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From: gmk@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: A Good Example of Religious Toleranc
Message-ID: <26400001@uicsl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Nov-84 20:55:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uicsl.26400001
Posted: Thu Nov  8 20:55:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Nov-84 09:36:04 EST
References: <732@ihuxj.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:ihuxj:-73200:uicsl:26400001:000:1327
Nf-From: uicsl!gmk    Nov  8 19:55:00 1984

Although I agree with you that there is too much heat and not
enough light in net.religion, I would like to comment on
a quote from the LA Times article:

/**** uicsl:net.religion / amra@ihuxj /  2:32 pm  Oct 30, 1984 ****/

          After meeting with the 87 year old Buddhist patriarch, His
        Holiness Vasana-Tera, the Roman Catholic pontiff told 30,000
        Catholics at the city's National Stadium that their country's
        Buddhist tradition provided " fertile terrain " for Christian
        beliefs.


How would the Pope feel if the Buddhist leader told a crowd
of Italians or Poles that Europe's Christian tradition
provided "fertile terrain" for the spread of Buddhist beliefs?
This is the main problem in any attempt to discuss religion
in general and Christianity in particular. Each person views
the other not as a rational person to engage in stimulating
discourse, but as a godless heathen to be converted to the
one true faith. This missionary mentality (especially among
Christians) and the superiority complex it creates set up a
barrier across which the warring parties can pointlessly shout
at each other

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Gary Koob
...!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsg!gmk

"Coins and crosses never know their fruitless worth"
					- Jon Anderson