Posted on 04/05/2007 5:05:09 AM PDT by Daffynition
If you're a Tibetan Buddhist or you're leaning that way, you may not know it, but you need Jesus.
That's the thinking behind a series of Christian evangelical workshops -- including one later this month in Wheaton -- that will coincide with the Dalai Lama's trip to Chicago and other American cities this spring.
Interserve USA is putting on the workshops to teach Christians how to talk to Buddhists and, perhaps, to win converts.
"We welcome the Dalai Lama here, but we also want to have a chance to reach Tibetan Buddhists with the gospel," said Doug Van Bronkhorst, executive director of Interserve, an international missionary group based just outside of Philadelphia.
The online announcement for the upcoming workshop offers this enticing hook: "Tibetan Buddhism. It's ancient. It's complex. It's trendy. And its leader, the Dalai Lama, is visiting your city this spring."
But Van Bronkhorst said in a telephone interview Tuesday, "We are interested in people, not notches on a belt."
That's not quite how it sounds to the head of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, which includes bishops and leaders from most of the largest Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups in the area.
"I'm speaking without knowing anything about this group," said the Rev. Stan Davis, acting director of the council. "But my sense is that their goal is to try to convert to Christianity. Our goal would be to enter into a dialogue with them, to find out about their faith in a two-way conversation."
'He's a very thoughtful man' So does Van Bronkhorst think Christians can learn something from the Dalai Lama and his teachings?
"Oh, sure," Van Bronkhorst said. "He's a very thoughtful man. He has a lot of good things to say about peace in the world, and he's quite knowledgeable about other faiths, including the Christian faith."
Van Bronkhorst says his organization has no plans to send Christian evangelicals to greet the Dalai Lama during his American tour. "Of course that's up to [individuals] if they want to do that," Van Bronkhorst said.
The Rev. Patti Nakai, a part-time minister at Buddhist Temple of Chicago in Uptown, says Buddhists in general may not disagree with the Bible, just the evangelical spin.
"Most Buddhists would not have a problem with what is written in the gospel," said Nakai, who does not follow the particular practices of the Dalai Lama's sect. "It's what evangelical Christians say -- the idea that you have to be saved in a certain way or you're doomed to eternal damnation, that's what we have a problem with."
The Dalai Lama is due to travel to Chicago in early May, making his first public appearance in the city since 1999.
The spiritual leader is expected to stay on the 24th floor of the Palmer House Hilton in the presidential suite, where amenities include three bathrooms.
There are christians in China. Unfortunately, they cannot practice their faith openly. They are arrested and/or killed by the Chinese government. Christian missionaries and converts are practicing in many parts of the world and most times they have to meet secretly because of hatred toward Christ and his followers.
Our Western culture is steeped in the ego/mind and that "way" is out of control. The ego trys to stay in control and only produces resentmment, fear, anger and whole host of other negative by-products.
True freedom comes from the dimensions of peace found in your own inner space. To just BE.
I think you have to be a llama to be a lama. So there.
"Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul? I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks. I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home."
Rumi
HAHAHA! I was going to mention that that should be a t-shirt ... and it already is! LOL
And other religions believe that THEIR way is the only way to eternal peace, afterlife, reincarnation, paradise, whatever. To them, THEIR way is the only way. Once those who feel the need to convert others to a certain belief learn to let others have their own beliefs, and quit trying to force them to change their beilefs, the world will be a lot better off. Maybe we won’t hear about missionaries being kileed, kidnapped, etc. Going to another country to provide medical or educational help is great, wrapping it with conversion of one’s faith is wrong. Just my opinion.
Sweet!
I have GOT to have that shirt. Caddyshack is one of my favorites!
“Actually, my son goes and my step-daughter went to a private school. I don’t ask the federal government to fund anything in the public schools.”
Problem is, since we are property owners, paying property taxes, we still contribute to the public schools.
Definitely a problem. But completely irrelevant to whether I believe Jesus is God or no.
"There you have it.
Heaven for climate, Hell for society."
Uh, well Rev Stan, Jesus DID say to preach the gospel to all nations and make disciples of all men.
Rev, if you aren't involved in doing that, you are being disobedient.
Jesus would NOT agree that the gospel shouldn't be preached to Buddhists. Jesus also would not agree that Buddhism is a faith acceptable to God.
I used to own a pizza place! It’s funny how many folks order theirs “with everything” but without realizing that would include anchovies, which no one (but me, apparently) wants to be “one with.”
Seems to me that the public system which denies God, is really your system.
It is possible to be Buddhist and Christian at the same time. They do not conflict; they hardly overlap.
Buddhists will happily talk with the Evangelicals and be entertained and maybe even a bit bemused by the Evangelicals’ deep desires.
Maybe, if heaven smiles, some of the Evangelicals may even start out on the path to enlightenment after.
No harm, no foul.
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