32
votes
Conservative Christian group launches campaign against “Buddhist meditation” in public schools
Link information
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- Authors
- Sam Littlefair, Lion's Roar Staff
- Published
- Dec 14 2018
- Word count
- 593 words
"This is toxic ideology. This goes beyond just bad education. This could be corrupting our children’s eternal souls. I have two small children, and I don’t want them sitting around just thinking about creation and goodness and peace."
Why on earth not??
Christians are supposed to believe that there is no inherent good in this world, this life, or themselves because that would imply the existence of goodness independent of God. Instead, Christians are supposed to seek forgiveness for their very existence, attribute all goodness to God, but blame themselves for their own flaws. It's a toxic religion for toxic people, and I find it telling that Christians cling so tenaciously to the indoctrination of children, drug addicts, and other people who don't have working bullshit detectors and can't fight back.
That's two minutes that could be used for valuable hate.
We don't have enough subtle humor. Too much of the humor we have these days relies on smacking the audience across the face with a spelled-out punch line.
It impinges on their right to feed children toxic ideology, no? They could get confused and... not believe in eternal damnation, or even question god!
While I grew up catholic, I have been somewhat atypical in that regard - I didn't even believe in Hell, because a good, just god would never create something like that. This idea I had of Catholicism is far from universal, and I'm not really sure just where it came from in the first place - it was certainly not what the people around me believed.
You are supposed to fear god. You are not supposed to like the idea of heaven very much - it certainly did not appeal to me when I heard it being talked about during Mass - but you are supposed to be afraid of hell. While he might have been somewhat old school, the priest in our parish - when upset at me and my brother for... not going to his parish, but to a nearby one, to get our communion - did not proclaim the goodness of god, but told us that we would be damned. You need to feel guilty, you are guilty of something, and even not going to confession often enough is... ground for suspicion.
And, from what I know, the christians in America are even more ridiculous than catholic people, so this does not surprise me very much.
Hmm. I grew up Catholic as well, and that's not how I remember my Catholicism. I spent 12 years in private Catholic school. My understanding, the understanding I was taught and what I believe is current Catholic dogma, is that "hell" is not a literal place in a Dante's inferno sense. It's not a place where you are tortured for eternity, but simply a state of being where you are without God's presence. Which, if there is a God and you accept that His presence is the best damn thing possible, would probably make anything by comparison pretty depressing. But not demons torturing your soul depressing.
Overall, we were pretty light on the Catholic guilt, for being a Catholic school. It was pretty decent overall. We had gay teachers and students. We had Muslim and atheist students. We were taught evolution, and were never told not to meditate. Shit, I think it was encouraged in some retreats. My church wasn't too bad either.
I'd think it's maybe the fact that most of the priests we're on the younger, <40 side, and from a teaching order. Presumably less fire-and-brimstone then older priests, and like you said, Catholics in general are more liberal than most American Christians, Baptists or Evangelicals. Honestly, despite all the very obvious problems Catholicism has, it's not nearly as bad as the seemingly rampant toxic aspects of Christianity. But that gets really "no true Scotsman" real quick.
This sounds like something The Onion would write.
If only it was something they wrote...
I know this is old, but I haven't visited this site in a while. I posted this article to /r/nottheonion on Reddit, and it was removed for "not being oniony enough."
Did anyone else leave Reddit to get away from this Christian-hating atheist r/iamverysmart rhetoric? Obviously in this case, this Christian group is clearly in the wrong but as a reasonable Christian I'm sick and tired of feeling attacked on these types of sites... Tildes should be a place to post interesting and high-effort reads, not another opportunity to bash Christians.
I think you have a good point. Posting the article is fine I think but some comments are definitely "Christian bashing". If some of these same comments were used in other topics they would have been called out as low effort that didn't contribute to the conversation if not outright against the "be civil" policy.
One of the few openly Christian people I know is also a Buddhist and he practices meditation from both schools of thought. He tells me they're not incompatible.
My understanding of Buddhism is that it’s more of a philosophy than a religion. There’s the figure of Buddha, but I think it’s mostly a way of thinking about yourself and the world. Anybody saying they’re incompatible is probably just afraid of anything that isn’t Christianity because they’re not familiar with it.
I'm sure you already know this, but -
As with any religion, there are tons of different types of Buddhism - types that require indoctrination and devote worship to a deity (looking at you SGI) - and other types that are more philosophical. I guess the point is that sometimes they're incompatible, but probably not fundamentally.
They're not incompatible with general Christian philosophy. I'd even argue Christian prayer is just a form of heavily guided and specific meditation.
It's only incompatible with the toxic fear-mongering Christianity of the American right.
How about Poe's lawyers?
Perhaps a Poe Body?
They aren't going to take the time to learn about it, and they aren't going to shut up about it. The school should just take the "Buddhist" part of the title out. They'd be fine with it then.
Sounds like they just decided that mindfulness must be Buddhist and that's bad because it isn't Jesus camp.
Also:
is just hilarious.
Which is ironic, considering that Gautama is technically a Christian saint.
Most American Christians don't know that. Most American Christians don't know anything about their religion, and don't want to know.