[Buddha-l] New Verso series: Counterblasts

[Richard Hayes]

On Jul 9, 2013, at 10:47 , curt steinmetz <curt at cola.iges.org> wrote:

> the announcement explicitly and proudly proclaims their inspiration to be .... Puritanism! You know, the people who really did wage "War on Christmas", and who banned public performances of Shakespeare's plays, etc?

The Puritans were not alone in declaring a war on Christmas. The Quakers also eschewed the celebration of Christmas and Easter, and the Unitarians joined them is eschewing Easter. So even those who were generally at odds with one another (there being no love lost between the Puritans and the Quakers) found common ground in their resistance to traditional Christian holidays and to frivolous activities such as dramatical performances. Buddhists tend to be on the same page with all those fun-eschewing sobersided Puritans, Quakers, Presbyterians and Unitarians. My goodness, what a dour lot!

Richard