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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   31278 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 14, 2025

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How do you think religion in the West will interact with the Culture War in the next few elections, and in the future? Up until recently, the religious right seemed to be a mainstay of at least American politics. In Europe of course, Christianity is mostly an irrelevant force (though theoretically Catholics should have some weight?).

However, the evangelical right has been losing quite a bit of power and cultural cachet, and we're seeing the rise of more traditional versions of Christianity such as Catholicism and to a lesser extent, Orthodoxy. Buddhism has also made inroads in a more serious way, as well as Islam mostly via immigration of Muslim peoples.

In the future, how will these religions impact politics? Personally I see a fusion of Buddhism x Christianity already happening, and expect a sort of Christian orthodoxy mixing in Buddhism mental techniques as the most successful religion of the 21st century. That being said, I feel it could shake out in many different areas on the political spectrum - ironically, many of the Orthodox priests I know personally are surprisingly liberal.

One area we could see a resurgence is in monasteries, and the potential downstream impact in local communities. Within the Catholic community (and Orthodoxy in the U.S.) there has been a groundswell lately of pushes for more monasteries, and revitalizing the monastic order in general. We'll see how it shakes out.

Tell me, what do you think religion will do to the modern political landscape?

Personally I see a fusion of Buddhism x Christianity already happening, and expect a sort of Christian orthodoxy mixing in Buddhism mental techniques as the most successful religion of the 21st century.

What things do you think that Buddhism offers that Christianity does not?

The way out of delusion and suffering, of course.

So does Christianity.

I suspect what you mean is ‘I think Buddhism is true’.

Atheism offers that too, without all the window dressing.

How? How does atheism alone equip you to go through aging, illness and the dying process without mental suffering? Atheism and the dharma aren't opposed btw.

Death. With no immortality of any sort, athiesm promises an end to delusion and suffering.

So you just think the thought "there's no afterlife" and all your suffering in this life is gone? You'll have no death anxiety or hand wringing while riddled with cancer?

Not "in this life", but religion doesn't offer that either. Buddhism offers many lives filled with suffering before you can perhaps reach nirvana. Atheism offers just one before you reach oblivion.

Buddhism isn't really religion. It's psychology. The way out of the cycles of suffering can be reached in this lifetime with correct practice. The Buddha told us how. It was later that people added all sorts of mumbo jumbo around it. I'm well on the way to liberation myself. No other way of life offers a concrete and comprehensive framework for comprehending and working well with the mind. To say that sheer atheism can compete with the buddhadharma is a very silly statement born out of ignorance. No offense.

Mostly a set of techniques to help settle the mind from the vast distractions in the modern world. A more direct praxis for us to enter states where we can perceive the spiritual world of angels, demons, etc, and get in touch with God.

The ancient Christians recommended meditation or watchfulness before entering into any prayer whatsoever. In the modern world I believe that almost none of us truly are in that mental state due to our myriad distractions. I think Buddhist meditation and understandings could be quite useful for revitalizing direct, contemplative experience of the divine amongst Christians.

Are you familiar with the rosary? Or the Jesus prayer? Or prayer beads?

I am familiar, I the Jesus Prayer and occasionally prayer beads. I still think meditation in the Buddhist view is more flexible and able to look into different things, such as focusing attention on the body, or the breath, areas and objects of attention which are useful in the Christian path.

All of those things exist and are practiced within Catholicism.

There is a sortof eastern-mysticism/orientalism that is left over from the 70s where westerners seem to think that eastern versions of this are different, but they're not.

Luckily, that is fading quickly, perhaps largely because of social media/travel. People have been able to travel to the places where these things are popular, and the picture is...not pleasant.

Somatic meditation, breath meditation, and other forms of attentional work are practiced in Catholicism? Do you have sources? I'd be quite curious.

I'm Orthodox and while we do have hesychasm, more.... fluid forms of attentional practice are often frowned upon. I haven't done an exhaustive dive though.

I think you’re getting into some semantics here.

Repetitive prayer certainly exists in Catholicism (and its online offshoot: Eastern Orthodoxy), as does meditation.

The belief that Buddhists have discovered some mystical magical thing in meditation, or “mantras” or “breath work” is just orientalism.

https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/prayers-and-devotions/meditations

I'm not saying they have discovered anything. I'm saying the techniques are more salient in the Buddhist tradition and easier for the modern mind to understand. Prayer and meditative prayer is an extremely confusing concept comparatively, in my opinion. It's also not nearly as popular in Christian circles.

@Blueberry this is what I meant if you're curious.

Not being against the Gays is one of the more salient points. Christianity being seen as anti-Gay has significantly harmed it's worth as a moral philosophy to modern western people. Also why the texts of Christianity are very anti materialist it tends not to be seen that way in the US.

Not being against the Gays is one of the more salient points

No, this is not true at all from my perspective. Not only is it not one of the things Buddhism offers, Buddhism itself is strongly against gays, and also women. If you look into the roots of the Buddhist tradition there is far stronger sentiment and prohibitions against sexual perversion than in mainstream Christianity.

That being said, I do think the modern Church has a perhaps too myopic focus on sexual sin sometimes.

Not Western Buddhism as practiced in America no it isn't. Scripture will only get you so far, Paul discourages marriage in his letters yet to say American Christianity is against marriage and procreation would be foolish. Not all Christian denominations were against Gay marriage in the culture war either but the overwhelming perspective of secularish young people is that Christianity has a lot of nonsensical rules about sex and Buddhism doesn't. I don't think Buddhism is going to hugely boom up. But it's definitely an advantage as you get a lot less pushback being a Buddhist in certain circles than a Christian and it's easier to syncretize with modern progressive values.

Rather like the joke regarding the expanding acronym that no one has less in common than gays and asexuals, no one should think a tradition that opposes hedonism and considers all pleasure to be a distraction would approve of gays.

That said, I can easily see how one would conclude that American Buddhism, such as it is, has had very little to say about interpersonal pleasure and much more about, say, animal welfare.

Meditation and yoga sessions and cheap decorative Buddha statues you can put into your garden/house without making a strong religious statement.

https://www.etsy.com/market/garden_buddha_statue

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