Rony Tan - Lighthouse Evangelism - and the denigrating of Buddhism

These are the video snippets of Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism Church criticising buddhism that has resulted in his being hauled up by the ISD (Internal Security Department). Although Rony Tan's mocking statements about buddhism has been widely reported on TV and in the Straits Times, it is still very useful to see what the brouhaha was all about.

(Note: the first 2 Youtube videos have been mis-titled. The video titled "part 2" is really the 1st part, and the video titled "part 1" is really the 2nd part. They are listed here in the correct chronological order:) ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBv2ZpsfA8M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8EIDGqMb64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLHZCdgF2NE

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It is very sad to see that the 2 ex-buddhists have forgotten all their buddhist teachings - particularly the Eightfold path. If they remember 2 aspects of the Eightfold path: "Right Speech" and "Right Intention" - they would not have allowed Rony Tan to exploit them into mocking their old religion in front of an audience.

You can see from the videos that Rony Tan is a huckster of the highest calibre. Glib and smooth tongued, and obviously possessing a stronger command of the English language than the ex-buddhists, he was able to stoke the two along into making it look as if it was the ex-buddhists themselves who were denigrating buddhism, and that he was simply commenting on it. However, the whole performance is obviously masterminded by Rony Tan - with a single goal in mind - to make his brand of christianity the premier religion among all religions.

Just as there are different schools of christianity, there are similarly various schools of buddhism. Chinese buddhism is actually in-fused with a lot of shenism beliefs. But basic buddhism does not really teach that practising the buddhist rituals will help you become "more powerful than god". Instead, the buddhist rituals are just an aid to guide a person to enlightenment. An enlightened person cannot heal sickness or develop supernatural abilities like a "god". An enlightened person is simply someone who can finally see things as they are, instead of seeing things distorted by our own biases and our own selfish wants.

Indeed, in one school of buddhism, great emphasis is placed on training the mind to think sceptically and critically about everything. In Zen buddhism, there is an idiom that goes:

"Great doubt, great enlightenment. Little doubt, little enlightenment. No doubt, no enlightenment."

In the video, Joseph (the ex-buddhist monk) says that his Tibetan monk mentor said that even though he (the mentor) had practised meditation for so many years, the mentor has still not achieved great enlightenment. Little does Joseph know that his mentor is actually quite enlightened!

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Just as the 2 ex-buddhists who have forgotten their buddhist teachings, Rony Tan, a "christian", has completely forgotten the teachings of Jesus. Didn't Jesus say:

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?" (Luke 6:41)

Just as Rony Tan thinks that much of buddhism is superstitious fantasy, there is much about christianity that is just as equally unbelievable. For example, in the gospel according to Matthew, it was stated that when Jesus died, an earthquake occurred, and the graves were opened. However, the zombies stayed in their graves until Jesus was resurrected, in which then these zombies started to leave their graves and walk to Jerusalem, appearing to many. (Note: this fantastical tale is told only in the Matthew gospel, but not in Mark, Luke or John. See Matthew 27:51-53).

Most rational people will say this tidbit is completely made-up. If hundreds of dead people start rising from their graves and walk to a major city like Jerusalem, such an incredible event would have been reported by many other historians living in Roman Empire times. However, this mass resurrection sequence is described in only one book, the bible (and only in Matthew). However, many fundamentalist christians accept this fairy tale to be literally and historically true!

Rony Tan thinks that women are treated as second-class citizens in buddhism. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

The 10th commandment states:

"you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17)

Wives (women) are basically grouped together with slaves, ox, donkeys - as property of the "neighbour". Notice that the "neighbour's wife" is not the "neighbour". The "neighbour" in the bible passage specifically implies the guy!

Even in the New Testament, the entire book is littered with sayings like:

"the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man" (1 Corinthians 11:3)

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." (1 Timothy 2:11-12)

It is precisely because of these writings in the New Testament that the Catholic Church does not allow women to become priests. Therefore, Protestant churches that allow women to be ordained as priests and preachers are actually not following the bible teachings!

In fact, not only does the bible not promote equality for women, it doesn't promote equality for people, period. This is why the bible is littered with rules and regulations and teachings on how to treat your SLAVES! Even Jesus did not preach against the institution of slavery. This is why christians could used bible scriptures to support their practice of enslaving African Negroes until secular society changed the laws to end slavery in the late 19th century. If Jesus had simply condemn slavery explicitly in any of his parables, African Negroes would not need to have such a tragic history of being slaves in Europe and America in the past.

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It is sad that so many Singaporeans in the church were laughing away at the masterful performance by Rony Tan in his show in denigrating buddhism. Unfortunately, I have a nagging feeling that this denigration of non-christians is being carried out in many of the other evangelical churches as well. This cannot be avoided because of the zeal that evangelical christians are going about proselytising and promoting their faith.

-------------------------------------------------------- *** Edited: 14 Feb 2010 - The original YouTube links that I had linked to were taken down by the user. I have revised the links to other copies of the same videos that are still online.