My problem with this is that one should not judge a whole religion based on the mistakes of some individuals. Even if those individuals are in power and betray the faith of their believers. Religions or Spiritual groups or Philosophies should be judged on their content. I know many people become disillusioned when they see false and corrupt behavior by a church or synagogue or other entity. These corrupt people are not the true representatives of their belief. You can't negate a whole religion based on human failure.
That's just my thought.
Hi Nielk--
I think it depends on how bad one's experiences have been. Unfortunately, every religious and spiritual group I have participated in has demonstrated an abuse of power that has been completely unacceptable to me.
I grew up in a Catholic neighborhood, and attended parochial school, where I was witness to the abuse of several children, who were repeatedly paddled by the principal, (Mother A.), an angry nun who practiced corporal punishment. She would drag these boys into the bathroom, pull their pants down to their knees and beat their bare asses with a wooden paddle, until they were in tears. Then she would parade them in front of the class, where they would stand red-faced and humiliated, while she proceeded to chastise them for the very minor infractions that she believed gave her the right to abuse them. It was a horrible and frightening thing to watch, and equally disturbing was the fact that paddling children was considered "normal" and "correct" by all the adult Catholics at the school. (The state I grew up in, did not ban corporal punishment in schools until 1994.)
I was never paddled myself. I was one of the smart kids at school, and was well liked by my teachers, so I flew under the radar most of the time. But I never forgot those kids that were brutalized by that vicious nun. I later felt guilty that I had not
done something during my time at that school to protest this abuse and to help stop it. Witnessing that level of cruelty led me to abandon Catholicism completely by the time I was 14. Once I began to get an education on the details of the history of violence perpetrated by the Church against everyone who disagreed with it, (the Inquisition, the witch burnings, the near extermination of the American Indians, etc.), I was really quite appalled by the massive amount of cruelty that was committed in the name of "God." That, along with the Church's stand against abortion and birth control, inspired me to officially excommunicate myself from all association with the Church and everything to do with it.
When I went off to college I decided to check out the Buddhists at Naropa in Boulder, who were led by Rinpoche Trungpa, whose books I really enjoyed as a teenager, and who was responsible for bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the US. Little did I know that Trungpa was known for being a drunk and womanizer, and that his group of followers was indulging in a lot of sexual acting out, including public orgies, which I once accidentally walked into on my way home from an astrology class in a public apartment building. And then Robert Bly came to town to do a poetry reading, the very first poetry I had ever attended in my life, and lo and behold in the midst of that reading he had a full scale confrontation with the Buddhists in the audience regarding the infamous "Merwin incident." According to what Bly told us all that night, Merwin (another well known poet) and his wife had been attending a retreat with Trungpa's group. When the Buddhists decided to have an orgy, Merwin and his wife left and went to their room, where they were soon accosted by a group of Trungpa's men and told that they had to participate in the orgy. Merwin resisted and a fight broke out between him and Trungpa's men, upon which Merwin threatened them with a broken bottle and got them to back off. When Bly brought this all up into the light of day, the Buddhists in the audience began to jeer at him and yell that he "did not understand CRAZY WISDOM." He yelled back, as people stormed out. Apparently they did not like being confronted with the elephant in the room.
I was very awed by Robert Bly's courage that night. He was so honest and brave. I told him this just a few years ago, after a reading he did here in Santa Cruz. "I was scared to death," he told me. "There were people in that room who wanted to hurt me." He sure had surprised me! I wouldn't have ever thought anyone could feel threatened and scared of a bunch of Buddhists. I was wrong.
But that's the creepy thing about speaking the truth to those in spiritual groups who haven't yet faced and come to terms with their "shadow side." I have seen this kind of power tripping, sexual impropriety, and dishonesty in many groups that I attended back when I was in my 20's. There are a lot more stories I could tell! I made the rounds through Sufi, Yogic, Native American, and Kabbalah groups, and each one had a leader that was deeply flawed and very immoral and/or abusive in his behavior. (And yes, they were all male leaders, though I have heard horror stories like this about female guru types as well). To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I was often really shocked and just totally disgusted. And the worst part was seeing how people in these groups were totally willing to surrender their power to these alleged savior figures, and excuse all their bad behavior. So crazy and dysfunctional! Ultimately this is why I gave up on spiritual groups completely.
At this point I would much rather commune with the birds, and meditate on the ocean and the sky. Nature has been my best spiritual teacher so far. It doesn't ever delude itself into pretending that it's something it's not.
)
