Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site wu1.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!hogpc!houti!ariel!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!rocky2!cubsvax!wu1!rf
From: rf@wu1.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: The Pope & The Buddhists (courage & Christian charity)
Message-ID: <294@wu1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-May-84 11:46:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: wu1.294
Posted: Tue May 15 11:46:28 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 17-May-84 03:16:04 EDT
References: <500@ihuxj.UUCP>
Organization: Western Union Telegraph, Mahwah, NJ
Lines: 57

I was delighted to read Don Schanche's newspaper article on the Pope
and the Buddhists.  Since I don't read any newspaper regularly, I
probably would not have read of that meeting.  Thanks to Steve
Aldrich for publishing it here.

Regrettably, I do not believe that tolerance will ever reign in
net.religion.  There are too many people who believe that
spreading the Word is a duty which takes precedence over the
charity of good manners.

Most people have a private mythology, a story they tell
themselves about the way the world is.  To threaten that
mythology is to threaten madness; to disprove a private
mythology is to leave a man "lost and afraid/in a world he never
made".  The breaking and making of mythology is a part of
religious conversion; the battles of conversion are fought over
the citadels of the heart.  Such battles are, inevitably,
heated.

The temptations to those who undertake conversion are:

  - The desire to convert others, not for love, but to support
    one's own private mythology.

  - The turning of righteous anger, not against evil, but
    against other men, even to the point of murderous hatred.

  - The belief that battle with evil is the only good.

The temptations to those who defend themselves against
conversion are:

  - The desire to defend one's private mythology against wisdom
    and logic.

  - The turning of righteous anger, not against the evils of
    your assailant, but against your assailant's self.

  - The belief that religion is evil.  This is ultimately belief
    in the evil of one's own private mythology, which leads to
    self-hatred and despair.

The temptations of conversion are very great.  Those of
conversion in a public forum are very nearly insurmountable and
yet the temptation to try it is itself great, for who does not
wish to do battle with evil?

To discuss religion publicly and avoid conversion, to tread
lightly in the silences of the human heart, requires uncommon
courage and charity.  I do not see this in the contributors to
this newsgroup.

Ok, flamers, I have thrown the gauntlet.  PROVE ME WRONG!  Please.

				From the asbestos mailbox of:
				Randolph Fritz
UUCPnet:			decvax!philabs!wu1!rf