Buddhapalian

If you're not Episcopalian, you might not be aware that our Diocese of Northern Michigan has nominated one single candidate for the position of its new bishop--though how you can have an election with only one candidate is beyond me. Haven't they tried to do that in places like the USSR, communist China, Iraq under Saddam, and Cuba? It worked out so great for them...

The candidate is The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester, and the big scandal about his nomination is that in addition to being an Episcopal priest, Forrester is also an ordained Buddhist monk. That may seem strange, but this is the Episcopal church, and "dual-faith" clergy are (sadly) not all that uncommon. I know of at least a few others--a Christian/Muslim and a couple of Christian/Druids.

Now, I don't have anything against Buddhism or Buddhists. In fact, there's a lot that's really cool about Buddhism. I mean, the 8-Fold Path? That rocks. If everyone followed the 8-Fold Path, the world would be a lot better place.

But Buddhism and Christianity are not ultimately compatible.

Christianity advocates the primacy of sacrificial love, including its redemptive and healing powers. Buddhism teaches that love and attachment are the cause of all suffering and we need to be extricating ourselves from all those feelings and relationships (though I don't deny that love can cause a lot of suffering).

Christianity teaches that the afterlife is a place where our attachments are perfected; we will be with each other and with God in such a state that our sinfulness no longer mars our relationships. Heaven is perfected love of God and each other. Buddhism teaches that the afterlife usually results in rebirth, where we have to try yet again to get this right, but if we attain enlightenment, we go to Nirvana, where all our attachments are severed and we are absorbed into Nothingness.

Christianity teaches that each individual is made in the image of God and can reflect that image to the world. Buddhism teaches that your idea that you exist is an illusion, so stop being so attached to your selfhood.

And, most importantly, Christianity teaches that the love of a personal God was made into a human being in the person of Jesus Christ, and that we can still know, love, and serve Jesus in prayer and in our neighbors. He will even help us to do all that through his gifts of grace. Buddhism does not believe that a god/God exists--it is an atheistic religion (yes, you can have an atheistic religion), so there is nobody out there who listens, cares or acts. You are repsonsible for your own enlightenment, and you have to keep trying, perhaps through hundreds of lives, until you get it right.

Buddhism has a lot to recommend it, including a powerful prayer tradition, a strong ethical system, and a certain peacefulness at its center. I hope everyone takes the time to learn more about it. But it's not compatible with Christianity, and I fail to see how a Christian priest can possibly try to commit to both. At the very least, he shouldn't be made a bishop, who is supposed to be the leader and chief shepherd of the Christian community.