, we pray for world peace. I know, every religion focuses on peace, but its easy to find little little "rumours" to defame a religion. But we must respect all religions.
It is not "rumours". Check out the wikipedia link AEN provided.In 2006, Lee also sent a video prayer message to a Christian rally held in the southern city of Busan in which the worship leader prayed feverishly: "Lord, let the Buddhist temples in this country crumble down!" That footage - which someone poked fun at by cleverly comparing it to Ronald Reagan's famous speech, "Mr [Mikhail] Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - drew palpable and anticipated uproars from the Buddhists and even some from Christians.
source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/JB01Dg01.html
Additionally, I remembered a posting made here some months ago about how Korean Christians have destroyed and burnt down Buddhist temples and sutras. Would appreciate if someone can provide the link to that post.
Originally posted by ~b1RD_m4N~:another question, is buddhism outdated? since Christianity has moved along with the many 'changes' with time to suit the age we're in. The Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches really deal with the problems of our times and appeals to younger generations.
Buddhism represents universal truth and that can never be 'outdated', but I agree that Buddhism probably needs to learn to 'repackage' itself to appeal to the younger generations. The presence of the so called 'joss stick' type of Buddhists, as well as the misrepresentation of "joss-stick-Buddhists-turned-Christians" do not help in the image of Buddhism at all.
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Originally posted by ~b1RD_m4N~:
did the korean buddhist temples "collapse"? and Christians dont pray for devastation, we pray for world peace. I know, every religion focuses on peace, but its easy to find little little "rumours" to defame a religion. But we must respect all religions.
Unfortunately, some Christian zealots do pray for devastation of non-Christian properties.
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Originally posted by Beyond Religion:
Buddhism represents universal truth and that can never be 'outdated', but I agree that Buddhism probably needs to learn to 'repackage' itself to appeal to the younger generations. The presence of the so called 'joss stick' type of Buddhists, as well as the misrepresentation of "joss-stick-Buddhists-turned-Christians" do not help in the image of Buddhism at all.
Agree on
Buddhism represents universal truth and that can never be 'outdated', but I agree that Buddhism probably needs to learn to 'repackage' itself to appeal to the younger generations. The presence of the so called 'joss stick' type of Buddhists, as well as the misrepresentation of "joss-stick-Buddhists-turned-Christians" do not help in the image of Buddhism at all.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Unfortunately, some Christian zealots do pray for devastation of non-Christian properties.
well, its weird that in the current time, theres still zealots for faith in Islam. Dont hear alot of Christian suicide bombers.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Unfortunately, some Christian zealots do pray for devastation of non-Christian properties.
SUBJECT: Rebuttal to Chan Akya:
“Islam and the absence of Chinese terrorists” By Chan Akya.Asia Times refused to print this reponse to Akya even though regular diatribes on Islam are regularly printed in the online paper
The incomprehensible “gabalty-gook” written by Chan Akya in his article “Islam and the absence of Chinese terrorists” was totally devoid of any semblance to reality. His selective use of historical facts showed dishonesty and blatant Islamphobic bigotry.
FACT: Hinayana Buddhism lost its classical fight against Brahmanism in Hindu Kush, Taxila, Kushan, Kashmir, and other areas of the Subcontinent and was banished from India
FACT: To survive in China Hiniyana transformed itself into Mahayana (Hiniyana light with a more acceptable light skinned oriental Buddha, instead of a dark-skinned Indian Siddharta/Buddha).
Sitting on a sanctimonious horse acting “holier than though”, and passing judgment on another religion shows pure unadulterated racism. Living in a Buddhist glass house, Ankya should know better than to throw stones at Islam!.
Neither Hiniyana, nor Mahayana Buddhist is immune to violence or terrorism. Ankya says that “the history of Buddhism has much to do with this divergence.”. He may be partially right, Muslim terrorists originally trained by the CIA (Bin Laden who turned on the their maker) kill one or two, or dozens or hundreds. For every Bin Laden there is a Kim Jung II.
Buddhists also kill by the dozens, but there is a qualitative and quantitative difference in Buddhist atrocities. The Buddhist terrorists kill millions. Let me remind Akya of some historical anomalies in his ridiculous article.
1) The Sinhalese-Tamil (Buddhist-Hindu) civil war in Sri Lanka is of course taken toll of thousands of lives, and as of last week was on the cover story of all major news organizations. The Sri Lankan government and the Tamils are both accused of terror tactics and committing atrocities.
2) The Cambodian killing fields were red in blood, not because the Khemers were docile Buddhists.
3) The violent perpetuated in Buddhist Vietnam between rivals (US as well as Vietnamese) was more violent than any we have seen in recent times.
4) Where was Mahayana Buddhism during the Sun Yet Sun and Maoist civil war?
5) Where was Buddhist “ahimsa” (non-violence) during the Cultural Revolution?
6) Why was Buddhist-Taoist philosophy unable to “to fill the poor with greater optimism about their lot” during the Japanese invasion of Korea?
7) Why was Buddhist philosophy in hiding during the rape of Nanking by Buddhist (Japanese) soldiers?
8) Why was the “enlightenment” absent during the abduction of 300,000 Korean women by Buddhist (Japanese) soldiers in Korea?
9) Why doesn’t Mahayana Buddhist-Taoist philosophy stop the genocide of Ughurs?
10) The human rights records of Laos, and Burma are not written in gold in the history books of tolerance and enlightenment.
11) ) The Thai massacres of Muslims in Thailand should not be a reason to criticize all Buddhists!
All Buddhist countries have seen unprecedented violence in the past 70 years. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous! Ankya knows well, that neither Islam, nor Hinduism, nor Sikhism, nor Judaism, nor Buddhist nor Christianity has a monopoly on terror or violence or genocide.
It is not the religion, but politics, injustice, colonialism, and occupation that create violence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYdnkUbzgRU
Non-violent Buddhist monks rioting in the streets and looting banks
THE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE IS NOT TO DENIGRATE ANY RELIGION–THE PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE IS TO REFUTE THE CHAN AKYA TYPE OF PROPOGANDA AGAINST ISLAM AND OTHER RELIGIONS
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1) The Sinhalese-Tamil (Buddhist-Hindu) civil war in Sri Lanka is of course taken toll of thousands of lives, and as of last week was on the cover story of all major news organizations. The Sri Lankan government and the Tamils are both accused of terror tactics and committing atrocities.
A: The Tamils want to fight for their own independent land in Sri Lanka, something of course the Sinhalese definetly do not agree with.
2) The Cambodian killing fields were red in blood, not because the Khemers were docile Buddhists.
Unfortunately, communism had already made its mark on the government, and resulted in the killing. Buddhism itself and Buddhists were being persecuted, so how can you link Buddhism to the killing?
3) The violent perpetuated in Buddhist Vietnam between rivals (US as well as Vietnamese) was more violent than any we have seen in recent times.
North Vietnam was already communist, and South Vietnam had a staunch Catholic who also persecuted Buddhism, resulting in some famous incidents of self-immolation by Buddhist monks.
4) Where was Mahayana Buddhism during the Sun Yet Sun and Maoist civil war?
Like South Korea now, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife were staunch Christians, and there were several generals who also persecuted Buddhism. Maoists do not believe in any religion, period.
5) Where was Buddhist “ahimsa” (non-violence) during the Cultural Revolution?
All forms of religion were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution by the CCP, period. Temples were torn down or converted to factories, monks and nuns were sent to labour camps or even killed on the spot. How?
6) Why was Buddhist-Taoist philosophy unable to “to fill the poor with greater optimism about their lot” during the Japanese invasion of Korea?
7) Why was Buddhist philosophy in hiding during the rape of Nanking by Buddhist (Japanese) soldiers?
8) Why was the “enlightenment” absent during the abduction of 300,000 Korean women by Buddhist (Japanese) soldiers in Korea?
Unfortunately, the Japanese were led by a pro-war government, which regarded the Emperor as a god, this is called "state Shintoism". But as a Singaporean practicing a form of Japanese Pure Land, i agree, this is something that is shameful in Japanese Buddhist history. But, it's not the fault of the Buddhists or Buddhism per se.
9) Why doesn’t Mahayana Buddhist-Taoist philosophy stop the genocide of Ughurs?
CCP isn't Buddhist, it's communists.
10) The human rights records of Laos, and Burma are not written in gold in the history books of tolerance and enlightenment.
When the rulers forget the teachings of Buddhism, this is what happens. Remember, in Burma its now the monks who are leading the fight for democracy.
11) ) The Thai massacres of Muslims in Thailand should not be a reason to criticize all Buddhists!
Like Sri Lanka, the Thai muslims want independence for themselves, which of course the Thais do not agree with. And, from reports, it's mostly the Muslims killing their own people.
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Well, within a few months of becoming president, Lee is now being asked to step down for trying to reintroduce US beef, and his popularity has dipped drastically...
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Obviously Buddhists fought war, but you should know most Buddhists are merely Buddhist by name, how many know about the teachings? How many take the teachings to heart?
Also they cannot be called 'Buddhist terrorists', because they did not fight wars in the name of Buddhism (unlike say, Osama Bin Laden, al qaeda and the various terrorist groups we now commonly know).
There are also many Christian terrorist groups, though of course less deadly than some of the well known Islamic ones -- such as Al Qaeda. The Christian terrorist groups did kill people in the name of Christianity, they bomb abortion clinics and so on. Perhaps you didn't heard of, because you didn't read the news often or read history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorism
- 2 Historical cases of Christian terrorism
- 2.1 Inquisition
- 2.2 Crusades
- 2.3 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, 1572
- 2.4 Gunpowder Plot, 1605
- 2.5 Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, 1649-53
- 2.6 Southern United States, 1865-1910
- 2.7 Iron Guard and Lăncieri, 1927-1945
- 2.8 Rexists, 1940-1945
- 2.9 Paris theatre attack, 1988
- 2.10 Concerned Christians, 1999
- 2.11 Radical Christian Activists, 2007
Oh yes, you can find long articles on Christian terrorism and Islamic terrorism in Wikipedia, but theres no article on 'Buddhist terrorism'
Simply because there was almost no violence fought and justified in the name of Buddhism before, and no Buddhist scriptures provide any support for such violence. (a rare exception is the case of a few patriotic/nationalistic japanese buddhist priests in the past supporting the WW2 by Japan, which is really unfortunate but there was obviously no scriptural basis and support for any of such aggression -- only due to the loyalty to their emperor) There has however been many wars started by and justified in the name of Christianity and Islam in history.
Whether the Quran has been wrongly interpreted by the hands of the terrorists to justify and inspire their cause may be debatable, but Buddhist scriptures basically leave no room at all for such violence. So any acts of aggression by Buddhist doesn't have any scriptures for 'support', and are only purely motivated by greed and politics. Buddhism is out of the picture.
Also, you'll never see Buddhists praying for the destruction of Christian churches, because Buddhists do not judge, and have prejudices against Christianity. It is simply against the Buddhist spirit of understanding, loving-kindness, non-violence.
5) Where was Buddhist “ahimsa” (non-violence) during the Cultural Revolution?
The Cultural Revolution was the aggression of the Atheist red army of the CCP, silly! Buddhism is one of the victims of this aggression. It's quite silly they said this, obviously they didn't have any idea what the Cultural Revolution is and who is behind them. They should read up on history.
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Originally posted by sanath:
CCP isn't Buddhist, it's communists.
Not only is CCP not Buddhist, they're atheist, anti-religionist and persecuted Buddhism along with other religions and tradition during that period.
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BTW since the person who prayed for the devastation of Buddhist monasteries was actually a Christian preacher/pastor, I think he should know better... being the pastor/preacher, he is actually setting an example for all other Christians.
If he thinks that way, he has immense power to influence and spread his ideology of intolerance and hatred.
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Originally posted by ~b1RD_m4N~:
well, its weird that in the current time, theres still zealots for faith in Islam. Dont hear alot of Christian suicide bombers.
There were - the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who were fighting for the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom. It led to sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants. -
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
BTW since the person who prayed for the devastation of Buddhist monasteries was actually a Christian preacher/pastor, I think he should know better... being the pastor/preacher, he is actually setting an example for all other Christians.
If he thinks that way, he has immense power to influence and spread his ideology of intolerance and hatred.
whats the name/names of the preacher? mind you, theres cults that "try" to be associated with Christianity.
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
BTW since the person who prayed for the devastation of Buddhist monasteries was actually a Christian preacher/pastor, I think he should know better... being the pastor/preacher, he is actually setting an example for all other Christians.
If he thinks that way, he has immense power to influence and spread his ideology of intolerance and hatred.
The problem is that alot of the preachers and pastors of fundamentalist Christianity preach like that. Don't be surprised, we may have such in Singapore as well. 上樑ä¸�æ£ä¸‹æ¨‘æª. -
Originally posted by ~b1RD_m4N~:
whats the name/names of the preacher? mind you, theres cults that "try" to be associated with Christianity.
The link that Beyond Religion did not put up the name of the preacher, but probably it could be one from the Somang Presbyterian Church that Lee attends, or from the Christian Council of Korea. -
Originally posted by ~b1RD_m4N~:
whats the name/names of the preacher? mind you, theres cults that "try" to be associated with Christianity.
Don't think they'll send a cult person to lead the worship of a major Christian rally in Seoul, where even the Korean president sent his prayers to.
Christianity
When Lee was mayor of Seoul, he declared the city "a holy place governed by God" and the citizens of Seoul "God's people." He went on the dedicate the city "to the Lord." In 2006, Lee also sent a video prayer message to a Christian rally where the worship leader called on God to "let the Buddhist temples in this country crumble down!" Lee reportedly received 80% of Korea's Christian votes.[39]
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Originally posted by sanath:
The problem is that alot of the preachers and pastors of fundamentalist Christianity preach like that. Don't be surprised, we may have such in Singapore as well. 上樑ä¸�æ£ä¸‹æ¨‘æª.Ya, heard a bit also...
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My own Master probably was a little intolerant himself of Buddhism prior to his knowing of Buddhism, he used to be a Christian pastor. As I wrote before,
My Master was once a Christian pastor of a Chinese missionary, and he used to denounced Buddhism through offensive remarks and degradation of Buddhism as superstitious and demonic (obviously at that time he has mistaken Buddhism as a kind of 'folk religion' and has little understanding of the Buddhist teachings). He was also an author of a Christian book, on the study of the bible.
His excuse when asked by his professor for insulting Buddhism is "the other pastors are all doing it, if I don't, they'll say I don't know how to preach." His university professor then asked him to go do research and will be fully supportive of him if he writes a critique out of it. After he did his research, he realised he has completely wronged Buddhism, and found what he has always sought for... and converted.
Even the intention of blasphemy can become a good condition... provided that he is open minded and actually reads and consider what is being taught. My master said, the reason he came to Buddhism is because he 骂佛教
There are also many other similar cases of
Christian pastors who wished to denounce Buddhism, went to research
on it and converted instead. Some of them became famous Buddhist
translators.On the other hand, I think there are few or none to my knowledge and encounters of true Buddhists who has a grasp of the teachings and is serious in studying the dharma and practice, who have converted elsewhere. At least I never met before. I have many Buddhist friends, and even my local dharma teacher (not my Master), who converted over from Christianity.
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Maybe because we DO have such in Singapore that's why the book "Peoples of the Buddhist World" (see thread on "Planning the Demise of Buddhism") can be published in Singapore.
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Originally posted by sanath:
Maybe because we DO have such in Singapore that's why the book "Peoples of the Buddhist World" (see thread on "Planning the Demise of Buddhism") can be published in Singapore.
Ya din know theres this kind of 'freedom of speech' in Singapore
Lucky Buddhism is generally a more 'peaceful' group...
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
On the other hand, I think there are few or none to my knowledge and encounters of true Buddhists who has a grasp of the teachings and is serious in studying the dharma and practice, who have converted elsewhere. At least I never met before. I have many Buddhist friends, and even my local dharma teacher (not my Master), who converted over from Christianity.
Well actually there are those who claim that they WERE serious practicing Buddhists. I ever encountered one who tried to prosyletize to me said he used to go to Buddhist Library and a few other Dharma Centres before going to Central Chritian Church where he got converted. How much Buddha-Dharma he knew, i have no idea. Also, decades ago there was a book called "僧尼æ¸ä¸»è¨˜" published in Taiwan by 龔天民, a pastor. Interestingly, a rumour circulated that 龔天民 is said to have converted to Buddhism a few years ago...
I myself am a convert from Christianity, although for me Christianity was my family religion, and i was baptised into it. -
Originally posted by sanath:
Well actually there are those who claim that they WERE serious practicing Buddhists. I ever encountered one who tried to prosyletize to me said he used to go to Buddhist Library and a few other Dharma Centres before going to Central Chritian Church where he got converted. How much Buddha-Dharma he knew, i have no idea. Also, decades ago there was a book called "僧尼æ¸ä¸»è¨˜" published in Taiwan by 龔天民, a pastor. Interestingly, a rumour circulated that 龔天民 is said to have converted to Buddhism a few years ago...
I myself am a convert from Christianity,
although for me Christianity was my family religion, and i was
baptised into it.Interesting...
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Actually, the situation in Korea now is like Taiwan several decades ago, especially when Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was president. Due to his wife, Song May-ling (宋美齡), several pro-christian law enactments were done, including the inclusion of Christmas (25 Dec) as a public holiday, although it was called 立法日 or 憲法日 or something like that instead of 耶(�)誕節.
However, whether a revival of Buddhism in Korea will happen, remains to be seen...
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Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Ya din know theres this kind of 'freedom of speech' in Singapore
Lucky Buddhism is generally a more 'peaceful' group...
That book is available at the Christian bookshop at B1 in Far East Square in Chinatown (forgot the name but it's run by St Andrew's Cathedral). There are also books on how to convert Muslims, and testimonies by converts from Islam to Christianity. Imagine if the Muslims found out...