Okay, to more clear. When the Soviets burned churches and sent priests to gulags, was it because of atheism? Is that a stain on your tribe? No. That was Soviets murdering priests for political power. Multiethnic nations need some creed to hold them together, be it religion or Communism. This creed then becomes an excuse for oppression, and, given human nature, it is often taken to extremes. This is no different from the fortunately failed flag burning amendment or "Thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain". It has NOTHING to do with Buddhism and everything to do with local politics. The Buddha even predicted this problems and said some stuff about it, but it didn't help much.
OTOH, no one in America seems to have a problem with using Buddhist religious images to sell crap. It does bug me. What say we make a commercial featuring Jesus on the cross, all bloody and gross, and have one of his followers come up and put neosporin and band-aids on him and make him all better. How would that go over? I'd find it amusing. Or better yet.....a commercial for the new Ronco Nail-Remover....
OTOH, no one in America seems to have a problem with using Buddhist religious images to sell crap. It does bug me. What say we make a commercial featuring Jesus on the cross, all bloody and gross, and have one of his followers come up and put neosporin and band-aids on him and make him all better. How would that go over? I'd find it amusing. Or better yet.....a commercial for the new Ronco Nail-Remover....
My book, a setting for fantasy role playing games based on Bantu mythology: Ubantu
