What Is A Roman Catholic Buddhist?

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here is this week’s question:

Dear Dave and Tom:I have friends who are conservative Roman Catholics, and they just went through the experience of seeing their daughter become a Roman Catholic Buddhist.I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms but it’s literally true.Since you both know a lot about Roman Catholicism, I wondered if you could give me some insights that I could share with them because they are quite shaken over their daughter’s conversion.This may be an opportunity to share the gospel with them as they are truly questioning their faith.Thank you for your help.

Tom:

Roman Catholic Buddhist?Dave, I can name a lot of them.We could go back to Thomas Merton, we could go back to many individuals who some people would say, Well, they’ve drifted beyond the dogmas of Roman Catholicism.But, having been a Roman Catholic for 30 years, I can tell you from beginning to end it’s all experiential, so that opens the door for whatever.Sure, they have some dogmas, but basically it’s based on tradition, and not doctrine, so tradition opens the door to anything and everything.

Dave:

Well, the Pope has been very worshipful, reverent in Buddhist temples.The Catholic church, as I recall, has been in dialogue with Buddhist monks for, what? thirty years? something like that.What is there to dialogue about?It’s very elementary, Tom, but you think, you want 2 plus 2 to be 4, or you want it to be 5 on Thursdays.Why don’t we have a dialogue?This is awfully narrow-minded.Why should we have to follow the laws of physics and chemistry?Let’s dialogue about that a little bit.So, Jesus said:“I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.”Buddhism is basically atheism, as you know.There’s no God, you’re going to dissolve like a drop of water in the ocean back into the void, and some Buddhists believe in transmigration of souls.You know, like the current Dahlia Lama, 14^th Dahlia Lama, they say.He happened to be born as a little baby just at the that the last one died, the 13^th died, and so he must be the 14^th.Some of them believe in reincarnation, the transmigration of souls, but that is so far from Christianity, so far from what the Catholic church claims that it believes as the one true church, then the pope, the vicar of Christ.

Tom:

They have no standard.When I say, no standard, they reject much of what’s in the Bible, according to them.All right, and so consequently, que sera, sera.

Dave:

And Buddhists are great on lighting candles, they are great on incense.

Tom:

Prayer beads and the Rosary, that goes back to Buddhism.

Dave:

We’renot so far apart, the Catholic theologians could say, now let’s dialogue a bit.And what they really mean is, if you will submit to the Pope, there’s going to be a universal church, one world church, and it will be headquartered at the Vatican, and what could be wrong with that?And we can all get together and find some common denominator, so we are all for peace.But Tom, it has nothing to do with the Bible, it has nothing to do with salvation, but hopefully this could be a time when this couple who are concerned about their daughter, could be open to hearing the Truth, the real gospel.

Tom:

Dave, some people think we make some of this stuff up.Okay?First of all, based on this letter, I went to my files and someone sent me a catalog from the UrselineSofiaCenter.Now, my sister went to UrselineAcademy.This was pretty conservative Roman Catholicism back in the 60’s, late 50’s, early 60’s and so on.Now, let me just give you some of their programs.Again, UrselineAcademy, they are primarily out of Cleveland, but my sister went to a school in Cincinnati.

Dave:

Solid Catholic.

Tom:

But first of all, yoga, start off with yoga, we’ve got Eastern religions, ancient meditation practices, this you learn at the UrselineAcademy.

Dave:

This could be Buddhist or Hindu.

Tom:

Well, they have rehki, rheki is a massage,they have feng shei.These are all courses that you take there.They have—well, here’s one I like, Dave, and of course I’m being facetious here, I mentioned yoga, they have twelve-steps and exploration of the twelve-steps and chakras.Could you explain to our audience.

Dave:

Chakras is part of Taoism, that there is this universal force, and it ties in with acupuncture, and so forth.Chakras are the 4 centers of the body where this universal force operates, or functions in certain centers, and Chakras figure in occultism and Hinduism and Buddhism.Some people say we need to get the Tao, we need to get this aligned through the chakras, we’ve got to get them all into alignment, they may use meditation, they may use biofeedback.Biofeedback is the same thing, electronically.And that’s where the needles are put in acupuncture, because these supposedly, will realign the force, etc, etc., but it’s occultism, and we’ve dealt with that in some of our books,

Tom:

Dave, again, this is the UrselineCenter, these are nuns, and they bring you all these programs, and it says it’s based on the gospel of Jesus Christ, influenced by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Dave:

Wow—these programs are?

Tom:

Well, that’s the thrust of the order of nuns.

Dave:

Okay, I wonder how the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christ led them into all of this stuff.

Tom:

Nevertheless, there they are, and this is full bore, whether you call it the New Age, whether you call it Eastern mysticism.This is supposedly compatible with Roman Catholicism.

Dave:

Well indeed it is, but it’s not compatible with Christianity, and Roman Catholicism has veered away from Christianity for a long, long time.