Apologies for the titles to any Christian who is offended. Those of you who do not forgive me and I — we both burn in our respective hells of indignation. >:)
Even though I'm Buddhist, I like reading the Rick Ross website, where various Christian authors deconstruct possibly cultic forms of Christianity.
The reason for my interest in Korean Pentecostal Christianity is a quote from a Korean Pentecostal minister who knew Seung-hui Cho (V Tech school shooter) personally.
A second reason is I was handed religious material from a Korean Pentecostal church in my local area, and need background material on it.
My final reason is that a previous girlfriend was from the Canadian Pentecostal movement. In contrast, Buddhism is more of the "sit down and listen" kind of Methodism without the hubris of a God apart from man. More on this point about Buddhism later.
As a Buddhist, I am sometimes moved to check out Christianity from time to time.
My previous encounter with Baptists led to my comment about satan being alive and well among some Christians, especially when they scapegoat an innocent victim either through child abuse or worse, ritual abuse of members (cult worship).
Even though certain Christians may deny it, there is a healthy syncretism done when pre-Christian ideology and rituals are absorbed into Pentecostal practice without use of coercion.
While Jesus may have razed the temple due to money makers profiting from worshippers too busy to meet with the Jewish priests, his violence was contradicted by him rebuking Peter for cutting off a Roman guard's ear when the priests came to take him for his interrogation.
I make this point to show that Jesus tempered his violence against the ritual of proxy worship with his non-violent response to being led away as scapegoat to reduce State oppression by the Roman Empire due to the State's concern and fear of domestic terrorists (the Jewish rebels).
Thus, the very few words of Jesus before the Acts and his actions in the Acts in the Bible is the essence of Pentecostalism. This is why I am interested in it at this time.
Regarding Buddhism, mMost of the Christian fallacies about the Buddha boil down to confusion between what "the divine" means to a Christian and what "sentient" means to a Buddhist. The knowledgeable Buddhist knows what sentience means to him.
By transcending sentience, the Buddha actually transcended divinity itself. Christians get confused by this, because they confuse the Buddha with a god.
Within Buddhist cosmology, even a god is a sentient being i.e. has the potential to become Buddha, but is subject to a finite existent despite living for an almost infinite length of existence. I point this out now because it might come up in future social intercourse with the local Korean Pentecostal church.
Stay tuned for an update.
Reference:
Shamanistic Influence of Korean Pentecostal Church: http://www.rickross.com/reference/yoidoyonggi/yoido1.html
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