Hume Was Right on Buddhism

January 10th, 2010

Buddha on a HillThe mainstream media and Buddhist bloggers were aghast at Fox commentator Brit Hume’s suggestion that Tiger Woods convert to Christianity from Buddhism. One blogger declared that Hume himself needed to be forgiven for making such a remark and, sensing her own rising anger, quickly quoted a Buddhist proverb on peace. Another blogger called Hume a disgrace and urged him to resign. So what was it that Hume said was so awful? That Buddhists are going to hell? That their religion excuses sexual sinners? Here it is:

He is said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.’

It’s really a fair theological point. All Hume is doing is making a claim that the Christian concept of redemption is unique. Is he really so wrong? Check out this Wikipedia overview of Buddhism. See anything about redemption in there?

But in their initial posts neither Buddhist blogger one defends the faith, instead their first instinct was to be offended. So what’s so bad about saying your religion is different than others? Aren’t we all supposed to celebrate our differences? Well, apparently not when those differences count for something.

Eventually these two bloggers couldn’t avoid engaging in some theological dialogue. And guess what? Turns out Hume was right! One of the above bloggers writes that Buddhism does have “this kind of forgiveness and redemption” but it “just manifests itself in a completely different way.” If it manifests itself in a completely different way is it still the same kind? Well the second blogger doesn’t seem to think so, admitting that: “Buddhism has no concept of sin; therefore, redemption and forgiveness in the Christian sense are meaningless in Buddhism.” So Hume was right, but he was still wrong to say so. There’s the logic of multiculturalism for you.

Posted in Ecumenism, Multiculturalism, Postmodernism | No Comments »

Why Tiger Woods Is Important

January 8th, 2010

Tiger Woods 1Before Barack Obama there was Tiger Woods. His father has compared him to Gandhi, the Buddha, and Nelson Mandela. His mother calls him the Chosen One. A fellow golfer says he’s supernatural. And now, he has suffered the greatest and fastest fall of grace ever experienced by a non-politician, from 87 percent to 33 percent, according to Vanity Fair.

So why does everyone care so much about Tiger Woods? It’s not his distinction of being the first athlete to hold all four major golf championship titles. Or that he is the only billionaire athlete in the world. Or his laser-beam-like focus on golf, absence of unscripted emotion, and airbrushed public image as a devoted family man—he was, as one writer puts it, the bionic man.

All those things count for something, but ultimately it was his race that made him so iconic. Woods remains the only black player in the PGA, according to this Web site. But it turns out that Woods is not black, or even half-black and half-Asian. In fact, Woods is part Chinese, Thai, African, Native American, and Dutch and calls himself Cablinasian—an amalgamation of Caucasian, Black, Indian, and Asian. One Slate.com writer gushes that “Woods’ rejection of orthodox racial classifications points the way to a future where race will no longer define us.” Yet another Slate.com writer foresees him as a figure of “potentially political, even spiritual, significance.”

This sort of cult-like adoration has spilled out into the mainstream—check out this Nike ad in which children of all colors flash across the screen stating “I am Tiger Woods.” The video ends with Woods swinging into the mists as some sort of Celtic chant plays in the background.

Wood’s credentials as the ultimate multicultural hero are further confirmed by his Buddhist roots. Of course, like a good postmodernism, Woods is a cafeteria Buddhist, according to this Slate quotation:

“I believe in Buddhism,” Woods has said. “Not every aspect, but most of it. So I take bits and pieces. I don’t believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment, because humans have flaws.”

Of course being unfaithful or addicted to having affairs alone are not vices in the postmodern code of ethics. Rather, it’s the simple fact that his once spotless image has now been tarnished. As far as seeking forgiveness and absolution, Woods is certainly off to a promising start with a penitential pilgrimage to Africa.

Posted in Liberalism, Multiculturalism, Postmodernism, Race, Tiger Woods | No Comments »

Twilight: New Moon Is All Hype and No Bite

January 8th, 2010

Twilight 6Only one thing could make The Twilight Saga: New Moon sound interesting to a twentysomething guy like me: vampires. And so, hoping for some larger-than-life, man-versus-monster clashes à la Van Helsing and Underworld, I ventured out to the theaters last weekend.

But New Moon failed to live up to even these low expectations. There was only one bona fide fight scene between vampires and werewolves and it is only mentioned in conversation—never actually shown to viewers. The only vampire-on-vampire violence comes in the end and the only damage is some broken marble steps. The closest vampires come to sucking human blood is when the lead character gets a paper cut—with dramatic slow motion shots of the drop of blood crashing to the white carpeted floor. They aren’t even real vampires—having some time ago turned from human to animal blood.

Instead the movie dwelled endlessly on pressing pre-teen dilemmas, such as, Will the hot werewolf kiss me or kiss me not? Apparently this is enough to hold a tween audience rapt for the duration of the movie. Like the pre-romantic experiences of its teen viewers, New Moon jerks awkwardly from the first tender explorations of desire to blind, unbridled love to premature maturity. So we never get that kiss, but a few minutes later there is a marriage proposal from a centenarian vampire to his runway teen girlfriend—does anyone else find the age gap creepy?

The main plot starts—after about 20 minutes of cinematic throat-clearing—when the Robert Pattinson character, Edward Cullen, suddenly skips town. Bella goes into deep emotional hibernation, sitting in a curled up fetal position for months. She finally snaps out of her damsel-in-despair routine by chasing adrenaline highs—like hopping on some stranger’s motorcycle or racing another motorcycle into a rock. Each time, the ashen visage of Edward materializes out of thin air to warn Bella against her recklessness. At first, Bella finds this haunting troubling, then she welcomes it—so much so that she plunges off a cliff just to get another fleeting glance.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Kennedy: Catholic in Name Only?

December 3rd, 2009

While it is always a sad thing for someone to be excluded from communion, there is a certain sense of relief, almost satisfaction that comes with the news that Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Congressman Patrick Kennedy from receiving the Eucharist. For years, Catholics have cringed when Democratic politicians who claim to share their faith stand up in the public square and brazenly declare their support for abortion rights. As the above article notes, instances where bishops step in to correct these so-called Catholic politicians have been rare.

But more than being a mere exercise in public discipline, the feud between Kennedy and Tobin has turned into an opportunity to raise important questions, such as What does it really mean to be Catholic? Is faith merely a private matter? Can one disagree with the church hierarchy on central teachings and still claim to be fully Catholic? The bishop provides an insightful, well thought-out treatment of these issues in his open letter to Kennedy this month. Some good analysis of the letter is available here. For background on how the spat started, click here.

Posted in Abortion, Catholic Church | No Comments »

Defending the Swiss Ban on Minarets

December 2nd, 2009

Steeple MinaretMuch of Europe and America seems aghast at the Swiss vote to ban the construction of new minarets. At first, it might seem the ban was fueled by religious bigotry, as evidenced by alarmist campaign posters showing a Muslim woman in a burqua next to minarets depicted as missiles.

But there is much more more to this story than the establishment media would have you believe. While the minarets-as-missiles poster may seem like hyperbole, it reflects the actual attitudes of Muslims like the current Turkish prime minister, who has described minarets as bayonets.

In fact, minarets are not necessary for Muslims to practice their faith. Some of the most orthodox Muslim communities have even eschewed minarets as “ostentatious and unnecessary,” according to the Brill Encyclopedia of Islam, cited here. The minaret first appeared after the mid-eighth century, when the Umayyad Muslims wanted to build something to compete with the conical towers of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Since then, in the context of mixed religious communities, minarets have become a symbol of Muslim power and domination, according to this Jerusalem Post article:

The Western Wall of Jerusalem has a mosque perched atop its northern end. The Mount of Olives Jewish graveyard has a mosque which adjoins it. Jeremiah’s Grotto in east Jerusalem, which was for a long time a pilgrimage site, now obscured by the east Jerusalem central bus station, also has a mosque at its entrance.The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem has a large mosque just across from it on Manger Square, constructed in a town which at the time was 80 percent Christian. A controversy over Muslim attempts to build a mosque next to the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth led to riots in 2002. In each of these cases the mosques were built after the non-Muslim building was constructed.

All over Europe, there is a widespread efforts to preserve Western culture in the face of a growing Muslim presence. Recent examples include proposed headscarf bans in France and Germany, the formation of an anti-Islam party in Germany, and the battle to build a mosque in Cologne.


Posted in Death of the West, Islam | No Comments »

Orthodox, Catholics United Against Crucifix Ban

December 1st, 2009

Gold CrucifixAccording to Christianity Today, the Greek Orthodox Church has come out in opposition to a ban on crucifixes in Italian public schools by the European Court of Human Rights. Now why, you might ask, does the Greek Orthodox Church care about church-state issues in Italy? For starters the Greek Orthodox Church sees where this is going: eventually, the tyranny of tolerance will spread to Greece. In fact, as the article notes, a human rights group known as Helsinki Monitor is pressing for the removal of icons from Greek courts, an end to swearing Christian oaths, and a prohibition on Christian symbols in Greek schools. But, more fundamentally, the Greek Orthodox recognize that they and the Catholic Church are allies in a fight against a rising tide of secularism in Europe. As I have noted before, similar concerns are bringing the Russian Orthodox and Catholics together.

Posted in Catholic Church, Death of the West, Eastern Orthodox Church | No Comments »

Obama Not So Hip When It Comes to Health Care

November 11th, 2009

When it comes to health care reform, President Obama is more old hat than hip, according to this Wall Street Journal columnist:

In a world defined by nearly 100,000 iPhone apps, a world of seemingly limitless, self-defined choice, the Democrats are pushing the biggest, fattest, one-size-fits all legislation since 1965. And they brag this will complete the dream Franklin D. Roosevelt had in 1939.

The culture still believes the U.S. has a hipster for president. But the Obama health-care bill, and maybe this whole administration, is starting to look totally out of sync with the new zeitgeist, the spirit of the age.

Everything about the health-care exercise is looking very old hat, starting with the old guys working on it. Max Baucus, Patrick Leahy, Pete Stark—all were elected to Congress in the 1970s, and live on as the immortals in Washington’s Forever Land. But it’s more than the fact that Congress looks old. The health-care bill is big, complex, incomprehensible and coercive—all the things people hate nowadays.

Fareed Zakaria—hardly a bullhorn for the right—sounds a similar theme in a recent Washington Post column.

Posted in Health Care, Obama | No Comments »

It’s the Banks’ Turn to Bailout out the Feds

November 10th, 2009

After the federal government spent nearly $600 billion bailing out beleaguered banks, it is about time the banks repaid the favor. According to the New York Times, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation needs billions of dollars to replenish its depleted coffers. The bad news: the money will be used for more bailouts.

Posted in Bailouts | No Comments »

Only in Louisiana

November 10th, 2009

This is the sort of headline that makes one pause: ‘Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.’ The reason? The justice of the peace was concerned that the offspring of such a union would not be accepted by either ‘black society’ or ‘white society.’ Such explicitly retro segregationist sentiments are even in rare in the South—especially in a state that has elected a governor of Indian descent.

But that may not the most surprising part about this story. Rather, it is that the justice of the peace was not altogether wrong. The idea that someone may not be “black enough” pops up in some surprising places—even during the supposedly post-racial presidential campaign of Barack Obama in the mainstream TIME magazine of all places. One case in point was this New York Daily News op-ed by Stanley Crouch, provocatively titled ‘What Obama Isn’t: Black Like Me.’

Back in Louisiana, it looks like the PC police got this one right. After numerous calls for his resignation, the justice of the peace obliged.

Posted in Race, Social Order | No Comments »

Fall of the Wall: Not a Happy Anniversary for All

November 9th, 2009

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. While this is undoubtedly a day of celebration for many Americans, Germans, and other Westerners, not everyone benefited. Thousands of migrant workers from Mozambique and Vietnam, for example, were displaced, as this article reports. Of course, it does not seem to have crossed the mind of this reporter that the labor shortage in East Germany might—just might—be related in some way to the communist policies of the government.

Posted in Communism, Europe | 1 Comment »

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