[Buddha-l] Political incorrectness towards Buddhism?

[curt]

Western Buddhism has it's roots in the movements of the Romantic and 
Enlightenment periods that heaped scorn on Christianity. Two interesting 
books on the subject are "How the Swans Came to the Lake" by Rick 
Fields, and "The Theosophical Enlightenment" by Jocelyn Godwin. Field's 
book takes up right where Godwin's leaves off. Fields wasn't interested 
in trashing Christianity and he downplayed that whole aspect of what was 
going on - but there can be no doubt that Buddhism gained a foothold in 
the West only because a critical mass of people had "rejected" Christianity.

Godwin's book, on the other hand, is more specifically focused on the 
very process of rejecting Christianity and all of the various religious, 
and anti-religious, movements that resulted. Western Buddhism is one of 
those results - and Blavatsky, Olcott and Bennett come in at the end of 
his story (rather than the beginning as in Fields' book).

Godwin quotes Sangharakshita (who, whatever else you might say about the 
guy, really has a way with words) on the subject of "therapeutic blasphemy":

"In order to abandon Christianity completely, -- in order to liberate 
himself from its oppressive and stultifying influence, -- it may be 
necessary for the ex-Christian not only to repudiate Christianity 
intellectually in the privacy of his own mental consciousness but also 
to give public expression in words, writings, or signs to his 
*emotional* rejection of Christianity and the God of Christianity, i.e. 
it maybe necessary for him to commit blasphemy."

- Curt

Stefan Detrez wrote:
> Dear listmembers,
>  
> on the market there are plenty of books trashing the monotheist 
> religions. They seem to be thriving well in an atmosphere where plenty 
> of writers throw political correctness overboard. I think they can act 
> in cathartic ways for followers, just like christianity survived the 
> Enlightenment-years of painful freethought., producing a more 
> 'consitent' theology, I dare say.
>  
> My overall impression is that we do a lot of 'clean' talk on Buddhism, 
> avoiding harsh criticisms. Are we being politically correct, harboring 
> PI-thougths? Or have not yet been able to formulate a criticism with a 
> PI-touch? Or maybe there's nothing to criticize about Buddhism?
>  
> Any of you bumped into a website, or rather, books of politically 
> incorrect nature on Buddhism?
>  
> Thanks,
>  
> Stefan
>  
> PS: to give you an impression of a now popular PI-book is the PIGuide 
> to Islam (and the Cruisades), by neo-con Robert Spencer, who runs 
> http://jihadwatch.org/ and published by www.regnery.com 
> <http://www.regnery.com>. You can download a free chapter here:
>  
> http://www.politicallyincorrectguide.com/offers/offer.php?id=ISL001
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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