Blog 3677 – 11.29.2025

Buddhist Monks Marching For Peace

Of the five major world religions, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Christians, and Islamists, the one who, in my opinion, takes peace most seriously is the Buddhists. I recall the horrific picture of a Buddhist Monk clad in his yellow robe dousing himself with gasoline and burning himself alive in downtown Saigon to protest the Vietnam. Now that was quite a commitment to peace. So is walking 2,300 miles in a Walk For Peace, from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C.

My wife and I missed them when they walked through Houston, but on Thanksgiving Day while on our weekly visit to our East Texas Piney Woods retreat in Bon Wier, Texas we got a couple of text from our son Jay saying that the Buddhist monks would be passing by our property.

I snapped a picture just after the traveling band of Buddhist monks walked past our property Thanksgiving afternoon as we were returning from eating in our Thanksgiving dinner in Jasper, Texas.

For most of my life, the first half at least, I considered myself a Christian and follower of the Prince of Peace. The imaginative gospel writer’s song that the angels purportedly sang for the shepherds at Baby Jesus birth is an often quoted passage this time of year.

For a brief time after I rejected organized religion as a sort of protest for peace I wore around my neck a Star of David, a Cross, and a Crescent Moon and Star to remind me of my brothers whose real religion seems to be to warring with and killing one another.

The message of the early Christian Church was co-opted by the Roman Emperor Constantine to unite his Empire. He supposedly had a vision, a dream, then all his army saw a burning cross in the sky. Then he converted to Christianity, yet oddly only consenting to be baptized on his death bed many years later. Sounds to me that rather than the emperor converting to Christianity that he converted Christianity to serve his war aims and to especially win a pivotal battle for uniting his empire under his sole rule.

Not exactly the “Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before” message the Church gives lip service while still sponsoring their so-called holy wars. In the American war that killed the most Americans, the Civil War, both sides were Christians and killed one another nevertheless.

The closing line to The Battle Hymn of the Republic  was originally “As he died to make men holy, let us die to make me free.” but it was change to sound less war-like to “let us live to set me free.”

Make no mistake the true purpose of war is, has always been, and will ever be to make the rich and powerful, more rich and more powerful. Speaking of religious symbols being co-opt for conquering symbols did you know that the hated symbol of Nazi Germany the Swastica was long before a Buddhist Cross and used by many others as a symbol of peace, prosperity, and good fortune?

Sing it angels, “Peace on earth good will to men.”

Your friend and and fellow traveler,

David James White

Some Christians  believe in two Jesus(s): One,  the Prince of Peace who came to save the world and two, the War Lord who will come to destroy everyone who rejects him. Does not sound like the Jesus they taught in Sunday School: “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red, brown, yellow, black, and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

Let There Be Peace On Earth – Vince Gill & Jenny Gill  (Lyrics)

Let There Be Peace On Earth – Vince Gill & Jenny Gill  (Lyrics)