Earlier
this year, my wife Cathy and I spent eight days being gently rushed around the South Korean peninsula as part of a project aimed at promoting a more fruitful dialogue between Buddhists and Christians. The seed of this idea was planted by my Korean doctoral student, Kyeongil Jung. But because of unexpected political and religious tensions, the seed blossomed into unexpected lessons of compassion in the wake of this unrest: earlier this year, fundamentalist Korean Christians over the course of several months, invaded and desecrated Buddhist temples in Seoul and Daegu, in an effort to exorcize the “demonic powers” there and proclaim the eventual triumph of Christianity.
…
The core of our conversations first crystallized for me at a packed Temple event. I was asked to follow the official Dharma Talk of this Buddhist Seon Master and address packed audiences of Buddhist laypeople. One of these first talks took place at the very spot where Christians had invaded and desecrated. So here was the Buddhist community responding to Christian hatred by inviting a Christian theologian and practitioner to speak to them – to enter into a dialogue with them!
I was moved, almost to tears when, after I assured them that many, many Christians disagreed with what these extremist Christians had done. After I spoke and asked them to forgive and have compassion on these Christians – they responded: with affirming bows and applause.
