Yesterday I sat through a Conversational English class with Buddhist monks. For the last several weeks, Eric Hanson has been teaching these monks various subjects, not the least of which centers frequently around religion. Some of the students’ English is enough for comprehensive conversation, most of the others’ is not. With Chad and I there as guests, the conversation turned to religion almost immediately and our one hour class turned into two. By the end of our second hour, we each had 1-2 monks we were trying to explain the ins and outs of Christianity to. It was some of the most challenging apologetic evangelism I’ve ever done. These guys are not messing around, they are critical thinkers and are trying to interpret and understand God in the context of their Cambodian lives, culture and history.
You see, for them, the stories of God in the Old Testament are disturbing. Why would a “good” God allow, nay command, warfare? How many innocent people died as the Israelites ravaged their way into the promised land? You see, in their context, they were that country. For decades, Cambodia has been the battlefield for Vietnam, China, Thailand, etc. We can say that the Philistines and inhabitants of the promised land rejected God and thus they “deserved” what they got. But Cambodia is 95% Buddhist – a nation that has rejected God, so was warfare something they deserved? Is God really that cold-hearted against the Khmer people?
Or what about the availability of the Gospel? In their minds, the Gospel should have been equally available to everyone. The rules/law of Scripture should have been clearly communicated and consequences doled out accordingly. In Buddhist religion, karma determines everything. If I am a Buddhist, I am completely responsible for my eternal destiny (or my reincarnated state). If I do enough “good” I go to heaven, if I do enough “bad” I go to hell. It’s a completely works-based religion that includes absolutely no room for forgiveness or grace. In the Buddhist mind, heaven and hell are completely objective. You do good you go to heaven, you do bad you go to hell. There is no discussion, there is no appeal – it’s just how the system works. It terrifies them to think of a methodology where there is free will and open choice.
It was interesting to watch them take it to an extreme – of picturing a society with no rules, consequences or structure. “Control” is a common concept for them. For the first time, I really understood how communism can seem so right. Though he didn’t pick up on it initially, one particular monk began waxing on how if everyone had what they needed and there was no discrimination, there were no “haves” and “have-nots,” that everyone had equal opportunity – that the perfect system would have been reached. Consequences for disrupting or defying the system would be dealt with accordingly not by simple, poor leaders (like the infamous Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge regime) but by educated (enlightened?) leaders who would exist to keep order – to maintain control.
It was somehow comforting to them to hear that in the Christian belief, God is in control but their interpretation of this puts God as a puppet master who designs and manipulates everything and everyone to the perfect system. To think of God as having grace or invoking forgiveness is terrifying because it might be “weak” and the system might get out of control.
It’s interesting also to note how Jesus fits into the picture. When they hear “the wages of sin is death” they immediately think of the communist philosophy that tolerates no infractions whatsoever. While they agree it’s cold, it seems fair. While they are adamantly opposed to the historical travesty and communist approach of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the “perfect system” would have to punish offenders without exception. Thus, God sending Jesus to die on our behalf seems unfair and that act of mercy seems weak. In fact, if this “weakness” were exploited, it would bring the whole system down – making Christianity seem volatile.
It was an interesting exercise to walk through some of these theological points. As we are visiting teachers in a Buddhist monastery, it would be disrespectful to challenge Buddhist beliefs or imply they are substandard to Christian beliefs – so the apologetic is completely one-sided. Despite all this, the monks we visited with last night are not the die-hard Buddhist monks one might expect. Almost all of them have become monks because of the free education and lodging they receive because of their role. They are given access to an unbelievable amount of literature, teaching and academics and are willing to devote their time to the Buddhist religion as a means to an end. They’ve stated that they want to learn about Christianity to compare it to Buddhism – primarily to see which is better.
Pray for the monks of Spean Neak that they would hear the voice of the Lord and see the evidence of God’s hand at work all around them. Pray that God’s word would take root in their hearts and that they would understand grace, forgiveness and relationship with the Father.
