[Buddha-l] Perhaps the Buddhists in Korea have finally had it?

[jkirk]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/14/asia/buddhist.php
 
Excerpt:
........This protest, the first of its kind here, signaled an
awakening of political activism among South Korea's Buddhist
clerics. It also raised the prospect of sectarian strife,
something the country has not seen in its modern history.

"What we see is unusual, because this country - although
frequently torn by wars, ideology-driven violence and factional
politics - has always maintained religious harmony," said Song
Jae Ryong, a professor of the sociology of religion at Kyung Hee
University.

In the spotlight of the dispute is Lee, who once outraged
Buddhists by vowing, when he was mayor of Seoul, to "consecrate"
the capital to the Christian God.

The South Korean Constitution bans designating any faith as a
state religion. Nearly half the country's 47 million people
disavow any religious affiliation. The religious - Buddhists
(10.7 million), Protestants (8.6 million), Roman Catholics (5.1
million) and Confucianists and other minorities - have long
coexisted peacefully, even within the same family.

Lee was not the first Christian that South Korea has elected
president. Two of his three predecessors were practicing
Christians.

But discord flared after Lee's inauguration in February.

Buddhists complain that of the 16 members of Lee's cabinet, 13
are Christians while only one is a Buddhist. (The other two have
no religious affiliation.)...........