"Christianizing" other beliefs - how to respond?

[Jennifer_G]

I’m currently talking to someone (a member of this forum who hasn’t visited in a year), who is a returning Catholic, however… he is “thinking about adding” Transcendentalism to his beliefs because he heard about it in college, and has “the four Afirmations of Shintoism as well as the use of the Kamidana”, claiming that he “Christianized the four affirmations of Shintoism”. He basically thinks that “All religions are valid because Vatican II said something to that effect.” He especially believes that the Holy Spirit is everywhere, including inatimate objects, plants and animals in the Shintoist sense.

I think he picked this belief up after his recent interest in Japanese anime. As you can see, he’s very suggestable.

I’m thinking this is rather heretical… how can I explain it best? He’s a real stubborn one.

Imagine that! A Lutheran trying to guide a fallen-away Catholic back onto the right path…

 

[Steadfast_love]

I’m actualy Japanese American myself, and I keep some Shinto practices like rinsing my mouth with water and admiring flowers. If he’s only interested with that sort of thing then he’s probably ok.

[SIGN]I’m writting this with the assumption that your friend is like the people I run into: he’s not actualy interested in Japan or Japanese spirituality, he’s just a wanna-be ethnic transvestite.[/SIGN]
When you debate Shinto, you’re immediately be on the horns of a dilemma because Shinto is not a western religion. If you try to wrestle with it like it is a religion you’ll be rebuffed and there’s no way to win that fight!

But on the other hand you can’t just pretend it’s not a religion because it is a religion from the standpoint of his Catholic salvation.

So turn the tables. When ever you hear about his Shinto experience, treat him like he’s talking about a hobby.
He collects charms? Talk about Hello Kitty or Pokemon.
He meditates? You like a great nap too.
He worships his ancestors? You’ve been watching George Washington on the history channel.
He is at one with nature? You built a super cool snowball fort.
He visited the Gion district? Ted Haggard.

If you do it right, he’ll be stuck in the position of having to one up you and trying to show that Shinto is too a real religion. This gives you the advantage because Shinto is quite deficient as a stand alone religion. (Typicaly it’s combined with Buddism at the very least.)

Remember that Japanese-drag is just a short cut to respect. If he has to actualy do the work of leaving oranges for the dead, drinking from non-potable streams, plugging up his belly button to keep out lightning and watching the Emperor walk on carpets and drop things for hours at a time, he’ll decide that it’s easier to just to pretend being a Ninja instead. (Ninja = less work, more swords)

 

[Jennifer_G]

I only know him online - he posts on a forum I moderate. He’s never been to Japan, but only got interested in Japanese and anime because another user tricked him into looking at hentai by posting a link and telling him to look (don’t ask). Like I said, this person is very gullible. He’ll probably have the obsession for about a year or two like other things he’s had and then forget about it.

 

[deb1]

I would tell him that learning about another culture and respecting its beliefs is indeed admirable. Copying that culture might actually be disrespectful to it.

Think about young white men who admire some aspect of black culture and then decide to act in a manner that they perceive to be ‘black’. There behavior is often stereotyped and offensive to the very culture that they are copying and trying to respect.