A Spoiled Nation?

[dmf]

Originally posted by lazs2
When you let women vote and hold office you get a womanly country.   I bet that women are treated differently in those countries you describe eh?

No big deal really but don't allow women to run your society and then complain that it has become to womanly.

lazs

Don't put us in charge of your military and make us mad either. if you do its a toss up what is coming first, the hormones, or the nukes, take your pick, both are deadly

[Seagoon]

BTW - Sixpence, several other religions aside from Christianity have developed unorthodox spin-offs devoted to health and wealth. For instance, there is a fast-growing form of Buddhism called Nichiren Shoshu that assures  its followers that embracing its teachings will lead them to health and wealth.

For instance if you thought the TBN televangelists preachers made insane and grandiose claims, check out what the official Nicheren Shoshu US website, for instance, proclaims:

Nichiren Daishonin expounds in His teachings the One True Way to attain absolute and unwavering good fortune whereby all the people are able to fundamentally overcome the basic universal sufferings of being born, of old age, sickness and death as well as doubts and disillusionments that plague mankind.

With strong commitment and a firm determination to make advancement in one's progress toward faith in the Daishonin's True Law, every believer, without exception, will be able to purify one's life, maintain both spiritual and physical health, bring joy to one's family, enrich one's life, and above all, transform all of one's misfortunes into good fortune, and thereby achieve true happiness. Likewise, nations currently besieged with racial strife or those continually tormented by civil wars will be able to bring about true peace and prosperity to their beloved homeland.

Nichiren Shoshu's greatest salesman and proselytizer in Japan, Josei Toda, for instance proclaimed:

When I meet you, I don't ask: "Are you keeping faith?" The reason is that I take your shakubuku for granted. What I really want to ask you is how your business is, whether you are making money, and if you are healthy. Only when all of you receive divine benefits do I feel happy. A person who says "I keep faith; I conduct shakubuku" when he is poor - I don't consider him my pupil. Your faith has only one purpose: to improve your business and family life. Those who talk about "faith" and do not attend to their business are sacrilegious. Business is a service to the community. I will expel those of you who do nothing but shakubuku without engaging in business.

How can we live happily in this world and enjoy life? If anyone says he enjoys life without being rich and even when he is sick - he is a liar. We've got to have money and physical vigor, and underneath all we need is life force. This we cannot get by theorizing or mere efforts as such. You can't get it unless you worship a gohonzon...It may be irreverent to use this figure of speech, but a gohonzon is a machine that makes you happy. How to use this machine? You conduct five sittings of prayer in the morning and three sittings in the evening and shakubuku ten people. Let's make money and build health and enjoy life to our hearts' content before we die!"
 (Kiyoaki Murata, Japan's New Buddhism, pp.107-8)

Incidently the term Shakubaku, means "break and flatten" and refers to the Nichiren Shoshu proselytization method in the 1950s which was agressive to say the least.

[Pooh21]

Originally posted by Seagoon
Incidently the term Shakubaku, means "break and flatten" and refers to the Nichiren Shoshu proselytization method in the 1950s which was agressive to say the least.

explain further please, this sounds like it could be amusing.

[Seagoon]

Hi Pooh,

Originally posted by Pooh21
explain further please, this sounds like it could be amusing.

Nah, not really amusing. Here's a description of Shakubuku as it was practiced in Japan:

Until the early 1960's the literal translation of shakubuku, "to break and flatten," was a reasonably accurate description of the proselyting process. On occasion Gakkai members would surround a home and make noise until one family member agreed to join. Or they would belabor a mark with argument and exhortation for hours on end. Sometimes threats of divine punishment were used: dire injuries and calamities might be predicted as the cost of resistance to the True Religion; a child's illness or death might be traced to the parents' heretical beliefs. In such instances the "fear of punishment in a mind weakened and made receptive by hours of pressure" could lead to the collapse of the subject's critical faculties and intellectual defenses, and to his acquiescing in the demands of the proselyters.
(James W. White, Sokagakkai and Mass Society, p.82)

(Sokagakkai was the political movement in Japan associated with Nichiren Choshu belief - in most countries outside of the USA religion and politics are inextricably connected)

The debate over Shakubuku is still going on in the Nichiren community. The method of proselytizing preferred in Nichiren is currently less aggressive and physical, but still pretty similar to Jehovah's Witness methodologies. It emphasizes refuting and demolishing the perspectives beliefs and Nichiren Choshu has a reputation for being particularly nasty towards other forms of Buddhism. Some therefore, are calling for a switch to a less confrontational form of witnessing called shoju or "persuasion." There is even a "reform" movement calling for this.

[wrag]

Originally posted by Thrawn
A whine about whining has been recorded.


They way I figure it, the reason why the US kicked so much bellybutton was because it was built by people that weren't satisfied with living in a ****hole with no standard of living.

Hmmm did you miss the point regarding the government they must live under?

Did you miss the point that these people are perhaps just happy to still be alive at the end of each day, or the rise of each sun?

Think the entire point of Seagoons post is missed or being ignored when I see comments like this.

When your government has set out to deprive you of everything including your life.  When you are not allowed weapons to defend yourself or your family.  ??

How you gonna kick, and what you gonna kick?

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by storch
really?  says who?

yours and everyone elses DNA

[storch]

bah they have all been wrong before.  DNA?  you mean the method of verification by which  oj simpsom was found not guilty?

[Mace2004]

I believe the health and wealth through faith bit usually involves sending someone else your money so that you can be healthy and wealthy.  The televangelists fall back on a line out of the bible to the effect that for every dollar you give to God's church, he will return it to you 100-fold....obviously I'm paraphrasing their interpretation.  I think the bible actually was talking about deeds, not a cash return on your dollar.  The funny parts of the whole thing is that there are so many folks that are willing to try to buy their way into Heaven and so many folks that will help by letting you send your money to them.