Still Waiting....

So, the last 48 hours of my life have been a bit surreal to say the least. I'm just a two-bit Buddhist blogger and am not used to being quoted around the news media. To get them out of the way, here are the stories that I know about that ran.

USA Today Article - Lots of rather interesting comments here that I'll talk about later.
MSNBC Interview with Pat Buchanan (see below)
Politics Daily
NY Daily News
TPM Live Wire



I believe there are more than this.

Ok, on to some points:

*Thank you to those of you who pointed that black people are not a religion but a race. I was shocked to hear this as I was unaware. --> *sigh* Point.Missed.

*@Pat Buchanan - Thank you for having the decency to acknowledge how little you know about the Buddhist faith. Mr. Buchanan is not a dumb guy, in fact I'd say he generally gets the issues going on today. He did however comment that Buddhists probably don't watch Fox News....interesting assumption. Did you know the vast majority of Buddhist in the United States are Asian-Americans? Shocker, right? Us white folks are the minority. And did you also know that many of these folks are very conservative, and it isn't out of the realm of possibility that they do indeed watch Fox News. Also, the fastest growing segment of the Buddhist population is rural and suburban Buddhists....and *gasp*...Christian Buddhists, straight from middle America.

*A extremely large portion of these Buddhists in the rural and suburban areas have no temple or Sangha near them. And being a Christian Buddhist or a new Buddhist in a rural community, and coming 'out of the religious closet' has been shown to be tantamount to holding a one way ticket to being a social pariah. Don't believe me.... ask Eric Curren or Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester?

* I know for a fact that Fox News received a large volume of emails from those in the Buddhist community, yet I don't believe their has been a peep from them. Hume was on Bill O'Reilly last night, and I can't say I've heard a better effort to fill 10 minutes of air time without actually saying anything of substance. A huge thanks goes out too all my fellow online Buddhists who really took a stand and made an effort to speak up and to be heard. DON'T STOP NOW!

*Hate Mail = Nothing Interesting or Important to Say.....but please feel free to keep sending them, I'll post them all later.

*The Vast Majority of Buddhists are not Anti-Christian. I was raised Catholic and have spoke out many time for those who wish to pursue the dual spiritual path of Christianity and Buddhism. Please, I beg of you, this is not 'Us vs Them' this is just us...one people...one society....it is, and has always been just us. Don't let the pundits on either side of the isle try to tear all spiritual people apart for any political agenda. We have more in common than you may think.

Now, the reason this whole mess started is that us Buddhists, many of whom are islands unto ourselves in practice wish the same respect granted to all other religions and people. And to place one faith above another, to say the way to redemption for a man who has fallen is only through one certain religion is ignorant and profoundly insulting.

Yes, I know, we Buddhists have a tendency to keep quiet, to forgive and forget as so many have said. But not now, not most of us...Buddhism is a rapidly growing faith in this country and to think that we will stand by, while pundits toss flaming darts of intolerance around as if we didn't even exist are in for a rude awakening. (no pun intended)


I'm not holding my breathe that Mr.Hume will appologize or Fox News will step up to the plate and do the right thing......but we are a patient people.....we can wait.
 
And a huge thank you to Elephant Journal, those guys have been a great help!