[Buddha-l] Religious violence, Buddhist violence

[JKirkpatrick]

On Tue, 2010-01-19 at 15:55 -0700, Joanna Kirkpatrick wrote:

> When it comes to Aum Shinrikyo, I'd etically critique its
goals, 
> practices and values without feeling any necessity to allude to
its 
> self-description as Buddhism.

R.H.
I see no need to critique its goals. My approach is to describe
their goals as they state them and let people decide for
themselves what they think of them. I also do not see why one
would not report the claim of the group that it is Buddhist.

J.K.
"...without feeling any necessity to allude to its
self-description as Buddhism."
What I meant by this was not feeling any necessity to qualify
whether they are Buddhist or not Buddhist according to their, my,
or others' definitions. 

However, to "describe their goals" without describing their
practice(s) would be to present a very one-sided report. Once the
practices become part of the discussion, then the critique
inevitably follows, unless you choose to censor critical thought.
In fact, I fail to see how you can teach anything without
resorting to some sort of critique(s).