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Tuesday, 04 July 2006 13:36 |
 | | Marc Mullinax |
?®Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it??s the only one you have.?∆
?± Emile-Auguste Chartier
?ÿ
SEOUL, South Korea ?± And I thought the USA was a religiously diverse nation! Here in South Korea, I am rediscovering how religiously diverse an area it is. Moreover, most religions here include as part of their doctrine-practice a wide tolerance and compassion towards other faiths.
This
tradition of openness began perhaps back in the 4th Century, C.E. In
that century??s last quarter, Buddhism first came to a Korean peninsula
dominated by a semi-official Shamanism.
Shamanism is an ancient religion of animism and nature-spirit worship,
based on the belief that human beings, natural forces and inanimate
objects all possess spirits or divinities. Since Buddhism was not
regarded as in conflict with Shamanism??s nature-worship rites (or its
?®what you sow, you reap?∆ mentality), it was able to blend with this
native faith. Many mountain shrines believed to be the residences of
gods in pre-Buddhist times became the sites of Buddhist temples. One
can still see shrines to Shaman divinities at Buddhist temples.
Thus, the Chinese Buddhism-Korean Shamanism m?‡lange produced a unique
form: Korean Buddhism. Korea??s 1,700-year tradition of openness has
been the usual stance here, save for a massacre of Catholics in 1866,
which is too complicated to treat here.
Why this largely open history to other faiths? Across the street from a
Buddhist temple in Seoul is a Seventh Day Adventist church and down the
street, articles of Shamanism are openly sold next to a Catholic
church. No one seems to care.
Well, almost. The only people who don??t seem to ?®get?∆ this spiritual
co-existence are some Christians. I learned this on the subway,
repeatedly.
In Seoul, the unusual quiet of the subway cars is broken by only one
sort of person, Evangelical Christians. In respectful body language and
voice tones, they stand at one end of a subway car, raise their voices
loud enough for all 150 of their captive audience to hear, and
instant-message them with Christianity-lite in the time it takes to
travel between two subway stations.
This morning, an awesome exchange occurred. The missionary for her
faith began her subway spiel about the benefits of worshiping God (and
the one Christian God at that). She cited as counter-example Buddhist
faith, which one in six Koreans confess. Freely translated, she
preached, ?®Buddhists are atheists and therefore Buddhism cannot be
true. The Christian faith believes in an almighty and powerful God who
can change your life.?∆
To everyone??s shock, a young male commuter challenged her message: ?®You
are lying. You don??t know what you??re talking about. Be quiet.?∆
Nonplussed, the Christian lady responded: ?®I regret to tell you that you are going to hell when you die.?∆
The tension was
palpable in the subway car. I was blown away. Someone high-fived the
challenger. The lady left at the next station.
To know one thing is to know not-a-thing. To know only one religion
(our own), is to know none. To know one book is determined ignorance.
One language, one way of eating, one way of education, one story, one
race, one cuisine, one town, one idea, one anything ?± we know none and
reject all, enslaved as we are to the single experience or explanation.
If we know only blue, how do we paint? If we know only one note of music, how will we make music?
There is one
response: We exist only insofar as we are in relation, subjecting
ourselves to that which is other. Light and air make the best
disinfectants. The light looks different here, refracted as it is by
Korean traditions, and on its air wafts intelligence from all
directions.
?ÿ
Dr. Marc S.
Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion departments at Mars
Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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