[Buddha-l] Re: Can an Air Force cadet have Buddha nature?

[Richard P. Hayes]

Because I really would like to discuss this issue, I have revised the
following paragraph:

> I still think the best thing to do is to work in concert with
> liberal Christians, Muslims, Jains, Hindus, Sikhs and secular
> humanists, but I think all of us who do this kind of work should wear
> our religions on our sleeves so that people can see that not all
> Buddhists are meditators, not all Christians are right wing, not all
> Muslims are freedom fighters, not all Jains are ascetics and so forth.

An excellent way to begin this co-operative work is to take a look at
some of the liberal Christian websites, such as
http://faithfulamerica.org or the website of American Friends Service
Committee at http://www.afsc.org and get involved in their projects.

Incidentally, when I was talking about this with my wife, she made the
good observation that Buddhists are ALREADY identified in the minds of
the religious right as peaceniks and leftists, so wearing a Buddhist
identity on one's sleeve while doing peace work might actually reinforce
that stereotype. This is an excellent example of a stereotype that is
probably positive to some (e.g. to peaceniks and leftists) and negative
to others (e.g. certain members of the religious right who see peace as
a potential danger to the imminent coming of the rapture).

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico