Cynicalprophet’s Weblog

Q: I was really curious about who paid for the Dalai Lama’s gold medal? See below. Thank you Ron Paul for at least standing up for Constitutional principles.

A: <Last week Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama in recognition of his lifelong commitment to peace. The medal cost $30,000, and the House of Representatives approved the funding by a vote of 434-1. The lone dissenting vote was cast by presidential candidate Ron Paul.
    “Mr. Speaker,” said Congressman Paul on the House floor, “with great sadness I must rise to oppose this measure.” After noting the irony in honoring a devout Buddhist monk with a material gift of gold, Paul explained: “We cannot forget that Congress has no authority under the Constitution to spend taxpayer money on medals and awards, no matter how richly deserved.”
    Paul had an alternative solution: he offered to pay $100 out of his own pocket to pay for the medal, if the other House members ponied up $70 each to cover the rest. No one did.
    “You see,” Paul observed, “it’s a lot easier to spend other people’s money.”
    Let’s be clear: Paul has nothing against the Dalai Lama. He was also the lone vote in opposition to similar medals for Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. But his dissent speaks volumes about his principled political philosophy, which emphasizes, above all, strict adherence to the Constitution.
    Sadly, Ron Paul seems to be the only politician left in Washington who actually understands the proper role of the federal government in America. Our Founding Fathers were very clear: while the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war and levy taxes, it says nothing about spending taxpayer dollars on feel-good medals.
    Of course, the Congressional Gold Medal isn’t really a big deal, but it’s indicative of a much larger problem: over the years, our politicians have consistently ignored and eroded the Constitution, each one straying further than the last, to the point where 434 out of 435 members of the House don’t hesitate to violate the document they all swore to uphold. And to fully understand the degree to which the public has accepted this nonsense, look no further than the most recent presidential debate, where Paul pointed out that the Constitution requires the president to get congressional approval before going to war, and some members of the audience actually booed!
    Ron Paul’s campaign slogan is “Hope for America,” and if the Dalai Lama vote is any indication, Paul is literally the only hope for those wishing to return to the ideals set forth in the Constitution: those of limited government at home, non-intervention abroad, and individual liberty for all. So if you want more of the same – foreign wars, debt, and domestic spying – then by all means, take your pick from the other presidential candidates. But if you’re looking for someone who would refuse a Congressional Gold Medal to an international beacon of peace on Constitutional grounds, well… there’s literally only one choice.”

     You might have missed it, but President Bush awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet, the highest civilian honor in the land the land on October 17, 2007.     Of the three networks, only pro-Buddhist ABC even covered it briefly as an “extraordinary scene of pomp in the nations capitol”–one night only on national and local news. Pretty brief clips for such a “national honor.”  Not a peep out of NBC–probably because they wisely feared insulting Beijing right before the Olympics. CBS-nothing that I caught. It was second page news in the LA Times–that was a shocker since they are so PRO DL.       What did catch my attention was ABC’s mention of a “superbug” that had killed three students and sickened 1000’s in nearby Bedford County, Virginia where over 11,000 students stayed home as their schools were being cleaned to prevent the spread of a merca staph infection that they said could be more deadly than AIDS.    Earlier, I did watch the entire thing on a webcast. It was sickeningly sweet and very anti Beijing.     Unfortunately, it did what they wanted to accomplish in two ways–1) Use the US Congressional Platform with the Capitol as a symbolic backdrop to rally their faithful through a global web cast; and 2) Use the USA National platform, with Pelosi and gang wrapping their arms around President Bush to appear as a “united” front to deliver insult after insult to China publicly and thereby unnecessarily provoking their ire. What it does say is more about our neglect and blundering naiveté in intercultural and international affairs.      Almost immediately the PRC made good on its promise to retaliate for the US Governments’ public endorsement of the Dalai Lama whom they view as a “splittist rebel” and subsequently withdrew their support as a major partner from one of the most important and delicate international diplomatic rounds of negotiation with Iran about its development and threatened use of nuclear weapons. So we shot ourselves in the foot again, only this time the consequences will be much worse.      On the very same day as the ceremony no less, President Bush said in a press conference that if we don’t resolve the nuclear issue in Iran we are looking at WWIII. He said. “So I told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested [in preventing a nuclear Iran]… I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously.”     With all due respect, Mr. President-that’s thinking ahead. It might have been prudent to think about that before insulting the second largest global power in the equation.     On Friday, I heard Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena) call a spade a spade, when he called the President to task for not supporting the bill acknowledging the Armenian Genocide perpetuated by Turkey. He said something to the effect that, “When the President said that we shouldn’t bring up ancient history, why didn’t he just say that about the Dalai Lama. Hey, it happened fifty years ago!     Well, I guess it was politically expedient for him since 75% of all our military gear comes into Iraq through Turkey. Then the immediate backfire! Turkey the very next day rattled its saber about attacking the Kurds in northern Iraq. If Saddam couldn’t completely wipe out the Kurdish people, then will Turkey? (Schiff did vote to award the DL the gold and he did have to politically say something as a large part of his constituency is Armenian, a people who pride themselves on being the First Christian Nation).

    So on the one hand–our Government honors the god-king of Tibet, formerly a paid agent of the CIA—whose worldview is diametrically opposed to our nation’s Judaeo-Christian values, and relegate the Armenian genocide of the First Christian nation, a people near and dear to our heart, to ancient history.

I’d say, “Houston, we have a problem” (Apollo 13).

On Wednesday, October 17, 2007 the Dalai Lama will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the US Government at 1:00PM in the Capitol Rotunda. Many people are asking, “Who’s the Dalai Lama anyway?” or “Why is our government honoring him? I address a number of these questions in a chapter entitled, “The Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism” included in Westmont Professor Ronald Enroth’s excellent book, A Guide to New Religious Movements published by InterVarsity Press.  Now if you can’t run to your Christian bookstore tonight to buy it, or if they don’t have it in stock, and you’re on a reporters deadline, you’re in luck, but you’ve got to promise me one thing–come on now. Promise. If you are blessed by the information, buy the book.  You can access the pdf online through our website at

http://www.sonrisecenter.org/SonriseCenter2005UPDATETransformation.htm

Your donations make our work possible. Thanks again.

James

I received an email earlier which read,

I received an email from a Christian group I am a part of calling the Dalai Lama’s  upcoming visit to DC  a “great evil”. I felt that this statement was Xenophobic and wrote back asking this group not to send me such messages. I would like to know how you balance your faith in Christ and ministry of outreach to budhists without denigrating them.

J…

Here’s my reply: 

Oxford Dictionary brief definition of xenophobic: “intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.”

Dear  J….:

Thank you for your email. I am not sure what email you are referring to in the body of your letter, so I will withhold a judgment until I know what particular email you’re referring to. Rather than addressing your concern, be it something I wrote personally, or that someone else did, I would defer to your further elaboration, so that I may intelligently discuss your concerns. 

As for myself, I have no intense dislike of people from other countries, nor do I have an irrational fear of others. What I do have are some well-researched opinions that address issues that I believe require serious questioning. As a former Buddhist leader and scholar of fourteen years, and now as a follower of Jesus Christ since 1984, I am constrained to speak the truth on areas that would be considered “my expertise” even if others may find it a bit hard to digest. In a society that prizes “tolerance” at the cost of truth, I say, sorry didn’t cut the mustard on September 11. If there was one lesson we learned it was that “What you don’t know can kill you.” Secondly, “Someone was asleep at the wheel, but our enemy was not.” Thirdly, “We must be eternally vigilant and trust no one.”  Not trusting anyone, doesn’t mean not loving them. It simply means that “Cursed is he who places his trust in mankind, but blessed is he whose trust is in the LORD.” 

J…, its easy to reject messages that you don’t want to hear, especially if you’re a nice person who wants everyone just to get along. The problem though is that we don’t live in that type of world–it has never existed in history and will not until the new heavens and the new earth-the millenial kingdom–when the lion will lie with the lamb. 

You asked, how I balance “my faith in Christ and ministry of outreach to Buddhists without denigrating them.” First of all, I was a Buddhist and still have a love for my friends that are still involved in practicing what they believe in. At the same time, my life personally was threatened by two Buddhist leaders who wanted to get their 357 magnums and blow me away” for asking questions that didn’t meet their approval. As a mature person, I am sure you are able to discern the difference in people’s intentions. Even the Dalai Lama has said that compassion doesn’t mean no violence is ever necessary to protect oneself. 

I would say that the Dalai Lama’s visit to Washington, DC is problematic and scripturally, I do not see how the LORD JESUS CHRIST could find joy in a sand mandala which according to the Tibetan Buddhists is to house 722 deities, is being built in our National Cathedral. It is a defilement of the sanctuary of God in direct disobedience to the decalogue. The blog that I wrote Asia Briefing Links leads one into a carefully researched expose of what truely underlies the Dalai Lama’s worldview.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had a relationship that began well and ended poorly, I have. Usually, I start out believing the best of people. I am an idealist, but have become over my 56 years, more of a realistic idealist attempting to come to an understanding of what others believe and what their intentions are. Jeremiah 17:9 says that man’s heart is deceitful above all else, and who can know its way? Only the LORD who searches the heart.’  It’s not an easy journey, and sometimes warnings from others are hard to swallow. I’d say, look deeper. What are they really saying? Is there some truth to what they’re saying? So many times we just shut people out because they sound racist. You choose your battles. But other times, we love the people and because we love them, we wrestle through what we percieve as a distasteful perspective on another people. It’s very hard to understand at times. I’ve had to speak with friends who have been anti Chinese, or Anti Muslim and get down and dirty with them and say, Why? You can be of service to others if you don’t shut the door quite so fast. That’s been my hard won experience.

This last weekend I had lunch with a brother in Christ from a Tibetan Buddhist Republic. Ahead of time, he told me about his dismay about the Dalai Lama receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. When I mentioned that Tibetan Buddhist priests were also building a sand mandala in the National Cathedral, he paused and said, “What would the founding fathers of American feel about that?” As a student of American law, he knew that many of the founding fathers were believers and anchored their political philosophy on the Word of God. For him as for me, it is a grievous day when we’ve lost our way as a nation that once actively believed in Jesus Christ and in His Word.

In Christ’s refuge and strength,

James C. Stephens

Cynicalprophet’s Weblog

Asia Briefing Links
Critical Issues for Debate in the Civil Public Square
Submitted by James C. Stephens
Executive Director
Sonrise Center for Buddhist Studies, Inc.
http://www.sonrisecenter.org
 

The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic, and Politics
an online English version************************************************************
CAUTION: THIS MATERIAL REQUIRES MATURE DISCRETION.
*******************************************************************************************
The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.
   —Proverbs 18:17 (NIV)

Victor and Victoria Trimondi, co-authors of the recent German bestseller, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama first met the XIV Dalai Lama in the eighties and came to know him very well. Subsequently, they published his writings, organized critical conferences and were instrumental in securing his invitation to Germany and Austria.  At the time they thought, “Only the worst villain could disagree with what he has said and written.”    However, after responding to his encouragement to convert to Tibetan Buddhism, and after much serious study, they uncovered  a vile connection between magic and politics, “the foundation for an absolutistic system in which spiritual and worldly power are united in one person, the Dalai Lama, and an extreme ‘metaphysical exploitation of women.”

 Link 1: Table of Contents.    

 The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics, released in 1999 is a best selling expose in Europe numbering  800 pages of carefully researched and reasoned arguments. The Trimondi’s take you on a painful journey that dismantles the West’s idealized image of Tibet and takes off the pacifist mask of the Dalai Lama, revealing a pantheon of warring deities and a skillful God-King who still acknowledges the guidance of a demon-possessed man, the Nechung Oracle in all his important State decisions.     They warn that the ‘Kalachakra Initiation is consciously devoted to the manipulation of believers and introduces “an aggressive military ethos” aiming at “the establishment of a global Buddhocracy” following a Buddhist war in 2327 waged against the followers of Mohammed, Abraham, and Jesus.”

http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Contents.htm
 
Link 2: Eight Serious Questions from the Trimondis for the XIV Dalai Lama on the Kalachakra Tantra Ideology.

Question 1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra which is supposedly a “ritual for world peace” prophesy and glorify a holy war by Buddhists against non-Buddhists?Question 2. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra ( taught throughout the USA), which is supposedly a contributor to a world ecumenical movement and a world ethos, attack the 3 monotheistic-semitic religions, especially Islam, named as “enemy of the Dharma”, and swear a religious war against Islam?     Wherein your texts you proclaim “Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mani, Mohammed, and the Mahdi” are characterized as the “family of the demonic snakes and are attributed with characteristics of darkness and deceit. (see Shri Kalachakra I.154). 

For more Questions and explanations see the following link

http://www.trimondi.de/EN/deba03.html
 
Link 3: The Global Debate on the History of Tibetan Buddhism.   

“Over the past few years, increasing criticism has been leveled at Tibetan Buddhism, the history of Lamaism, conditions among the Tibetans in exile and the XIV Dalai Lama himself, criticism which is not from the Chinese quarter. Historians from the USA have begun questioning the widespread glorifying whitewash of Tibetan history (Melvin C. Goldstein, A. Tom Grunfeld). Critical Tibetologists have raised accusations of deliberate manipulation by official Tibetology (Donald S. Lopez Jr.).”(Kalachakra Debate excerpt) For more on this debate enter the following link:

Click here: CRITICAL FORUM KALACHAKRA

Link 4: A Sampling of the Voices of the German Press.  

   “An attempt is made to prove this bitter farewell to a myth with a great flood of sources [...] The criticisms, by the way, also come from Tibetans in exile and cannot be brushed aside, even by the Dalai Lama himself: More and more he concedes to some shady sides. [...] Thus it is a cheap trick when - as has happened - the book by the Trimondis/Röttgens is dismissed as typical renegade revenge. The authorial duo’s grasp of religious and cultural history is undoubtedly firm.”

       —Abendzeitung, 20 June 1999, Germany.

A Critique of Women’s Issues in the Tibetan Buddhist World    

“Now, in time for the turn of the millennium, comes a rousing critique and analysis of women’s role in Tibetan Buddhism, about the devaluation and abuse of the feminine in this religion, (a critique) developed in dialog by a woman and a man, Mariana and Herbert Röttgen (Victor and Victoria Trimondi), which fits into the Ab 40 discussion. I have known Herbert Röttgen for almost 30 years.     

What fascinated me alongside his pioneering, visionary view of the world was his untiring, intensive dialog with women [...], and now his dialog with his wife Mariana about the significance of traditional religions for the establishment of values and creativity in a future culture. Their joint book, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama is a start in this direction and the vehement, often inappropriately aggressive, criticism which this book has aroused in the media demonstrates that Victor and Victoria Trimondi have hit a raw nerve with their thesis.”

     —Ab 40 - Greta Tüllman - January 2000 “Victor & Victoria Trimondi in search of new visions in coming millennium “Debate in the Interest of Investigation.    

 ”That a discussion which needs to be had is being instigated here is not doubted by most critics, however. Even if the authors here and there bring out the heavy artillery, as where they produce the proximity of Tibetan Buddhism to German fascism and of the 14th Dalai Lama to the leader of the murderous Japanese Aum sect, Asahara - their concern is justified: to devote themselves to the myths behind the permanent smile of the Far Eastern God-King.

In the interests of investigation. Although the Dalai Lama may preach values like human rights, democracy, equality and pacifism, they are not anchored in Tibet’s religion and traditions, as the religious studies scholar from Tübingen, Cristoffer Grundmann, also says.     “However, the Dalai Lama regularly avoids raising the veil which covers the “shadows”, the dark side of his religion, where there are: sexual magic mysteries and power-political obsessions (Shambhala myth), spirits and demons (Nechung oracle) and powerful destructive forces.”

—Badische Zeitung - Johannes Schradl - March 1999. “The Dalai Lama – End of a beautiful legend?”

BOOK UNDER DISCUSSION: A new study poses critical questions for the religious basis of the smiling God-King.      “The reader’s verdict upon this detailed engagement with the shady side of Tibetan Buddhism is entirely dependent upon his or her willingness to renounce nostalgia and to concede that there never was nor ever will be a completely peaceful culture or religion in the world of humankind. Those who cannot or will not abandon the illusion of a thoroughly peaceful Buddhism will only be able to see the work of the two authors as a grim settling of accounts by disappointed former friends of Tibetan Buddhism. People who need no illusions will value the extensive work as a contribution to a long due correction.”
       —Evangelical Office of Information - Georg Schmid - August 1999.

For more information:
   Click here: med01   

   “The outbreaks of violence in the milieu of Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, so incomprehensible to a western Tibet romantic – think of the still-echoing ramifications of the struggle between Red Hats and Yellow Hats in the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama with its many victims, of the so-called Shugden debate of recent years, of the continuing conflict around the true reincarnation of the new Karmapa, of the support which the Dalai Lama lent the Japanese sect guru Shoko Asahara, or of the military ambitions of the Dalai Lama’s brother - all these “absurd” incidents are no longer bolts from the blue, without precedent or resonance.”
       —Evangelical Office of Information - Georg Schmid - August 1999

 Link 5: Questions for Buddhists: e.g., “Will the Dalai Lama Return to Tibet?”  

 ”But one can also nevertheless ask whether an Asian power play between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese leadership is not involved. The Dalai Lama is winning over ever more followers in the West; the Chinese leadership is extending its influence in Tibet and the rest of the world. It would not be surprising if the Dalai Lama were to return to Tibet with Chinese approval one day.     

 But this is something that the people in the post-Enlightenment West could hardly understand. They stick to what they believe, and thus fail to consider that people in Asia have completely different conceptions of time, action, influence, power, and so forth. The Dalai Lama is an excellent politician. Persistently, he pursues a goal that he never lets slip from view. He thinks, with no little success, in longer time spans.”
    —Baseler Zeitung - Aurel Schmidt - December 1999. “Religion in global era - Questions for Buddhism”  

  “ False!” says the Dalai Lama with emphasis whilst the cameras roll, “Their claims are not true! There is no violence among Tibetans.” In an episode of the “10 to 10″ program the religious and worldly leader of the Tibetans reacted with irritation to critical questions from reporter Beat Regli. The Swiss TV personality had documented attacks among Tibetans in exile in India and wanted to discuss these with the Dalai Lama. And thereby obviously hit a raw nerve. Then the “God-King” is consistently protected by his entourage from everything which could tarnish the image of His Holiness or Tibetan Buddhism. “I was nevertheless perplexed at how aggressively and strained the Dalai Lama reacted to several questions,” says Regli.”
       —Berner Zeitung - Hans Peter Roth - May 1999″Scratches in the mythical ‘God-King’s’ veneer” In the latest books Hans Peter Roth discovers shadows over the blissful image of Tibet.

See the link for more information on these subjects.

Link 6: Short interview with Victor Trimondi.

    Victor commented, “In 1982 I brought him from Paris to the Frankfurt Book Fair in a small propeller-driven aircraft. The plane was caught in a storm and began to toss wildly. All the passengers grew pale, including the Dalai Lama. Such moments in life generate bonds, and a relaxed friendship developed…
 
—- Berner Zeitung - Hans Peter Roth - May 1999. “Scratches in the mythical ‘God-King’s’ veneer.” In the latest books Hans Peter Roth discovers shadows over the blissful image of Tibet.

Click here: interv01

BRIEFING LINKS END/

For a number of years, I have talked about writing a column entitled The Cynical Prophet to give vent to my thoughts about troubling issues of the day from the perspective of a realistic idealist. Maybe the title is a bit misleading and I should call it the slightly cynical nonprophet who has worked in a nonprofit for nineteen years, while  still attempting to think the best of people and aim toward noble ends.

The Caveat Emptor or “buyer beware” tag arises out of many years of tested idealism, warning others to seriously investigate whatever someone is attempting to sell them, be it a product, a philosophy, or a religious perspective on life. Why? Because it’s your life, and believe it or not, you’re on a limited timetable as we all are and in my opinion, you’ve got one shot as this thing they call life according to the Good Book, “one life and then comes the judgment” (Hebrews 9:6).