Saturday, March 21, 2009

Korean President Reaches Out to Buddhist Leaders

I found the following article at The Buddhist Channel Website. Last year, South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, (a devout Presbyterian) who drew up controversy with his wide-spread discrimination against Buddhists, including removing the locations of famous Buddhist temples from maps, and declaring South Korea a"Christian nation." Thus caused widespread protest and peaceful demonstraitons, with resulted in a half-hearted government apology. However, in the wake of econmic crisis, he seems to be making a genuine attempt at reconciliation. He appeared at a Buddhist conference yesterday with his wife, and stated:

"I thank the Buddhist community for taking the lead
in overcoming the economic crisis and bringing the public
together. The government will also honor Buddha’s
teachings and will put forth every ounce of its energies to
revive the economy and unite the people.”

He also thanked the Buddhist community for embracing different values in a multi-religious country, and attributed the Buddhist spirit has helped the country avoid religious conflicts.


It's good to see a Christian take on the values set before him by Jesus and actually embrace and accept the Buddhist community. While there may be political motive behind this, I like to think the best of people, and hope that his efforts are in genuine spirit. I also posted this to my other blog (http://religiousdiversityblog.blogspot.com)


http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=45,7926,0,0,1,0

1 comment:

MyoChi said...

Thanks for posting this. It is very nice to see there is reconciliation happening. May there be peace everywhere.