[TML] China Regulates Buddhist Reincarnation - Newsweek

[Bruce Johnson]

On Aug 25, 2007, at 3:34 AM, Jerry W Barrington wrote:

>
> Wait...  Doesn't belief in reincarnation directly contradiction  
> claiming to
> be Christian?!?

Yeah...it's not like those identifying themselves as "Fundamentalist  
Christian" in the US have a great track record of following Christian  
teaching, at least the ones with the greatest political/media exposure.

They always seem to favor the Chinese menu method of following the  
Bible "Two from column Leviticus, one from Column Romans" <shrug>

That said, Christianity, as a social agent through history, has had  
great success in co-opting all sorts of 'pagan' belief systems and  
'christianizing' them. Nearly every christian holiday has direct  
antecedents in other religions: Easter, Christmas, even Hallowe'en  
(which follows All Saints Day, and has gathered a number of previous  
religions' "Honor the Dead" day into a single holiday.)

This is especially noticeable in areas more recently converted; Latin  
and South America is full of barely disguised Mayan, Aztec and Incan  
festivals with a saint's name tacked on to make them properly  
'Christian'.

So reincarnation isn't entirely out of the picture.

-- 
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs