Fourth stalking example: Buddhism for the young

My niece is born Catholic, but not raised in the faith at all, really. And she's also of that generation who grew up smoking pot in high school, which she did. She's a wonderful girl and very sweet, but like many of that generation the focus was not on reality. She has found herself now in a great career, has her first home, a fine boyfriend, and even hangs out with the occasional "celebrity" through her job.

But years ago when she was still starting out on her career and bouncing around in relationships, she sent me a birthday or Christmas gift, I forget which (probably birthday because Christmas would have been very strange), that really made me raise an eyebrow. She sent me a Buddha statue and with it a note assuring me that it would "bring me luck." This would have been in the 1990's I think. Much more than fifteen years ago as best as I can recall.

Now, on face value this was understandable as part of the "generation X chic" about mystical Far East decorations and so forth. But I'm no fool. I knew that someone had been 1) talking to her about "New Age" Buddhism (since traditional Buddhism is more prosaic and devout than handing out Buddha as a good luck charm) and 2) put her up to giving one to me. But she lived across the country and had been out of touch for many years (she was mad at me for a whole lot of years because I once chastised her about how much my brother, her dad, had to work and worry to pay her bills), so I did not know any of her circle of friends and acquaintances, or her mindset really. I was touched that she cared enough that I was going through difficult times to want to send me "good luck" so I valued the gift accordingly. But I am no idiot. I knew that someone had deliberately gotten to her to "convert" her to some crazy New Age beliefs (not authentic Buddhism) and was also trying to get to me. Again, they keep thinking that I'll take the hint and bite my lip in dramatic agony, wringing my hands and going, "Oh My! I Must Have Had A Tragic Past Life! Some Money Grubbing Insane Person Who Is Spiritually Enlightened Please Help Me!" *Pauses to throw up a little in my mouth*

Well, imagine when we forward in time to the year 2003. I was still in touch with an ex boyfriend, mostly because I was concerned about his tendency to alcoholism. So we tried to stay email friends. I used to be close to his children. Well, imagine when one day he emails me to tell me his oldest daughter has "gotten in Buddhism" and "given him some books to read." HA HA HA. How stupid do I look? (A lot I guess). It took me one nanosecond to make the connection. Ten years had passed and the same "approach" was being used: get to the generation X of non formed Christian youth and convert them to the insane "New Age version of so called Buddhism" (again, not a slam at the traditional faith, but one of this manipulable 'past lives' mush of garbage).

Once again I do not take the bait and once again I put a positive good Christian spin on it. I mean, these are people who while born C of E only attend on Christmas and have no real faith, plus they have mondo drinking problems. So I thought, well, having some spirituality, even yucky and poopy spirituality, is better than nothing. The ex-boyfriend even went on a semi-spiritual Buddhist location type vay cay (vacation) and mentioned that it helped him have a different view of his drinking. So I figured, hey, that's what I wanted, for him to dry up and get some sort of spiritual perspective, and so I let it pass without criticism and just encouragement of a generic sort.

But how stupid do these people think I was? They must have thought, "Core! She is dense and dumb, in addition to being too old and too fat!" ("Core" is an old fashioned Brit exclamation, ha ha, just being literary here.) They keep twirling NAB (New Age Buddhism) in front of me and "getting to" the next generation of poorly formed Christians (something I am painfully aware of and part of my mission that was put on hold by the stalkers, obviously) and I just would not react! I'd like to think that it was around this time that they started getting a clue. I mean, they saw me praying in St Patrick's Cathedral several years before, so duh, what would that have been about if I was "wallowing" not "remembering" my poor and pathetic "past lives?" *Throws up in mouth a little more*

See, this is the problem. They don't want the truth. They want everyone to believe whatever crap they pull out of their drunk and stoned asses and say that "it's all relative, so long as you are spiritual." Christianity (and Islam) have done people no favors by not talking about the reality of hell and how many people are going to go to hell because of being mini anti-Christs (while accusing others of actually being the Antichrist) and for preying on the poorly formed younger generations.