Buddhism vs Christianity, some thoughts

In reponse to nothing's comment about how hard I'm being on Christianity, I posted a much longer than intended comment back at him. I feel it deserves a post of it's own though so I'm pasting it here. This is kind of where I'm at right now.

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I was not dogging on the fact that Christianity has done bad things in the past, I was dogging on its methods of teaching compassion. I understand this is probably not representative of the full depth of Christian thought, but the general teaching I received on this subject was: 1) Submit to God as the source of all compassion (and beg forgiveness for being so naughty as to not be compassionate, i.e. be sure to feel bad about it first.) 2) Let go of your attempt to be compassionate and let God do it through you. 3) Hope this nebulous instruction translates to meaningful action the next time you need to put it to the test.

What I like about buddhism is the emphasis on practical suggestions to cultivate compassion. I like how it encourages you to view your foibles with a sense of humor and compassion for yourself, and gives you meditative techniques to achieve that (ways to breathe, how to deal with your discontent with your lack of compassion when it arises) and then teaches you how to cultivate that feeling, and also how to apply it in the real world. In other words, you get step by step practical advice on how to cultivate compassion within yourself.

Christianity ALMOST gets it right. The part about letting go and letting God do it is almost buddhist. The part I don't like about modern Christianity is the concern is mostly with the submission to authority part. LIke I was telling my mother how much I like buddhisms practical techniques to be more compassionate and her first and only question was "but you still believe compassion can only come from God?", as if it matters less that I am compassionate, more that I constantly reassure God that he created everything.

I think the insistence that we constantly submit to God's authority has far less to do with what God's actually about, than what the church is typically about, which is making sure the congregation is submitting to the church's authority. I think the patriarchal church structure is inherently unstable and relies on constant reaffirmation that the lower ranks are indeed submitting to the appropriately designated authority figures. Children must submit to their elders, wives must submit to their husbands, husbands must submit to the pastor and other males higher in the pecking order than they are, and so then, of course, it is only natural to assume that God requires everyone including the pastor to submit to Him lest he feel all smitey and vindictive, in the same way that men feel all abusey and vindictive if they don't get their "due" respect. I've just painted a caricature of course, and I know the modern church isn't 100% like this, but this is the framework modern christians are trying to twist into something more egalitarian and I think it's an exercise in futility. The framework is ABOUT not being egalitarian (as evidenced by the church's continued insistence that women can't be ordained as pastors. Submit directly to God without submitting to a man first? Unheard of!)

I . . . just think God knows what he did and probably has a strong enough self esteem that does okay without us reassuring him all the time. Nor do I think he really wants to do all the heavy lifting in terms of teaching us to be compassionate. If there are easy and fun ways to train yourself to be more centered and more compassionate, why not do it ourselves rather than turn it over to God and say, "here, you do it, I'm going to get a soda and play video games for a while"

So the letting go part that Christianity teaches is good. What it's missing is the mindful letting go. The part where you watch how your emotions move and change, and practice acknowledging your negative emotions and where they come from with compassion for yourself and then letting them be what they are, which is basically the same thing as letting them go. In short, buddhism encourages self-reflection and wrestling with your problems, rather than happily putting them out of mind, and I find this strikes me as the only way I'm every going to really change.