Protestant DNA

We talked in class today about how the characters in “This Blessed House” finding Christian things hidden around their house was like how one realizes all of these religious leftovers from one’s culture and upbringing. Nathan had mentioned how it was significant that they were Hindus in a Christian nation, without a past here, uncertain as to their identity.

It wasn’t until I started seriously considering other religious systems that I started realizing how very Protestant I was. My family isn’t Protestant; both parents were Catholic growing up, and came to strongly reject their faith before I was ever thought of. Yet so many of my assumptions about morality, reality, truth, and so forth were informed by Protestant doctrine: I thought Theravada must be the true Buddhism, since it was purportedly the original Buddha’s words; I was interested in a personal practice, unadulterated by tradition or what have you; I thought ritual was a meaningless and potentially dangerous exercise. Of course, I was deeply attracted to the practice element of Buddhism, which might go against the Protestant ethic, but even there some shadow of born-again-ism: I wanted the practice to transform me, to make me into something I wasn’t; to give me what I lacked.

What I seek from Buddhism has changed somewhat, but they were nonetheless valuable reflections. I have all of these strongly-held beliefs the source of which escaped me. It’s humbling, and at the time seemed even a little paralyzing. Why do I believe what I believe? Why is what is right right to me? Is it by the merit of the content, or because of what is near me?

And I realized something else: I had been turning to Buddhism to give me what I lacked; I was sincerely interested in the Buddhist tradition, yes, but I was equally attracted to its non-Westernness. When I saw that I was looking for the Westernness in the non-Western, it seemed a little less real. But I think it led me to look in a new way, and with a bit more of an open mind. Of course, I didn’t realize a lot of my beliefs were Protestant until I’d learned about Christianity, and in the process I gained a genuine respect for that tradition.

I'll finish this later. I hope I remember.