Here in Japan I have encountered many gaijins (foreigners) like myself, from various countries. Most of the gaijins in Japan are non-religious, and some of them ardently so. They know that most Americans are religious, and our country seems to be famous for the fundamentalist Creationists that wreak havok on our educational system. Troubling.
However, when they ask `are you religious?` I must answer `Yes`. I do not ascribe to the Fundamentalist Christianity they seem to fear, but I admit that religion does play a significant supportive role in my life. The religion of my upbringing inspired people into action: Francis of Assisi, Catherine McAuley, the Berrigans, and Mother Jones were all amazing Catholic Christians. My chosen religion now, Unitarian Universalism, honors diversity and the right of the individual conscience. UU`s were abolitionists, civil rights protesters, peace activists, and continue to work for the rights of women, gays, immigrants, and the economically underpriveledged.
In the past weeks non-religious people have asked me interesting questions: What is the purpose of religion? Isn`t it old-fashioned and unnecessary? If the purpose is to form community, can`t one do that without ascribing to someone else`s beliefs? If the purpose is to seek answers to life`s big questions, can`t one do that alone? How much does God/Compassion/Goodness have to do with modern religions? Why is there so much judgement and violence in the name of religion?
These are imporant questions. In the end, for me, my selection of a particular religion was informed by the social justice element as acted out by the UU community. And I must believe that most religious people, inspired by the Compassion of their God, will attempt to work for justice. Justice, I hope, is the ethical basis that inspires religious people of all faiths.
These Buddhist monks in Myanmar inspire me.
The New York Times
September 24, 2007
Monks’ Protest Is Challenging Burmese Junta
By SETH MYDANS
BANGKOK, Monday, Sept. 24 — The largest street protests in two decades against Myanmar’s military rulers gained momentum Sunday as thousands of onlookers cheered huge columns of Buddhist monks and shouted support for the detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Winding for a sixth day through rainy streets, the protest swelled to 10,000 monks in the main city of Yangon, formerly Rangoon, according to witnesses and other accounts relayed from the closed country, including some clandestinely shot videos.
It came one day after a group of several hundred monks paid respects to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi at the gate of her home, the first time she has been seen in public in more than four years.
The link between the clergy and the leader of the country’s pro-democracy movement, the beginnings of large-scale public participation in the marches and a call by some monks for a wider protest raised the stakes for the government.
So far, it has mostly allowed the monks free reign in the streets, apparently fearing a public backlash if it cracks down on them in this Buddhist nation.
Monks were reported to be parading through a number of cities on Sunday, notably the country’s second largest city, Mandalay, where an estimated 10,000 people, including 4,000 monks, had marched Saturday.
Myanmar’s military government has sealed off the country to foreign journalists but information about the protests has been increasingly flowing out through wire service reports, exile groups in Thailand with contacts inside Myanmar, and through the photographs, videos and audio files, carried rapidly by technologies, including the Internet, that the government has failed to squelch.
The state-controlled press has carried no reports about the monks’ demonstrations.
Since the military crushed a peaceful nationwide uprising in 1988, killing an estimated 3,000 civilians, the country, formerly known as Burma, has sunk further into poverty and repression and become a symbol for the outside world of the harsh military subjugation of a people.
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been locked inside her home for 12 of the last 18 years, and the government has arrested thousands of political prisoners. . .
(see the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/)
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