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Reply With QuoteO Goody. More of'em. Lions are the answer.
Prof
Mongolia's return to religion
At the Great Ganden Monastery outside Ulan Bator, the people of Mongolia are searching for their past.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, more than half the male population of this landlocked country lived as monks in places like Ganden.
But then came communism. During the Soviet takeover in the 1920s, local communist leaders backed by Stalin sought to eradicate all traces of religion with a bloody purge.
The great monasteries were smashed, their content looted and their monks dispersed.
"They destroyed everything," said Puravbat, one of the senior monks at Ganden.
"The sutras were burned, the monasteries closed. We have had to start again from scratch, retranslate the sutras and rebuild the old learning."
Puravbat showed me photographs of a recently unearthed mass grave just outside Ulan Bator.
The grave contains the grizzly remains of thousands of monks, each skull clearly showing the hole from the executioner's bullet.
In his little hut at the rear of the monastery, 96-year-old Sereeter is one of the few remaining survivors of the communist purge.
"They took away my three elder brothers and shot them. I was only saved because I was young," he said.
"They took away all our family property. We were quite a wealthy family, but after (that) we had nothing," he said.
Outside in the main courtyard stood a group of young Mongolians, who looked more like tourists than pilgrims.
They went through the motions, spinning the prayer wheels and lighting candles, but few seemed to have much idea of what it was really all about.
Instead, many young Mongolians are looking elsewhere for spiritual inspiration.
Rise of Christianity
On the other side of Ulan Bator, I visited a very different religious ceremony.
A makeshift church hall was packed with Mongolian worshippers, their eyes tight shut, their arms swaying in the air.
There was little doubt about the passion felt by these worshippers for their new foreign god.
Axel, a young missionary from Germany, was leading the service.
"I felt God told me go to the East," Axel said.
"One day I heard a report of Mongolia. I didn't know where to look, but somehow I had this click in my heart," he said.
"As I went there the first time, in 1992, it just touched my heart. I felt so touched and felt the confirmation in my spirit (that) this is the place."
The converts are young, drawn to Christianity by its powerful evangelical message.
Many are also escaping deeply troubled pasts.
Seventeen-year-old Solongo is a case in point. She ended up on the streets after repeated beatings from her alcoholic father.
"I was on the streets for four years," she said. "I did lots of bad things, I got drunk, I smoked and lots of other bad things."
"Then two years ago I came to this church. It changed me, I stopped doing those bad things. Jesus has changed my life."
Christian groups are proliferating so fast that they now outnumber official Buddhist organisations.
But to Mongolia's conservative Buddhist elite, such rapid growth is deeply troubling.
Some Christian groups now accuse the government of orchestrating a campaign to prevent them gaining new converts.
It is a charge which Mongolia's devoutly Buddhist Prime Minister Enkbayar strongly denies.
But he did acknowledge concern about the arrival of these new foreign religious groups in his once Buddhist country.
"Religious differences are very difficult to solve, because all religions express themselves in terms of ultimate truth," he said.
These young Mongolians have found their truth, and it lies in a new foreign god.
The question facing the country now is whether traditional Buddhism, in its critically weakened state, will withstand the foreign onslaught - or whether Christianity will peacefully succeed where communism so brutally failed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3113839.stm
O Goody. More of'em. Lions are the answer.
Prof
Whoa! That was an OLDIE! Didn't notice. Sorry about that. Please don't unleash the kittens & decaying ladies. Sob.
Prof
This can be either a power for change or just another opiate. Only time will tell
As for "foreign gods", didn't the Mongolians of 2000 years ago say the same thing when they first encountered Buddhism?
If I am not wrong, Christianity (at least in its Roman Catholic form) had a similar impact among Japanese peasants in the time of Toyotomi and Tokugawa, and even some important feudal lords converted to the new religion. However, Christianity was seen as a guise for potential European conquest of Japan and so it was outlawed there from c. 1612 until 1871.
Mongolia is not exactly a place known for a high standard of living or prospects for the upgrading of social status, so evangelical Christianity apparently speaks to the emotional and spiritual condition of most young Mongolians. Reminds me of the evangelical Christianity that spoke to the oppression and social injustice suffered by Blacks in the US of the 19th century.
A question good for his thread is, which denomination is gaining the most converts in Mongolia? Is it the Pentecostals, the Southern Baptists, or the Presbyterians? Then again, it might be a non-denominational church that is reaping the lion's share of the harvest.
Christianity will still be around a little longer, with a few more new converts every day. Despite everything human beings have done to discredit and extinguish Christianity, for some reason it just does not go away
Well since I was once on the P-Cola, and I think I read where you were once a crew member of that fine gator navy ship. I'll spare you "She who should not be named zombie" and the Hot dead chick.Originally Posted by Prof
But a kitten must dieIts a 6 year old thread.
So what was your rate in the Navy Prof?
Last edited by Gun Grape; 12 Dec 09, at 00:27.
Its called Tourist Season. So why can't we shoot them?
Jesus christ. On board the Pepsi, huh? I was a corpsman. '71-'73. HM3-HM2. My name was "Doc". My immediate superior was Battlin' Bob Callan HM2-HMC on the way to the Medical Service Corps (Horsepistol Administrators). War Hero. Our immediate supervisor was HMC-HMCS Willie J. Coleman. Somewhere in the mix was the Infamous Steve "Rocketman" Larsen, HN-HM3. No. He made 2nd class as well sometime after I left.
When were you aboard? Marine, right? I've got some Pepsi stories over in "Stories"/Crew's Mess. Find out what sort of place you lived on. Toward the end of the thread.
Prof
if I had known you were a Doc I would have spared the kitten.
I was only on her for a few weeks. A local training operation off the east coast. That was in 1997
Its called Tourist Season. So why can't we shoot them?
Dear god in heaven and oh my stars and garters
That post was made on the 2nd day of World Affair's Board's current incarnation.
We had a grand total of NINE registered members that day!
And I myself was still a MONTH away from registering (which is an eternity, if you believe some people)
WHY OH WHY would you do such a thing???
This is almost as bad as when that newly registered member decided to dig up and necro my own humble Intro Thread by adding onto it as their own Intro Thread a few weeks ago!!
<cue the Family Guy-style flashback>
And here I am without any rum to drown out the screams and wails inside my head.
But you're Navy, so you get a pass
Jeezly crow. That was 24 YEARS after I got off & out of the Nav. Unbelievable. How old were you when I got on? No. Don't tell me. Was the thing rusted to the waterline? Small f*ckin' world.
Doc
Well, Hell. Uh. "My stars & garters" was an expletive of my old man's. Unique, I though, to him. That's kinda creepy in & of itself. What's going on here? Do not adjust the vertical. What am I talking about? Who am us, anyway?
Prof
Yeah well I uh...I'm kind of an "old soul"...I don't understand why my '06 Eclipse can't be equipped with a Klaxon without seeming slightly anachronistic...and I get misty-eyed when I hear "There's a Long, Long Trail Awinding".
However, I'm not going to mention what I was doing while you were on the Penascola.
Well I was 10 when you left her in 73.)
To be as old as she was, she was in pretty good shape. Been on newer ships that were worse off.
Its called Tourist Season. So why can't we shoot them?
We Jarheads have a soft spot for our Squid Brothers.But you're Navy, so you get a pass
But Hell have no furry like what which will befall the next Necro that I catch.
Pari has been pretty quick on deleting necropost and OoE keeps locking the threads before I can get to them.
Down deep though, they want to see She Who shall not be Named
Last edited by Gun Grape; 12 Dec 09, at 03:46.
Its called Tourist Season. So why can't we shoot them?
Sorry. 30-..., "Stories" in "Field Mess"
Prof
Being a member of the six year club I remember the day this was posted well...
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
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