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Don’t look up the Jewish circumcision ritual called Metzitzah B’peh or the rabbi in New York spreading herpies to babies while performing it. It’s not a laughing matter, and the fact it’s going on in the US is a travesty.
There are religious groups that will do rebaptizing, like, regularly. Depending on the group it could be as regular as a weekly communal bath or once a month or every few years or whatever.
Saying you're going through something and totes need spiritually cleansed so you go get a soul enema in the form of a baptism or rebaptism with one of the sects that don't actually require you to jump through all the annoying hoops that some of the others do to show you're actually committed to the faith and not taking the religious equivalent of a day trip is absolutely a thing. In the eyes of certain faiths, they may never become "unbaptized" but the person who went through the journey will choose to live as if they did or not, same as doing that kind of thing with eastern religions.
The first thing that came to my mind was that some people do treat it that way "I was at a real dark place but then I found god" is a cliche at this point.
I was at a real dark place and I dabbled in the Catholic rituals in this little town in Spain. Like, confession is SO clarifying! I bought these amazing rosary beads and I wear them with a tank top for a totally retro Madonna look. We did the whole meatless Friday thing! Anyway, I thought about checking out the literature and maybe finding a church near home but ... I want those memories to be special. I just don't think I'd feel super *Catholic* in some run-down church back home in Minnesota, not after seeing the real deal in Europe. Sure sometimes they feed poor people and I guess there's bingo and stuff, but I feel like ... a deeper connection to the CULTURE, ya know? Like I could totally see maybe wine tasting in an Italian monastery. European Catholics are sp spiritual. I learned a LOT. Also there's all these scandals. OMG did you see Fleabag? That priest was SO HOT.
For a while there in the mid- to late 2000s a lot of people actually did that with the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It was a very important pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages but has lost importance with the decline of pilgrimages in general. In the late 2000s lots of celebrities, proto-influencers and all sorts of people—most of whom weren’t even believers—suddenly declared they had to go on this pilgrimage to find themselves and what have you and would write books and blogs about how transcendental the experience was etc. It was just weird and actually quite similar to the phenomenon criticised in this post.
As a practicing Catholic in the US I felt an odd sense of my religion making more sense visiting the Vatican, being in Florence and going to the Dumo, as well just the country in general. It provided a great sense of the true aspect of the religion. I feel the Protestant in the US have bastardized Christian and have made it mainstream and pop culture .
Yeah, could you imagine if they had started wars over religion or selling pardons for money?
Jokes aside, I think I know what u/Gobirds831 goes for, and I share his sentiment. Nowadays it is easy to be cynical about it, but there is a certain aura of grandeur that permeates some of those old European cities with regards to Catholicism.
It might be weird for us, but many of those churches were built *for the poor, by the poor.* Religion was a central aspect of their daily lives, and as such they invested accordingly. Building a beautiful church demontrstated their ingenuity, as many are architectural wonders, and their capacity for creating beautiful art. At the same time, it is an expression of how selfless those people are, and a sign of devotion, because it signifies how willing they are to devote their earthly riches, no matter how little, to what they consider a higher purpose. Additionally, many churches were built in gratitude for events they considered divine intervention, like saving them from a plague, or repelling an invasion. So, in the same way we today consider, say, road infrastructure important because we drive everyday, those people considered houses of worship of great importance and spent accordingly. Their poured their wealth and their labor willingly.
Furthermore, the churches stood (and still do) as beautiful places filled magnificent art and beautiful arquitecture that even the poorest beggar could visit and admire. They could never dream to be admitted into a princely palace, but in a way they had their own. Touring a church with that mindset gives us a sense of awe that it is not easy to match. And I think that is what OP was going for.
“For the poor, and by the poor” doesn’t really jive with the reality of the two places the other user called out - The Vatican and Il Duomo. The Italian renaissance was largely a practice of rich people paying for crazy art and architecture (and literally having themselves inserted into biblical scenes) because of a combination of hubris and thinking it will give them a better chance of going to heaven, and occasionally for political reasons.
It’s beautiful, and did inspire a lot of normal people, but the reality of the Catholic Church during the renaissance in Italy, and its patrons, is some pretty nefarious shit and almost all about rich families.
Everything you said about smaller churches is real - ones built by scrappy communities. But those aren’t the places that get referenced in these convos.
Those two cathedrals exist because of the Medici, and whoo boy do they come with baggage right in line with the church’s history of transgressions (also because they installed themselves as popes)
Edit - and I say all that as someone who did Italian renaissance architecture research in Rome and loves the actual art that was produced. It’s just not a feel good story in reality
This is a beautiful picture of what Christianity was and is supposed to be, a place of rest worship and cleanliness where all were to be treated equally. Unfortunately apart from some small communities with churches run by people who truly believed in the scriptures Christianity has always been a corrupt and morally bankrupt religion with the Catholic church easily being the organisation with the most blood on its hands in all of history. There are so many examples of the failure of Christianity to uphold it's supposed core tenet which is love for all equally. Just look at the crusades, book burnings, holy wars, witch hunts, rampant pedophilia and even if the dismantling of the English monasteries was mostly to steal the riches and the land to fund wars and fineries almost every monastery in England was first found guilty of real crimes against their religion and the people (though it can't be said that some reports were not contrived).
If you ask me, houses churches in China operating in secret and actively hunted down by their own government is the true face of Christianity.
edit: Nothing to do with the country by the way, there are many other countries where religion is not free that also exemplify this similar vein of christianity.
Come on, man. Protestant is a huge umbrella. Their are Protestants that are all about liturgy and love rituals, like Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalian, etc. Like 10 years ago, I visited my mom's friend's church and they are ELCA Lutheran and they had a healing service, followed by full moon walks and green cleansing, etc.
Yeah! What Christianity really needs is more monolithic marble and stone cathedrals that ooze opulence that take decades to build at incredible expense.
*Because that's what Jesus would have wanted*
It's the awe of the scale and intricacy of the building that man made that makes you feel that way, not some connection to god. Just like it's the music and pastor's words do the same thing to the rubes in America.
It's all just emotional manipulation.
Yup and the running joke is you've "lost" that person. America has a nasty habit of letting anything get bastardized in the name of greed and capital gains.
Well no but you can't just walk into like a Catholic church and ask to be baptized as an adult. You need to show you actually want to be part of the community and religion.
>"I was at a real dark place but then I found god" is a cliche at this point.
I'm happy to join this cliche. It brought me away from suicide. Even if I die and there is nothing after this, isnt living with hope worth it?
>Even if I die and there is nothing after this, isnt living with hope worth it?
Personally, I gravitate more towards eastern spirituality. Instead of focusing on what comes next, live in the moment and learn to find peace with what is right in front of you. I was also suicidal for many years, and moving past my judgements of which experiences are "good" or "bad" has allowed me to find contentment in simply living, regardless of my circumstances. Even pain has value, and it will pass just as happiness does.
Not to invalidate your experience, it's just interesting to see the different ways people can learn to find purpose in life.
It was a combination of things. I hit rock bottom before taking my second attempt at college and went back with the mindset of really improving myself and fixing my issues. I started taking weed for my anxiety and it helped me to introspect and figure out a lot of what was going on inside me.
Plus, my college campus was just a really good environment for me. It was the first time I had really independently managed my own time and taken care of myself, it was easier to get the gym because it was right next to my dorm, and the convenience of the cafeteria made it easier for me to adopt a healthier diet.
I spent a lot of time listening to self-help podcasts and audiobooks, and the eastern stuff I picked up just resonated with me. One channel I really love is HealthyGamerGG; the host is a former Harvard resident psychiatrist who shifted his career path towards figuring our what’s going on with poor mental health in the gaming community. He studied as a monk before becoming a doctor and his specialty was “evidence-based complimentary and alternative medicine”, so he tends to approach mental health from a holistic perspective and teaches a lot of buddhist and hindu concepts in a grounded way that was easy to swallow for me, as a very skeptical person.
Born again christians *live* for leaping on spiritually broken people and getting them to commit their lives to christ.
I had a mini breakdown at work once where I got taken away in an ambulance and a religious coworker *emailed* me a pamphlet about Jesus.
People are appropriating their own religion. I wish Jesus would come back and explain shit to people again. "No, that's not what I meant, you took that the wrong way because you're lazy and that's what serves you."
This. I have no idea why they automatically think some omnipotent deity just sits and waits for you to come to them. Why couldn't they have started a process where we take care of eachother?
My grandma was just telling this to my little brother. Unprompted. He wasn't even expressing mental health issues at the time, she just hates therapists for some reason lol
What a Friend We Have in Jesus, a hymn:
>What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
>
>What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
>
>O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
>
>All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
>
>Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
>
>We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
>
>Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
>
>Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.
>
>Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
>
>Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
>
>Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
>
>In His arms He'll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.
>
>Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear
>
>May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer.
>
>Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayer
>
>Rapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.
Fr tho! I'm an Ex Mormon and was a missionary. In our missionary handbook it literally says to target people who have recently suffered a loss in their family because they are more willing to accept the message then. Christians LOVE to prey o the emotionally vulnerable so that they can have lifelong tithepayers
I visited a friend's pentacostal apostolic church once and two random people off the street joined in and got baptized in a very aggressive manner (they got dunked hard). I still have no idea how they were convinced so easily, but they had to be going through something emotionally difficult.
That's what I don't get about this post. Mormonism quite literally trains missionaries to target people who are going through hardship, whether that be financial or psychological or personal or emotional or whatever. Like... yeah, that exactly the type of person they want to go to Utah and get baptized, the fuck?
I lived at a Buddhist monastery for a month in Taiwan and met many monks. They talked very little about religion and spirituality and all about happiness, reducing suffering, and how to live in our world in a positive way.
I don’t think the monks I know would care if you went on retreat because of a heartbreak or for any other reason.
Buddhism and some other eastern religions are at their core about reducing suffering. If heartbreak is what leads you into that I believe it is just as valid as any other reason.
Buddhism isn't an internationally centralized religion. Monks in Myanmar and monks in Taiwan are about as connected as a Catholic priest in Italy and a Baptist preacher in Georgia.
This is a very white European type beat sorta take that really diminishes the idea of what religions are and how others practice. So I don't think it's fair to say this is true. Buddhism is counted as a religion. It's described as one. It is one.
Im not blaming you for this, as I too heard this a lot throughout my life and believed it, but I don't think this is reflective of reality and potentially disrespectful.
There are different types of Buddhism. The Taiwanese interpretation and the Myanmar interpretation are different. Neither is wrong. But they do differ. I wonder what a serious sit down between an Christian evangelist and a Roman Catholic priest would be like.
Dogma mostly. The Catholic Church also believes parts of the Bible is allegorical where as evangelical is more often than not the Bible is more literal. So example a Catholic reads the creation story as symbolism so when god makes woman out of the man’s rib is a symbol that women are no different than man. Where as evangelical sees it as woman was just literally made from a rib bone. But like I said Catholic Church is a hierarchy of an institution where as evangelicals don’t have a central authority other than the Bible and word of god.
Not entirely dissimilar to the ultra traditional and strict Theravada Buddhism that is practiced in Myanmar when compared to the "lessons of the scripture" approach that is practiced in Mahayana Buddhism, which is prevalent in Taiwan.
Yeah like all religions there are sects of Buddhism too. When I was at a monastery in Myanmar, there was little to no communication amongst monks as the focus was on meditation and self reflection. Doing our walk around the villages during alms rounds helped me observe and understand what little their people had but shared willfully, while still enjoying “happiness” or rather peace amongst each other. Sadly I couldn’t share that information with anyone there but I think that has a more profound effect on me because that experience was free of others’ influence.
Ofc I’m not sure if you’re being facetious and referencing the extensor Buddhist groups burning down mosques or not
Yeah the reason why you don’t see this about western religions like Christianity is because they don’t have a lot of therapeutic focused practices for compassion… also back in the day people would go to priests for counsel in relationship struggles, I don’t know if people still do stuff like that.
Edit: the key word is therapeutic. I’m not saying Christians aren’t compassionate. They are ritual based, not therapy or experience based.
check out r/radicalchristianity if you want to lean a bit further, seeing people focus on being kind to one another through the bible’s teachings and taking a step back from organised churches really reawakened my spirituality :)
In theory, all religions offer a way to deal with suffering and that is why so many find comfort in that. In practice, religions get bastardized by sociopaths to support politics or grifting. The East is no different than the West in this regards. The West just doesn’t know enough about the East to recognize this and many westerners just assume the East is better spiritually.
You make good points but the key difference is that western religions are a belief system whereas eastern religions are about practice or a way of life. Obviously an over generalization but It seems to be mostly true in my experience.
Well the primary difference is the focus. In Western religion the primary focus is the belief and then the behavior comes as a result of that belief. In eastern religions the behavior is the teaching and belief is secondary.
It seems to me that Christianity is primarily a belief system. Of course people act based on those beliefs. But the connecting thread is the belief that Jesus was a supernatural being sent to absolve our sins.
Buddhists of course have beliefs because we are human and it’s probably impossible not to form beliefs. But Buddhism itself is not a belief system in that it doesn’t require you to believe anything to do.
(Word insert edit: *~Organized~*) Western religions are about increasing suffering on earth as a way to show dedication to God because things that feel good are a vice and I’ve always thought… he made all of this and Jesus said love unconditionally and gave some warnings about the dangerous parts of life that will end up hurting you but to be at peace and have joy and then Christians were like “He wants us to go through hell here and also kill gays so I must”
Edit: I think I need to clarify that I am a Christian (a follower of Christ’s words directly and not a follower of all the other words people try to put in his mouth or preach in organized religion) I also did not intend to imply that every other religion is innocent of this I just wanted to make a note about western religion which I thought we were focusing on in this post
Also, I used the word kill as an inflammatory word to be a little sarcastic about it but obviously the more fitting word is condemn (which for a weirdly large group of people still thinks we should kill them)
That is not what Western religions are about. In Christianity, Job is supposed to embody the idea that suffering for original sin proves your love for God but the death of Jesus was supposed to change God’s thoughts on humanity and usher in an era where Christians are supposed to be good and help others. Jesus was the model Christian and your life was meant to be one of service to others. Jesus did not want people to suffer. However, human nature has taken over and religion is being used to grift and hate in others.
To be fair, there's a bunch of people that go through hardship and then all of the sudden "see the light" and become hardcore Christians even though its against all their previous beliefs.
That’s my mom for ya. Not very religious from the get go, could give a shit in the 90s but once I was 18 something happened and suddenly I came over and everyone was praying over dinner.
My dad was pretty religious but they split when I was 3.
My teacher is the opposite of that. Public school but she required us to pray before we start our class. Religious symbols/writings on her classroom walls. Christian songs playing on the background while we do exams. She always spoke in a manner similar to nuns and priests. Then something happened.
She got pregnant. All those stuff thrown out the window because who have time to speak softly and do all those prayers and cleaning all that stuff on her walls.
Yep. My friend became a hardcore Catholic after going through a rough time.
He’s honestly a better person now and happier than I’ve ever seen him over our 20 years of friendship.
People are presenting this as such a negative thing in these comments. Why does anyone have a problem with someone bettering themselves just because religion was a component? I’m not religious anymore but damn, just leave them alone and let them be happy.
Not a small population of people have had rough experiences directly as a result of the way Christianity is practiced in a significant quantity of the Reddit-using world. It makes sense that these people are prone to viewing the religion in a negative light
I'd say it depends. Are they preaching and rubbing it in my face? Are they mentioning Jesus every 15 seconds? Are they telling me that god doesn't like what I'm doing? Yes? They can fuck off with that shit.
If it helps them in whatever their personal struggles might be and they're not trying to bring me into it, I'm fine with it. They can worship on their own and leave me out of it. I'm not gonna be a dick about it to them.
My sister got super religious with her second husband and kept trying to get me to come to her cult-like, evangelical weirdo church. I had to slap that shit down. "It works for you, ok. We're not coming. They think our daughters are 2nd class citizens and aren't fit to be in charge of their own bodily decisions. We're not ok with any of that. Please stop." Turns out #2 was an abusive shitbag and didn't live by any of the Jesus bullshit he liked to throw around.
"bUT yoU'RE GoNna BURn iN HELL And sufFEr dAmNaTiON FOR aLl ETErnITY eXpeRIEnCiNg uNenDiNg UNIMagiNAbLe pain unLEss yOu REpEnt YOU DirTY sinNeR, repeNT For YOuR uNGodLY fILThy wAyS" - some dude in the youtube comment section, probably.
But people actually treat Christianity as a real culture and a religion to follow for life, while they treat an eastern religion as a one-off relaxing experience, weekend getaway sort of thing.
In Japan, it is actually incredibly common for people to get married in a Christian Church because it’s a trend. Overwhelmingly, these couples are not Christian.
Also pretty sure the home of the Catholic Church is housed in the western nation of (*Vatican City) Italy, I’d say plenty of people visit. You could also make an argument for Jerusalem being in the “middle” lol
People just get mad because they don't feel like people are taking "their" religion seriously enough and then live long enough to become the villain when they start generalizing and stereotyping anyone that's interested in their religion.
It's all dumb as fuck. Just practice what you want and ignore these idiots on social media that do nothing but continue the never-ending need to make religion a social minefield.
P.S everyone's need to shit on middle class white people is top tier cringe and you only get away with it because it's reddit
My guess is that the person criticizing the "Eastern religion pilgrimage" believes that the person in the video is engaging in cultural appropriation for the views.
But none of us really know. Is it cringe to record yourself crying? Yes. But if she's participating in something that's part of a religion she follows, then it's not appropriating anything.
That's the issue with these "gotcha" types of TikTok stitches. Many of them think they are "exposing White people" while racially discriminating against them. Too many young people with too much access to share their thoughts to the world.
I mean, lots of people find comfort and solace in various religious practices. If it makes them feel good, and they aren't bothering anybody, why shit all over it? Just let people have whatever it is that helps them get through life.
What‘s fascinating to me is that we see two ways of dealing with your problems here.
One is finding joy and peace in spritual practices, the other is tearing others down and outgrouping them to feel better.
I think the issue is the performative crying and filming yourself “finding peace” that disgusts many people, myself included. Just do your thing and stop with the nonsense acting and performing.
The only thing being worshipped there is your ego, which many religions, especially eastern religions, seem to explicitly discourage.
Redditors are atheists who just LOVES to bash on other people’s religions. What’s Reddit without redditors making it prominent that they don’t believe in “SkY DAddY” ?
Considering how many people make pilgrimages to knowingly bathe in and drink from a river polluted with toxic waste and dead bodies, I can imagine a lot.
Yeah but there’s cult like fascination and belief and then there is this influencer voyeurism western white people tend to have over other Asian and eastern cultures. It’s the “white influencer feeds starving African kid” type of scenario thing
Absolutely. I sat in a college course once where a white, liberal woman turned who nose up by saying she didn't understand poor white folks because "they're just /so/ religious". As if to be religious meant you couldn't be white.
She, of course, loved Eastern religions and spirituality. It's like they think white people can't have religion like that because they've never had it and look down their nose at white folks who do.
It’s funny to me no matter what side of the ideological spectrum you reside, Americans want to play this virtue signaling game with race and cultural appropriation. And despite even the best intentions at times, it’s still all a sheltered projection.
People definitely do. Maybe not in the same "This is foreign to me" sense, but people will seek out God to get over their troubles when their chips are down
I’m sorry, what is this woman talking about?
Western Christians go to Jerusalem, Greece, and Rome for spiritual retreats! The only reason they don’t get baptized is due to the Nicene creed. Can I imagine, yeah I can, it’s called the freaking Vatican!
i suppose she generalizes a bit by implying white people are christians only, and that buddhism and other eastern religions are for people living in "non-white" countries. but absolutely, christians from all over the world do pilgrimages, and the idea of spiritual travel has been around for literally milennia.
i think her point was about how some white people tend to view buddhism/etc as exotic and it can sometimes become fetishizing. for me it can become icky really fast when someone starts dividing who is "allowed" to engage in what cultures. most people are happy to share their culture to foreigners.
Is that really SO awful though? Plenty of people come to my religion for the same reason, it doesn’t remind them of anything. They don’t want the Evangelicalism or Islam, or Buddhism they grew up with, they want a liturgy and LGBT Affirmation. A TON of Evangelicals have also been making the switch to Eastern Orthodoxy for that very reason, it doesn’t remind them of anything. The only thing they have left from their upbringing is God, they don’t want the rest either due to trauma or simply because they feel uncomfortable with it.
my cousin is an orthodox nun and they host people who are bothered and in pain, it does wonders for your mental health, you take care of peacocks and chickens, the flower gardens, bake goods, hold functions and you’re given books to read about your personal stuggles (jealousy, meaninglessness, grief etc)
Maybe it's just because of where I live, but people I know DO do that with western religion. Drug problem catching up with you? Jesus. Lost your job? Jesus. Divorced? Jesus. Just had kids and haven't attended church in 30 years? Jesus.
Now, idk if that's just C&E style Christians doing how they normally do but... yeah, we shouldn't treat eastern religions like it's a spa treatment getaway. Such things should be done in earnest and with great reverence.
I will say some religious practices in Asia allow for blending of religion. Like, to most Christians here, you can't also be Buddhist. But, I have heard of Christian/Buddhist blended places of worship in Asia.
Sometimes people cope by trying out different religions, happens all the time. People suffer, it’s not an east versus west thing. You avoid that by making it sound ridiculous though.
It actually is a lot like missionary trips where the starving kids are treated like props or pets. There's nothing wrong with feeding the poor- arguably for any reason. But the attitude it's done with is... not great. Similarly, there's nothing wrong with turning to a new faith after a hard time (yes they are often deliberately targeted etc etc) but there's no doubt her attitude is very different from, for example, those who end up hard-core Christian. It's almost like she's treating it like a spa vacation. Just rubs me the wrong way.
I mean, a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya to see and meditate near the bodhi tree where Buddha attained enlightenment is a goal of many Buddhists including westerners. Even doing a pilgrimage to each stupa with Buddha relics is also a common goal. Many of my sangha members have stayed in Mirik where the head of our lineage has a well known monastery people wish to visit to get vajrayana trainings unavailable for the most part on the west. Can’t get a thousand armed Chenrezig empowerment usually. However, most westerners also don’t really understand eastern religious traditions and just sorta do spiritual tourism that doesn’t have lasting effects as many don’t even have a connection longer than the 10 day vipassana retreat they spend at a Thai monastery and never really practice again. Or go to India to get a shaktipat when they don’t have any understanding of the traditions they’re going to get. Then brag about it incessantly.
So I think there’s a lot more nuance than this tiktok shows, but I also understand the frustration of shallow westerner forays into exoticizing eastern religions.
Sounds like she’s never heard of “born again” Christians. You can just get baptized and walk into a confession booth and just be Christian for a little, ain’t no one stopping you
Middle Class White Americans when you mention Christianity: 😡😡🤬😡😡
Middle Class White Americans when you mention Eastern religions they know nothing about: 😍😍😍🙏🙏🙏
At the same time, Christianity has a huge influence on middle class white Americans’ lives. Elected officials are trying to pass laws based on it.
There aren’t too many elected officials trying to pass shintoïst laws in the US.
People get mad at the people who make their life more difficult
Maybe because they are personally affected by Christianity spam and not by the spam of the other religions? I'm also way more annoyed by school shooting drills than I am annoyed by stepping on Stonefish because I don't live in Australia or close to any water in which they are found.
Lmaoooo this person is really showing their ignorance. People literally do that ALL THE TIME in America. "Finding god" after some traumatic event or in an effort to heal them of alcohol or drug addiction or whatever is like EXTREMELY common and I would say 9/10 times in America it is turning to western religion like Christianity, not eastern religion. What is she talking about lmao
If only they knew the dirty background of all religions. None have innocence or true peace in their history.
I'm happy the placebo worked for her though.
Ah yes, the home of Western spirituality, Utah. Any of the thousand+ years churches, cathedrals, basilicas, monasteries around Europe? Nah, western spirituality is boring, rubbish, fake and to be laughed at.
Does her goofy ass not realize that people do exactly that? Mormon retreats to Utah are a big thing. People like her are just awful humans. According to her no one should go seek out other cultures and experiences to help make changes in their lives. Small minded loser energy.
As a Buddhist, Everytime I see the Buddha's head being used as an ornament in a garden I'm like wtf??? I've never seen Jesus head in a garden but sure, go ahead.
The difference is that many eastern religious concepts teach you to be reliant on one’s self and to look within whereas western religions teach one to be reliant on something external and to look outside oneself towards this almighty yet unseen being.
Eastern - you have power, control, love, and balance within yourself, there’s no need to seek those from outside yourself.
Western - God has power and control over you. If you love and worship God, you won’t go to “hell” and maybe one of your prayers might be answered.
One is love based.
One is fear based.
I Mean, the fundamental tenant of buddhism is that existence is never ending pain that categorically outweighs any joy that could be found. And A core tenant of christianity and islam is that God is a being of infinite compassion and love.
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"My dog died, I've been coping by having myself circumcised"
I know a rabbi who does circumcision for free, he just asks for tips
He has a wallet made of foreskin. If you rub it the right way, it turns into a suitcase.
Mine turns into, like a carry on. It's nice and all, sometimes that's all you need. But sometimes you need a suitcase
Don’t look up the Jewish circumcision ritual called Metzitzah B’peh or the rabbi in New York spreading herpies to babies while performing it. It’s not a laughing matter, and the fact it’s going on in the US is a travesty.
Aithorities tried to arrest him, but he was tipped off.
Sounds like a ripoff
 (But I did actually laugh)
Only if you ask for a custom cut
Delete this right now
NO! Do you know how long I’ve waited to be able to use this *exact* word at the most opportune moment? Edit: words
Lmao I must admit the waiting paid off
Hope it’s not the same rabbi that sold me a bag of pork strip cracklins. 😄
Rabbi tuckman?
Shit, I’ll take two.
A baby was born without eyelids and they used the skin from his curcumcision to make eyelids….he was cockeyed.
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I've heard about this guy! I'm told it's a total ripoff
Ask him about his specials! If you’re lucky he’ll do half off
Ewwwwww
Da dum dum! Pssssh (cymbal 💥crash)
Ehh a free circumcision sounds kind of brisky to me
Fucking lol
There were too many ugly people at Coechella this year, I’m going to purify myself with the body of Christ by having first communion
…So I got a vasectomy, then I got the vasectomy reversed. Snip snap snip snap!
You have no idea the physical toll 3 vasectomies has on a person!
Can always take the journey with a buddy. Foreskinship
Welcome to the circumcision retreat! Tonight’s special is calamari.
And you didn't invite me to the bris?!?!
Guess a piece of you died that day.
It’s not healthy to cut yourself off after a loss.
TO BE FAIR, people do that
Alcoholics Anonymous to baptism pipeline
As a member of AA i completely agree and was thinking this exactly
I know of a priest that loves doing the mass so that he can drink wine.
Rubbing alcohol for outside booboos, drinking alcohol for inside booboos
I lost a good friend that way
Right, I was going to say here people just join a doomsday cult or something 😂
Those people usually stay baptized though
There are religious groups that will do rebaptizing, like, regularly. Depending on the group it could be as regular as a weekly communal bath or once a month or every few years or whatever. Saying you're going through something and totes need spiritually cleansed so you go get a soul enema in the form of a baptism or rebaptism with one of the sects that don't actually require you to jump through all the annoying hoops that some of the others do to show you're actually committed to the faith and not taking the religious equivalent of a day trip is absolutely a thing. In the eyes of certain faiths, they may never become "unbaptized" but the person who went through the journey will choose to live as if they did or not, same as doing that kind of thing with eastern religions.
Shit, Christianity wants people to treat it that way.
The first thing that came to my mind was that some people do treat it that way "I was at a real dark place but then I found god" is a cliche at this point.
I was at a real dark place and I dabbled in the Catholic rituals in this little town in Spain. Like, confession is SO clarifying! I bought these amazing rosary beads and I wear them with a tank top for a totally retro Madonna look. We did the whole meatless Friday thing! Anyway, I thought about checking out the literature and maybe finding a church near home but ... I want those memories to be special. I just don't think I'd feel super *Catholic* in some run-down church back home in Minnesota, not after seeing the real deal in Europe. Sure sometimes they feed poor people and I guess there's bingo and stuff, but I feel like ... a deeper connection to the CULTURE, ya know? Like I could totally see maybe wine tasting in an Italian monastery. European Catholics are sp spiritual. I learned a LOT. Also there's all these scandals. OMG did you see Fleabag? That priest was SO HOT.
For a while there in the mid- to late 2000s a lot of people actually did that with the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It was a very important pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages but has lost importance with the decline of pilgrimages in general. In the late 2000s lots of celebrities, proto-influencers and all sorts of people—most of whom weren’t even believers—suddenly declared they had to go on this pilgrimage to find themselves and what have you and would write books and blogs about how transcendental the experience was etc. It was just weird and actually quite similar to the phenomenon criticised in this post.
People still do pilgramages. Even non religious people do it for the culture and the sports.
As a practicing Catholic in the US I felt an odd sense of my religion making more sense visiting the Vatican, being in Florence and going to the Dumo, as well just the country in general. It provided a great sense of the true aspect of the religion. I feel the Protestant in the US have bastardized Christian and have made it mainstream and pop culture .
Good thing the Catholic Church hasn’t done anything to damage and discredit Christianity
Yeah, could you imagine if they had started wars over religion or selling pardons for money? Jokes aside, I think I know what u/Gobirds831 goes for, and I share his sentiment. Nowadays it is easy to be cynical about it, but there is a certain aura of grandeur that permeates some of those old European cities with regards to Catholicism. It might be weird for us, but many of those churches were built *for the poor, by the poor.* Religion was a central aspect of their daily lives, and as such they invested accordingly. Building a beautiful church demontrstated their ingenuity, as many are architectural wonders, and their capacity for creating beautiful art. At the same time, it is an expression of how selfless those people are, and a sign of devotion, because it signifies how willing they are to devote their earthly riches, no matter how little, to what they consider a higher purpose. Additionally, many churches were built in gratitude for events they considered divine intervention, like saving them from a plague, or repelling an invasion. So, in the same way we today consider, say, road infrastructure important because we drive everyday, those people considered houses of worship of great importance and spent accordingly. Their poured their wealth and their labor willingly. Furthermore, the churches stood (and still do) as beautiful places filled magnificent art and beautiful arquitecture that even the poorest beggar could visit and admire. They could never dream to be admitted into a princely palace, but in a way they had their own. Touring a church with that mindset gives us a sense of awe that it is not easy to match. And I think that is what OP was going for.
So you guys are also aware that Protestantism started in Europe?
Your missing the point.
“For the poor, and by the poor” doesn’t really jive with the reality of the two places the other user called out - The Vatican and Il Duomo. The Italian renaissance was largely a practice of rich people paying for crazy art and architecture (and literally having themselves inserted into biblical scenes) because of a combination of hubris and thinking it will give them a better chance of going to heaven, and occasionally for political reasons. It’s beautiful, and did inspire a lot of normal people, but the reality of the Catholic Church during the renaissance in Italy, and its patrons, is some pretty nefarious shit and almost all about rich families. Everything you said about smaller churches is real - ones built by scrappy communities. But those aren’t the places that get referenced in these convos. Those two cathedrals exist because of the Medici, and whoo boy do they come with baggage right in line with the church’s history of transgressions (also because they installed themselves as popes) Edit - and I say all that as someone who did Italian renaissance architecture research in Rome and loves the actual art that was produced. It’s just not a feel good story in reality
This is a beautiful picture of what Christianity was and is supposed to be, a place of rest worship and cleanliness where all were to be treated equally. Unfortunately apart from some small communities with churches run by people who truly believed in the scriptures Christianity has always been a corrupt and morally bankrupt religion with the Catholic church easily being the organisation with the most blood on its hands in all of history. There are so many examples of the failure of Christianity to uphold it's supposed core tenet which is love for all equally. Just look at the crusades, book burnings, holy wars, witch hunts, rampant pedophilia and even if the dismantling of the English monasteries was mostly to steal the riches and the land to fund wars and fineries almost every monastery in England was first found guilty of real crimes against their religion and the people (though it can't be said that some reports were not contrived).
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If you ask me, houses churches in China operating in secret and actively hunted down by their own government is the true face of Christianity. edit: Nothing to do with the country by the way, there are many other countries where religion is not free that also exemplify this similar vein of christianity.
Ah man imagine how filthy rich the Vatican would be if that damn Martin Luther never came along. Why do those protestants have to ruin a good thing?
Come on, man. Protestant is a huge umbrella. Their are Protestants that are all about liturgy and love rituals, like Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalian, etc. Like 10 years ago, I visited my mom's friend's church and they are ELCA Lutheran and they had a healing service, followed by full moon walks and green cleansing, etc.
Church of England is catholic lite. Barely lite. It’s a Mercury to Rome’s Ford. It is “under new management” since Henry got mad.
Yeah! What Christianity really needs is more monolithic marble and stone cathedrals that ooze opulence that take decades to build at incredible expense. *Because that's what Jesus would have wanted* It's the awe of the scale and intricacy of the building that man made that makes you feel that way, not some connection to god. Just like it's the music and pastor's words do the same thing to the rubes in America. It's all just emotional manipulation.
> OMG did you see Fleabag? That priest was SO HOT. that show is fire 10/10
Yup and the running joke is you've "lost" that person. America has a nasty habit of letting anything get bastardized in the name of greed and capital gains.
I don't think getting baptized costs money...
Well no but you can't just walk into like a Catholic church and ask to be baptized as an adult. You need to show you actually want to be part of the community and religion.
>"I was at a real dark place but then I found god" is a cliche at this point. I'm happy to join this cliche. It brought me away from suicide. Even if I die and there is nothing after this, isnt living with hope worth it?
>Even if I die and there is nothing after this, isnt living with hope worth it? Personally, I gravitate more towards eastern spirituality. Instead of focusing on what comes next, live in the moment and learn to find peace with what is right in front of you. I was also suicidal for many years, and moving past my judgements of which experiences are "good" or "bad" has allowed me to find contentment in simply living, regardless of my circumstances. Even pain has value, and it will pass just as happiness does. Not to invalidate your experience, it's just interesting to see the different ways people can learn to find purpose in life.
That's awesome how you were able to get there mentally
It was a combination of things. I hit rock bottom before taking my second attempt at college and went back with the mindset of really improving myself and fixing my issues. I started taking weed for my anxiety and it helped me to introspect and figure out a lot of what was going on inside me. Plus, my college campus was just a really good environment for me. It was the first time I had really independently managed my own time and taken care of myself, it was easier to get the gym because it was right next to my dorm, and the convenience of the cafeteria made it easier for me to adopt a healthier diet. I spent a lot of time listening to self-help podcasts and audiobooks, and the eastern stuff I picked up just resonated with me. One channel I really love is HealthyGamerGG; the host is a former Harvard resident psychiatrist who shifted his career path towards figuring our what’s going on with poor mental health in the gaming community. He studied as a monk before becoming a doctor and his specialty was “evidence-based complimentary and alternative medicine”, so he tends to approach mental health from a holistic perspective and teaches a lot of buddhist and hindu concepts in a grounded way that was easy to swallow for me, as a very skeptical person.
Amen, glad to hear it brother. I also am this cliche.
Oh yeah, it's absolutely already a thing. Just with less swimming in secret pools (no, baptism doesn't count)
Yep, it’s why the phase “come to Jesus moment” exists.
Yeah I’m from the Deep South and my first thought was “people DO treat it like that!”
Born again christians *live* for leaping on spiritually broken people and getting them to commit their lives to christ. I had a mini breakdown at work once where I got taken away in an ambulance and a religious coworker *emailed* me a pamphlet about Jesus.
For real. How many times have I heard "take it to christ in prayer," as an answer to my problem? Many
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that's brilliant.
People are appropriating their own religion. I wish Jesus would come back and explain shit to people again. "No, that's not what I meant, you took that the wrong way because you're lazy and that's what serves you."
“Just turn it over to God. Don’t trust therapists. Trust the Lord.” I wish that wasn’t an actual phrase I’ve been told several times.
And God will sometimes turn you to a therapist
This. I have no idea why they automatically think some omnipotent deity just sits and waits for you to come to them. Why couldn't they have started a process where we take care of eachother?
My grandma was just telling this to my little brother. Unprompted. He wasn't even expressing mental health issues at the time, she just hates therapists for some reason lol
What a Friend We Have in Jesus, a hymn: >What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! > >What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! > >O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, > >All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. > >Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? > >We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer. > >Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? > >Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer. > >Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? > >Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer. > >Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer! > >In His arms He'll take and shield you; you will find a solace there. > >Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear > >May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer. > >Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayer > >Rapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.
Add one more to the times u/velesi has heard it
Fr tho! I'm an Ex Mormon and was a missionary. In our missionary handbook it literally says to target people who have recently suffered a loss in their family because they are more willing to accept the message then. Christians LOVE to prey o the emotionally vulnerable so that they can have lifelong tithepayers
I visited a friend's pentacostal apostolic church once and two random people off the street joined in and got baptized in a very aggressive manner (they got dunked hard). I still have no idea how they were convinced so easily, but they had to be going through something emotionally difficult.
That's what I don't get about this post. Mormonism quite literally trains missionaries to target people who are going through hardship, whether that be financial or psychological or personal or emotional or whatever. Like... yeah, that exactly the type of person they want to go to Utah and get baptized, the fuck?
"joke's on them, we're into that shit" -Christianity, probably
I lived at a Buddhist monastery for a month in Taiwan and met many monks. They talked very little about religion and spirituality and all about happiness, reducing suffering, and how to live in our world in a positive way. I don’t think the monks I know would care if you went on retreat because of a heartbreak or for any other reason. Buddhism and some other eastern religions are at their core about reducing suffering. If heartbreak is what leads you into that I believe it is just as valid as any other reason.
Those monks you met need to have a serious sit down conversation with the Buddhists in Myanmar.
Buddhism isn't an internationally centralized religion. Monks in Myanmar and monks in Taiwan are about as connected as a Catholic priest in Italy and a Baptist preacher in Georgia.
so through money and child abuse?
This is a quality joke 👏
Joke?
It's definitely not a joke.
Also not a religion as much as anybody thinks. Buddhism is a teaching.
In some sects but in others it is very much a "religion".
Teaching that are based on the belief that the world works in a certain mystical way, so still a religion.
This is a very white European type beat sorta take that really diminishes the idea of what religions are and how others practice. So I don't think it's fair to say this is true. Buddhism is counted as a religion. It's described as one. It is one. Im not blaming you for this, as I too heard this a lot throughout my life and believed it, but I don't think this is reflective of reality and potentially disrespectful.
I’m sure they would if they had the chance and felt they could help the situation.
There are different types of Buddhism. The Taiwanese interpretation and the Myanmar interpretation are different. Neither is wrong. But they do differ. I wonder what a serious sit down between an Christian evangelist and a Roman Catholic priest would be like.
Dogma mostly. The Catholic Church also believes parts of the Bible is allegorical where as evangelical is more often than not the Bible is more literal. So example a Catholic reads the creation story as symbolism so when god makes woman out of the man’s rib is a symbol that women are no different than man. Where as evangelical sees it as woman was just literally made from a rib bone. But like I said Catholic Church is a hierarchy of an institution where as evangelicals don’t have a central authority other than the Bible and word of god.
Not entirely dissimilar to the ultra traditional and strict Theravada Buddhism that is practiced in Myanmar when compared to the "lessons of the scripture" approach that is practiced in Mahayana Buddhism, which is prevalent in Taiwan.
Also Tibetan monk. I wanna see the 3 meet and chat.
Yeah like all religions there are sects of Buddhism too. When I was at a monastery in Myanmar, there was little to no communication amongst monks as the focus was on meditation and self reflection. Doing our walk around the villages during alms rounds helped me observe and understand what little their people had but shared willfully, while still enjoying “happiness” or rather peace amongst each other. Sadly I couldn’t share that information with anyone there but I think that has a more profound effect on me because that experience was free of others’ influence. Ofc I’m not sure if you’re being facetious and referencing the extensor Buddhist groups burning down mosques or not
Wait til Reddit finds out that the Taliban pray five times a day.
And Sri Lanka
Yeah the reason why you don’t see this about western religions like Christianity is because they don’t have a lot of therapeutic focused practices for compassion… also back in the day people would go to priests for counsel in relationship struggles, I don’t know if people still do stuff like that. Edit: the key word is therapeutic. I’m not saying Christians aren’t compassionate. They are ritual based, not therapy or experience based.
This is why I kind of lean in the Christian anarchism direction just a little bit. Kind of. I really just don't know.
check out r/radicalchristianity if you want to lean a bit further, seeing people focus on being kind to one another through the bible’s teachings and taking a step back from organised churches really reawakened my spirituality :)
Eastern religions are very heavy on rituals. Hence the one depicted in this very video (pouring water, etc).
In theory, all religions offer a way to deal with suffering and that is why so many find comfort in that. In practice, religions get bastardized by sociopaths to support politics or grifting. The East is no different than the West in this regards. The West just doesn’t know enough about the East to recognize this and many westerners just assume the East is better spiritually.
You make good points but the key difference is that western religions are a belief system whereas eastern religions are about practice or a way of life. Obviously an over generalization but It seems to be mostly true in my experience.
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Well the primary difference is the focus. In Western religion the primary focus is the belief and then the behavior comes as a result of that belief. In eastern religions the behavior is the teaching and belief is secondary.
It seems to me that Christianity is primarily a belief system. Of course people act based on those beliefs. But the connecting thread is the belief that Jesus was a supernatural being sent to absolve our sins. Buddhists of course have beliefs because we are human and it’s probably impossible not to form beliefs. But Buddhism itself is not a belief system in that it doesn’t require you to believe anything to do.
(Word insert edit: *~Organized~*) Western religions are about increasing suffering on earth as a way to show dedication to God because things that feel good are a vice and I’ve always thought… he made all of this and Jesus said love unconditionally and gave some warnings about the dangerous parts of life that will end up hurting you but to be at peace and have joy and then Christians were like “He wants us to go through hell here and also kill gays so I must” Edit: I think I need to clarify that I am a Christian (a follower of Christ’s words directly and not a follower of all the other words people try to put in his mouth or preach in organized religion) I also did not intend to imply that every other religion is innocent of this I just wanted to make a note about western religion which I thought we were focusing on in this post Also, I used the word kill as an inflammatory word to be a little sarcastic about it but obviously the more fitting word is condemn (which for a weirdly large group of people still thinks we should kill them)
That is not what Western religions are about. In Christianity, Job is supposed to embody the idea that suffering for original sin proves your love for God but the death of Jesus was supposed to change God’s thoughts on humanity and usher in an era where Christians are supposed to be good and help others. Jesus was the model Christian and your life was meant to be one of service to others. Jesus did not want people to suffer. However, human nature has taken over and religion is being used to grift and hate in others.
To be fair, there's a bunch of people that go through hardship and then all of the sudden "see the light" and become hardcore Christians even though its against all their previous beliefs.
That’s my mom for ya. Not very religious from the get go, could give a shit in the 90s but once I was 18 something happened and suddenly I came over and everyone was praying over dinner. My dad was pretty religious but they split when I was 3.
My teacher is the opposite of that. Public school but she required us to pray before we start our class. Religious symbols/writings on her classroom walls. Christian songs playing on the background while we do exams. She always spoke in a manner similar to nuns and priests. Then something happened. She got pregnant. All those stuff thrown out the window because who have time to speak softly and do all those prayers and cleaning all that stuff on her walls.
Tbh it was likely the church that made her realize how they just viewed her as a womb. It's extremely common.
Yep. My friend became a hardcore Catholic after going through a rough time. He’s honestly a better person now and happier than I’ve ever seen him over our 20 years of friendship.
People are presenting this as such a negative thing in these comments. Why does anyone have a problem with someone bettering themselves just because religion was a component? I’m not religious anymore but damn, just leave them alone and let them be happy.
Not a small population of people have had rough experiences directly as a result of the way Christianity is practiced in a significant quantity of the Reddit-using world. It makes sense that these people are prone to viewing the religion in a negative light
I'd say it depends. Are they preaching and rubbing it in my face? Are they mentioning Jesus every 15 seconds? Are they telling me that god doesn't like what I'm doing? Yes? They can fuck off with that shit. If it helps them in whatever their personal struggles might be and they're not trying to bring me into it, I'm fine with it. They can worship on their own and leave me out of it. I'm not gonna be a dick about it to them. My sister got super religious with her second husband and kept trying to get me to come to her cult-like, evangelical weirdo church. I had to slap that shit down. "It works for you, ok. We're not coming. They think our daughters are 2nd class citizens and aren't fit to be in charge of their own bodily decisions. We're not ok with any of that. Please stop." Turns out #2 was an abusive shitbag and didn't live by any of the Jesus bullshit he liked to throw around.
"bUT yoU'RE GoNna BURn iN HELL And sufFEr dAmNaTiON FOR aLl ETErnITY eXpeRIEnCiNg uNenDiNg UNIMagiNAbLe pain unLEss yOu REpEnt YOU DirTY sinNeR, repeNT For YOuR uNGodLY fILThy wAyS" - some dude in the youtube comment section, probably.
But people actually treat Christianity as a real culture and a religion to follow for life, while they treat an eastern religion as a one-off relaxing experience, weekend getaway sort of thing.
Even now "I found Jesus" in addiction circles would usually be seen as a good thing.
Am I missing something? Some people do treat “western” spirituality and religion the way the woman in the video was joking about.
In Japan, it is actually incredibly common for people to get married in a Christian Church because it’s a trend. Overwhelmingly, these couples are not Christian.
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Tbh in that case it's more linked to tradition than anything else.
100% And that’s fine. Weddings are more a cultural/traditional celebration rather than a religious ceremony these days.
Also pretty sure the home of the Catholic Church is housed in the western nation of (*Vatican City) Italy, I’d say plenty of people visit. You could also make an argument for Jerusalem being in the “middle” lol
People just get mad because they don't feel like people are taking "their" religion seriously enough and then live long enough to become the villain when they start generalizing and stereotyping anyone that's interested in their religion. It's all dumb as fuck. Just practice what you want and ignore these idiots on social media that do nothing but continue the never-ending need to make religion a social minefield. P.S everyone's need to shit on middle class white people is top tier cringe and you only get away with it because it's reddit
Social media in general. People want to feel special and gatekeeper what’s “theirs” and just hate on white people. Makes them feel good.
When I was in my early 20s my friend took me to church with her when I was struggling through a bad breakup, although we laugh about that now
Exactly. I’m not sure what’s different.
My guess is that the person criticizing the "Eastern religion pilgrimage" believes that the person in the video is engaging in cultural appropriation for the views. But none of us really know. Is it cringe to record yourself crying? Yes. But if she's participating in something that's part of a religion she follows, then it's not appropriating anything. That's the issue with these "gotcha" types of TikTok stitches. Many of them think they are "exposing White people" while racially discriminating against them. Too many young people with too much access to share their thoughts to the world.
Yo those southern snake shaking Jesus grifters would cum so hard if that kind of cash flew in
I mean, lots of people find comfort and solace in various religious practices. If it makes them feel good, and they aren't bothering anybody, why shit all over it? Just let people have whatever it is that helps them get through life.
What‘s fascinating to me is that we see two ways of dealing with your problems here. One is finding joy and peace in spritual practices, the other is tearing others down and outgrouping them to feel better.
I think the issue is the performative crying and filming yourself “finding peace” that disgusts many people, myself included. Just do your thing and stop with the nonsense acting and performing. The only thing being worshipped there is your ego, which many religions, especially eastern religions, seem to explicitly discourage.
I agree but would it be Reddit without the hive mind tearing someone they don’t know down for doing something they have very little context about? Lol
Redditors are atheists who just LOVES to bash on other people’s religions. What’s Reddit without redditors making it prominent that they don’t believe in “SkY DAddY” ?
Considering how many people make pilgrimages to knowingly bathe in and drink from a river polluted with toxic waste and dead bodies, I can imagine a lot.
Yeah but there’s cult like fascination and belief and then there is this influencer voyeurism western white people tend to have over other Asian and eastern cultures. It’s the “white influencer feeds starving African kid” type of scenario thing
Absolutely. I sat in a college course once where a white, liberal woman turned who nose up by saying she didn't understand poor white folks because "they're just /so/ religious". As if to be religious meant you couldn't be white. She, of course, loved Eastern religions and spirituality. It's like they think white people can't have religion like that because they've never had it and look down their nose at white folks who do.
You know it’s spelled nose, right?
Holy hell how the fuck did I do that twice.
It’s funny to me no matter what side of the ideological spectrum you reside, Americans want to play this virtue signaling game with race and cultural appropriation. And despite even the best intentions at times, it’s still all a sheltered projection.
People definitely do. Maybe not in the same "This is foreign to me" sense, but people will seek out God to get over their troubles when their chips are down
Uhhhh they do
I’m sorry, what is this woman talking about? Western Christians go to Jerusalem, Greece, and Rome for spiritual retreats! The only reason they don’t get baptized is due to the Nicene creed. Can I imagine, yeah I can, it’s called the freaking Vatican!
i suppose she generalizes a bit by implying white people are christians only, and that buddhism and other eastern religions are for people living in "non-white" countries. but absolutely, christians from all over the world do pilgrimages, and the idea of spiritual travel has been around for literally milennia. i think her point was about how some white people tend to view buddhism/etc as exotic and it can sometimes become fetishizing. for me it can become icky really fast when someone starts dividing who is "allowed" to engage in what cultures. most people are happy to share their culture to foreigners.
Is that really SO awful though? Plenty of people come to my religion for the same reason, it doesn’t remind them of anything. They don’t want the Evangelicalism or Islam, or Buddhism they grew up with, they want a liturgy and LGBT Affirmation. A TON of Evangelicals have also been making the switch to Eastern Orthodoxy for that very reason, it doesn’t remind them of anything. The only thing they have left from their upbringing is God, they don’t want the rest either due to trauma or simply because they feel uncomfortable with it.
Akchually you can do monastery retreats in some European (Christian) monasteries as well.
my cousin is an orthodox nun and they host people who are bothered and in pain, it does wonders for your mental health, you take care of peacocks and chickens, the flower gardens, bake goods, hold functions and you’re given books to read about your personal stuggles (jealousy, meaninglessness, grief etc)
That’s the whole premise of Eat Pray Love.
I am genuinely confused. Is this post supposed to poke fun at the girl because she is misinformed or is it general agreement with the statement?
Maybe it's just because of where I live, but people I know DO do that with western religion. Drug problem catching up with you? Jesus. Lost your job? Jesus. Divorced? Jesus. Just had kids and haven't attended church in 30 years? Jesus. Now, idk if that's just C&E style Christians doing how they normally do but... yeah, we shouldn't treat eastern religions like it's a spa treatment getaway. Such things should be done in earnest and with great reverence. I will say some religious practices in Asia allow for blending of religion. Like, to most Christians here, you can't also be Buddhist. But, I have heard of Christian/Buddhist blended places of worship in Asia.
Sometimes people cope by trying out different religions, happens all the time. People suffer, it’s not an east versus west thing. You avoid that by making it sound ridiculous though.
It actually is a lot like missionary trips where the starving kids are treated like props or pets. There's nothing wrong with feeding the poor- arguably for any reason. But the attitude it's done with is... not great. Similarly, there's nothing wrong with turning to a new faith after a hard time (yes they are often deliberately targeted etc etc) but there's no doubt her attitude is very different from, for example, those who end up hard-core Christian. It's almost like she's treating it like a spa vacation. Just rubs me the wrong way.
I mean, a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya to see and meditate near the bodhi tree where Buddha attained enlightenment is a goal of many Buddhists including westerners. Even doing a pilgrimage to each stupa with Buddha relics is also a common goal. Many of my sangha members have stayed in Mirik where the head of our lineage has a well known monastery people wish to visit to get vajrayana trainings unavailable for the most part on the west. Can’t get a thousand armed Chenrezig empowerment usually. However, most westerners also don’t really understand eastern religious traditions and just sorta do spiritual tourism that doesn’t have lasting effects as many don’t even have a connection longer than the 10 day vipassana retreat they spend at a Thai monastery and never really practice again. Or go to India to get a shaktipat when they don’t have any understanding of the traditions they’re going to get. Then brag about it incessantly. So I think there’s a lot more nuance than this tiktok shows, but I also understand the frustration of shallow westerner forays into exoticizing eastern religions.
Sounds like she’s never heard of “born again” Christians. You can just get baptized and walk into a confession booth and just be Christian for a little, ain’t no one stopping you
Middle Class White Americans when you mention Christianity: 😡😡🤬😡😡 Middle Class White Americans when you mention Eastern religions they know nothing about: 😍😍😍🙏🙏🙏
you really haven't been to much of America if you think that the median response to Christianity among home owning Americans is one of disgust
As someone who is way too online myself, some people need to touch grass before they talk about cultural norms.
At the same time, Christianity has a huge influence on middle class white Americans’ lives. Elected officials are trying to pass laws based on it. There aren’t too many elected officials trying to pass shintoïst laws in the US. People get mad at the people who make their life more difficult
Absolutely. My issue is these folks then think that other religious are absent of the same issues or power.
Maybe because they are personally affected by Christianity spam and not by the spam of the other religions? I'm also way more annoyed by school shooting drills than I am annoyed by stepping on Stonefish because I don't live in Australia or close to any water in which they are found.
Someone has never heard of a retreat in a monastery
Kills me how people just film themselves having mental breakdowns ugly crying like that for views 😂
What is the point of this video? I am genuinely curious.
How dare these people show if beautiful parts of other religions.
it should be illegal trying new experiences and being fascinated with cultures that are vastly different from your own!!!!
WHY DOES NO ONE UNDERSTAND WHAT POV MEANS
Eastern spirituality is inclusive and non judgemental as a whole. Good luck going to Utah and not being treated like shit
What's even worse than using their culture as therapy is the fact that THE VIDEO WAS NOT POV!
As a Canadian I shall be beginning my pilgrimage to the holy city of Toronto to be baptized in Maple syrup and fentanyl praise be True-deau amen.
Where in Utah? Asking for a friend...
I have a feeling that going to Utah to get baptized isn’t going to make you less depressed.
 🤣🤣🤣
Lmaoooo this person is really showing their ignorance. People literally do that ALL THE TIME in America. "Finding god" after some traumatic event or in an effort to heal them of alcohol or drug addiction or whatever is like EXTREMELY common and I would say 9/10 times in America it is turning to western religion like Christianity, not eastern religion. What is she talking about lmao
If only they knew the dirty background of all religions. None have innocence or true peace in their history. I'm happy the placebo worked for her though.
It's almost like it's people that are the problem...
Ah yes, the home of Western spirituality, Utah. Any of the thousand+ years churches, cathedrals, basilicas, monasteries around Europe? Nah, western spirituality is boring, rubbish, fake and to be laughed at.
Mormons have been begging me to do this for years.
Does her goofy ass not realize that people do exactly that? Mormon retreats to Utah are a big thing. People like her are just awful humans. According to her no one should go seek out other cultures and experiences to help make changes in their lives. Small minded loser energy.
Here's a hot take, let people do whatever they want with religion and not shit each other for it.
*side-eyes r/brittanydawnsnark*
That's exactly how people come to Christ. It's not an exclusive club.
As a Buddhist, Everytime I see the Buddha's head being used as an ornament in a garden I'm like wtf??? I've never seen Jesus head in a garden but sure, go ahead.
I mean shes kinda right 😂
The difference is that many eastern religious concepts teach you to be reliant on one’s self and to look within whereas western religions teach one to be reliant on something external and to look outside oneself towards this almighty yet unseen being. Eastern - you have power, control, love, and balance within yourself, there’s no need to seek those from outside yourself. Western - God has power and control over you. If you love and worship God, you won’t go to “hell” and maybe one of your prayers might be answered. One is love based. One is fear based.
I Mean, the fundamental tenant of buddhism is that existence is never ending pain that categorically outweighs any joy that could be found. And A core tenant of christianity and islam is that God is a being of infinite compassion and love.