Religious debate moot
While I agree with Dan Bloom to a certain extent, I can't help but feel that he has gone too far in condemning the entire Christian faith (Letters, May 6, page 8). The essence of Bloom's argument, that missionaries are here first and foremost for the purpose of conversion, is correct. But, they do perform many commendable services, most notably in the field of health care.
If charity were their sole or even primary purpose however, why should they feel compelled to travel half-way around the world to provide it when there are certainly those in their own communities in dire need of heath care, shelter and so on? The answer is simply that they are looking for an exchange; not of goods for services, but rather of services for belief. In short they are looking to collect souls rather than a paycheck.
Do they, in a society of intellectual freedom, have the right to pursue these ends? Absolutely. Do we have to pretend that it is something other than the exchange based endeavor that it is? Absolutely not. On the other hand, not all missionaries provide a tangible, charitable service of any sort.
I am not in any way anti-Christian, and do not feel that "only my watch gives the right time" kind of spiritual arrogance is at all a trait exclusive to certain Christians. I agree that it takes a certain amount of arrogance to step into a completely different culture and tell individuals that the faith of their family and community, going back hundreds of generations, is false.
Each individual must choose what for them is the one religious tradition which makes the most sense. Nonetheless, I would hope that we can go beyond mere "tolerance" and actually embrace that which is of value in other faiths (all of which basically have the same end goal of making individuals better, more caring and fully developed humans, let's not forget).
It is, at this time, a very dangerous thing to have an approach to the world's religions that is without a constructive middle ground. The attitude of "I have the truth, you do not and there is no other way," cannot help anyone.
One should hope that the current situations in the Middle East and Kashmir can be looked upon as instructive enough on the dangers of the exclusivist path.
Pat Antrobus
USA
I had a wonderful history teacher in junior-high school who, at some point, employed an old clich? that has stayed with me. "Imagine," she said, "how boring the world would be if we were all the same." Now, that line of thought maybe a bit of wisdom that should be introduced to your paper's discussion over the role of missionaries in Taiwan.
I consider myself pretty fortunate in that I've been able to travel to some of the world's most awe-inspiring religious sites : St. Peter's in Rome, Notre Dame in Paris, the Buddhist and Shinto shrines of Kyoto and so on. I also found the Taoist temples of Tainan exude the same feeling of tranquil spirituality as any of these other places.
I could certainly not detect any sectarian or cultural difference between the sense of peace I found in, say, an Italian Basillica versus a Matsu shrine.
It's also a bit of a clich? to say that all of the world's religions share the same principles of morality. In goal and practice, each of the world's religions is a reflection of the same truth. To squabble over what manifestation of that truth is superior makes about as much sense as arguing the superiority of one language over another.
Looking at the state of the world today one really has to wonder what good can come from asserting one religious viewpoint over all others.
Frank Marchetti
New Orleans
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