“The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it is always considerate about what the children need. The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans.”
-- Zhang Qingli, the China-appointed Communist Party chief in Tibet, where Chinese police have suppressed protests by Tibetan monks and lay people clamoring for autonomy. Zhang's remarks, quoted by The Associated Press this month, were uttered last year.If you change "Buddha" to "Jesus", you've got a pretty good recipe for institutionalized idolatry at the national level. You should worship the Politburo, not Jesus! This is probably the closest thing we have in our day to worship of the state as an alternative to worship of a deity.
2 comments:
There's one country that currently has China beat to a pulp. Try Bradley Martin's book, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty. Check out the table of contents in books.google.com or amazon. "Heaven and Earth the Wise Leader Tamed"; "With the Leader Who Unfolded Paradise"; "Our Earthly Paradise, Free from Opression"--these and more all taken from N. Korean propaganda, which included the standard media and also such things as movies, 'historical literature' and operas written about Kim and now his son.
Thanks for this reference to the current situation in Tibet. J. B. Hood makes a good point about the Kim Dynasty. There is much additional commentary on political false messiahs throughout history in my 10 part series at http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/page.aspx?id=978
China has been there before.
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