At Jogye Temple, normally an island of Buddhist serenity, plainclothes officers have staked out the exits, waiting to grab any fugitives who venture out. Camped out on the temple grounds are the leaders of fierce anti-government protests who have been charged with instigating violence. They have come to the temple seeking political sanctuary, not spiritual uplift. One top government official has branded them “Satans.”
As a gong echoes through the neighborhood of office towers in central Seoul, afternoon worshipers arriving at the temple – home to the largest Buddhist order in South Korea – walk below a canopy of 6,200 lotus-shaped lanterns. The lanterns are arranged by color to spell the English word “OUT” – a highly unusual rebuke to President Lee Myung Bak from the country’s once-docile and normally apolitical Buddhists.
“Religious peace in our country is being threatened by those who dream of turning it into a medieval Christian kingdom through a church elder-president,” said Park Jeong Kyu, a spokesman for the Jogye Order.
This is terrible. Is every emerging Christian nation doomed to be Constantinian? Haven’t we learned anything? Lord, have mercy.
Helen, it doesn’t appear to be quite that simple if you read the full article. It doesn’t tell me clearly whether the protesters holed up in the Buddhist temple were responsible for violence. It sounds a bit more like the distress of the old culture which is being swamped by the newer ways. Buddhists are upset because Christians proselytize and because they are beginning to refuse to participate in ancestor worship.
I don’t think ancestor worship is a necessary part of Buddhism. ITTR its part of Korean culture and the larger Asian culture, too.