Page 91 - Applied Buddhism

forcefully converted and today almost everyone in the country has joint hands with his brother the Archbishop of Vietnam to oppress
a Portuguese name. In Philippines, some 85% of the population was Buddhists who formed the majority of the population. Although
converted to Christianity. Even the country’s name ‘Philippines’ is they did not succeed in their attempt, many precious lives, including
named after King Philip of Spain. Such was the magnitude of the that of many leading Buddhist monks. In Taiwan, many people,
humiliation. especially Buddhists and followers of traditional Chinese religions,
could still recall the oppression by Song Mei Ling, wife of Chiang
Later colonial powers such as Great Britain and France similarly Kai Sek.
allowed evangelists to convert locals as they wished. Although the
colonists were more interested in economic returns rather than In Korea, Christianity expanded rapidly after the Korean
conversion of faiths, the evangelists somehow benefited from the War, when America provided aid to the devastated population
presence of colonial powers and managed to carry out large scale through Christian NGOs. Today, 49% of the 44,800,000 people are
conversions. Christians, with 47% Buddhists and 4 % Confucianists and others.
This is the official claim. According to reports of some scholars,
In China, Christian evangelists managed to establish 300 the actual composition is 30% Buddhists, l3% Christian, l0%
churches and converted 300,000 people during the reign of Kang Confucianists, and the rest are non-believers.
Xi (1654-1722). In Japan, Francis Xavier established the first
Christian Mission in Kagoshima in 1549. In Malaya, churches were Having gained control in many critical areas, the evangelists in
established during the Portuguese occupation. Korea began to conduct vigorous anti-Buddhist activities, without
any regard to law and order. Such anti-Buddhist activities include
An obvious result of the entry of Christianity into these areas inciting people to hate Buddhism, burning down temples, and
is the adultery of religion with trade and politics, leading to social destroying Buddha images. In 1984, Pope John Paul chose to visit
unrest. For example, the Roman Catholic Church’s contempt of Seoul on Wesak Day to preach his faith. (For details, please see
Chinese customs and rites during the late Kang-Xi period, incurred reports by M. Tedesco, available in the internet)
the wrath of the Manchu government, leading eventually to the
Opium war and the invasion of China by various superpowers. Recent Development
Hong Xu-Quan, leader of the Taiping Revolution, also made use of
the Bible to revolt against the Manchu government. In Japan, the In recent decades, Christianity - riding on the wave of
entry of Christianity similarly led to social, political and economic globalisation and capitalising on the economic power of the West
upheavals. – has swept through many traditional Buddhist countries. Tens of
thousands of Christian NGOs and churches, supported by their
After the Second World War, Christianity continued to expand governments, are invading these areas in a scale never seen before
in Asia. In Vietnam, the Catholic President Nguyen Tin Diem in human history. They adopted military-like strategies in their

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