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Evangelicals hope to convert Dalai Lama & Buddhists « Blaze Talks

The link above is evidence of multiple aproaches to Christianity and how Christian leaders may interact with leaders from other religions such as the Dalai Lama. While some want to learn and teach and literally interact, others seem to just want to preach since they have all the answers.

From the article (Chicago Sun Times): “Most Buddhists would not have a problem with what is written in the gospel,” said Nakai, who does not follow the particular practices of the Dalai Lama’s sect. “It’s what evangelical Christians say — the idea that you have to be saved in a certain way or you’re doomed to eternal damnation, that’s what we have a problem with.”

I don’t mean to give certain types of Christians a hard time here, but my experience has been largely to do with Christians when it comes to religion, and I am trying to increase my knowledge and understanding in that area. I have done a decent amount of reading, but please educate me if you think I’m missing something.

Most my friends are Christians, and some of them are very strong Christians, and at times I am concerned by their behaviour, but at the same time, I don’t feel I have any right to say what they are doing is wrong. Their values can fit in with mine in every way, apart from the view that the path to God is to Christians alone. I can’t remotely accept it in my present spiritual evolution. I have asked Christians, “even though I’m not Christian, what if I felt God? What if I know of others who feel they know God?” I received two different answers: the first being that God is trying to speak to me and pull me in the direction of the “true” faith; and the second, that I’m being tricked by “the enemy.” So, I guess, from a Christian fundamentalist few, every other religion that is not Christianity can be looked at in this very same light – that either the true God or that the “enemy” is reaching out. Maybe they’re right – how do I know? The first answer is a little strange, since, in the given logic, I shouldn’t be able to speak with God since I haven’t accepted Jesus as the one true way to God; the second answer is a scary, and perhaps its scary so that people do the right thing in fear.

I find it truly hard to think that everyone who believes in another faith is going somewhere far worse than Christians. I can’t accept it. I find it especially hard to accept, when these people have lead lives of selfless service, and if they believe in a God or some sort of greater force. For a Christian (or another religion that shares similar views) with such beliefs about the afterlife, death becomes something quite difficult to deal with if they have non-Christian friends. But, as a close friend once said to me, “What are life and love and all this in the midst of eternity.”