Alarming Trends in Chinese Society

solarz said:

Where's 张无忌 when you need him?

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That's a good point. 张无忌 realized the Manichaeists are not inherently evil and can be co-opted to serve a positive social role. The cult stage is just the initial stage of any new religion. Christianity started as the Jesus cult within the Judaism tradition. Eventually, it reformed, shed its more antisocial aspects, became more mainstream and a pillar of the Roman state. More recently, new religious movement such as Mormonism underwent a similar evolution. Traditional Chinese Confucian worldview is too rigid and impractical toward heterodox religious movements. Suppression creates more problems than solutions. Better to monitor new religious movements and steer them towards the mainstream.

Apparently Lightning Deng may have been given political asylum in the US. I also love the part where the New York University professor claims the story is Chinese bystanders doing nothing to help and not that religion can drive people to do senseless violence. I'm sure to these cults it makes sense but when it involves innocent people being victimized in the guise of religion, that is the story. There's no crime committed when bystanders choose not to get involved. There is a crime when a religious cult kills someone for not giving their phone number.