{"id":105599,"date":"2018-01-29T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=105599"},"modified":"2018-01-27T13:04:52","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T13:04:52","slug":"how-will-i-explain-extremist-buddhism-to-my-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/01\/how-will-i-explain-extremist-buddhism-to-my-children\/","title":{"rendered":"How Will I Explain Extremist Buddhism to My Children?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Khin Mai Aung once worried her children would pick up dogmatic views from her husband\u2019s Catholic faith. Now, she struggles to explain to them the terrible violence in Myanmar, her country of birth \u2014 incited by members of her own faith, Buddhism.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A soldier stands guard in Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine State. Photo by DYKT Mohigan.<\/p><\/div>\n

24 Jan 2018 – <\/em>I\u2019m Buddhist. My husband is Catholic. Our religious differences created some tension early in our marriage \u2014 mostly because I fretted about our future children\u2019s religious upbringing. We\u2019re not terribly religious, but both of us derive a sense of community, culture, and morality from religion, and we wanted to expose our children to both of our faiths.<\/p>\n

I worried they would become Catholic by default, due to the\u00a0prevalence<\/a>\u00a0of Christian traditions and holidays in American culture. Christianity is the religious background of over two-thirds of Americans. By contrast, less than 1% of our population is Buddhist, and many fewer still are Theravada Buddhists.<\/p>\n

When we married, I assumed Catholicism was rigid and inflexible. I feared it was less tolerant of other religions, as compared to my faith. After all, a Catholic must accept God as one\u2019s\u00a0savior and creator<\/a> and renounce all other religions. By contrast, I thought of Buddhism as inherently open and accepting. Due to the flexibility of Buddhism\u2019s core tenets, I believed our religion to be innately tolerant.<\/p>\n

Recent\u00a0events<\/a>\u00a0in Myanmar, my country of birth, have dramatically proven me wrong. A radical strain of Buddhism has reared its ugly head in the country, preaching\u00a0intolerance and hate<\/a> and even justifying the\u00a0killing<\/a>\u00a0of non-Buddhists. An epic humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Myanmar, with over 600,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority group fleeing persecution by the country\u2019s repressive military.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A house burning in Rakhine.<\/p><\/div>\n

While the extremist Buddhist views are not representative of most of Myanmar\u2019s Buddhist clergy, radical monks still garner support for oppressive military action among the majority Buddhist population. By contrast, the Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis, has historically been a strong advocate for tolerance and the rights of the oppressed, including the\u00a0Rohingya<\/a> (despite missed opportunities<\/a> to go further). Until recently, the highest-ranking Catholic\u00a0clergyman<\/a>\u00a0in Myanmar also spoke out in defense of the Rohingya.<\/p>\n

Through my horror and shame at radical Buddhist currents in Myanmar, Burmese Buddhism is the bedrock of my religious and moral upbringing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Previously, I didn\u2019t fully appreciate how Burmese Buddhism \u2013 like other organized religions \u2013 is more than a spiritual institution; it is also a political one. Myanmar is almost\u00a090% Theravada Buddhist, and the sangha is a powerful player in the Burmese state. Monks are human beings with the ability to either challenge the prevailing social order (as they did in the 2007\u00a0Saffron Revolution<\/a>) or to reinforce it (as hardline monks in nationalist Buddhist organization\u00a0Ma Ba Tha<\/a>\u00a0are doing now). Our faith, like other organized religions, can be twisted by political forces and bad actors to support exclusion and persecution instead of inclusion and tolerance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The author\u2019s son (right) and a friend (left) in a Theravada temple in Brooklyn, NY. Photo by the author.<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite this, I remain committed to Theravada Buddhism. Through my horror and shame at radical Buddhist currents in Myanmar, Burmese Buddhism is the bedrock of my religious and moral upbringing. The practice of mindfulness has brought me calm during this challenging time. I also believe in karmic retribution. As soldiers and monks attempt to dehumanize the Rohingya, some of their own humanity is lost. If nothing else, they will repay their karmic debt through the hate and anger that eats at their wellbeing, creating further suffering and pain, or dukkha<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now, a decade into my marriage, I\u2019m again pondering my children\u2019s religious upbringing. My husband and I have three young kids. What do I teach them about these disturbing developments? So far, we\u2019ve smoothly navigated interfaith child rearing. We attend both church and temple services on special occasions and we conduct a \u201cSunday homeschool,\u201d where we share fables, stories, and lessons from Buddhism and Catholicism. Sometimes I practice meditation with them. As they get older, we plan to teach them the critical role of religion as a social and political force that can be used for both liberation and oppression. Our approach might not yield a household of either Buddhists or Catholics, per se, but I hope my kids\u2019 pluralistic upbringing will familiarize them with mine and my husbands\u2019 beliefs, cultures, and traditions \u2014 and also instill in them tolerance and a truly inclusive sense of religion.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Khin Mai Aung has written about civil rights issues in publications such as the <\/em>New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, and<\/em> Salon and was formerly a lawyer at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 lionsroar.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Khin Mai Aung once worried her children would pick up dogmatic views from her husband\u2019s Catholic faith. Now, she struggles to explain to them the terrible violence in Myanmar, her country of birth \u2014 incited by members of her own faith, Buddhism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":105603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}