Christians...Would you visit a shrine/ temple?

[katie]

I just returned from vacation in Japan. We spent a few days in Kyoto, which abounds in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. I was quite interested in visiting the various temples mainly for the architecture and their lovely gardens. I have no interest in Buddhism at all. My mom is a devout Catholic and she complained the whole time we were in Kyoto about how her Christian god's heart is bleeding at the sight of her being in these Buddhist temples, and proclaiming in a loud voice how this is against her religion to visit these sites,yada yada. It really spolied my time there and generally annoyed the hell out of me. I'm no Buddhist either but I don't see what is wrong with appreciating their worship structures from an architectural/aesthetic POV. I even reminded her that when we went to the Vatican a couple years ago we met several Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus etc. They were in awe of the architecture and just loved the place. To which she said "Well that's them. I'm not going to anymore of these shrines"
Now this is the sort of thing that turns me off devout Christians. They seem so close minded. I'm not asking her to go and pray in front of a shrine and rub Buddha's bellly. I was just trying to enjoy it from a non religious aspect. What's so wrong with that?

 

[Lucia]

Yes, I have i don't see anything wrong with visiting other churches, temples, whatever even learning about other religions is good. I mean different religions are just different ways to serve God. If you want to convert you will, if you don't you won't. Some Christi ans think that theymust close off every other religion so that theirs can shine or that it's a sin or an offense to God, it's not. Those eastern religions existed way before Catholocism and Christianity was even a thought, besides the fact that half of the Biblical stories are from old eastern religions.
Check out the stroy of Gelgamesh very similar to Noah's Ark and cam way before.

 

[EbonyEyes]

Yes I would visit a shrine or temple. When I was in my religion class, we learned about the architecture of temples/shrines in other religions and I would love to visit them.

-Ebony

 

[Ms Red]

When I visited Japan (Okazaki) in 2001 for 5 months, during our travels, we visited a temple in Kyoto (beautiful) because my niece, who is African American and Japanese was baptised there (she was 7 months old).

Being a Christian, I did not have any problems visiting the temples and shrines. For me, it did not go against my beliefs or my religion, it just opened my eyes to another culture. I am not Buddhist and will not ever be Buddist but I found nothing wrong with visiting and observing another persons' place of worship.

HTH!

 

[Honeyhips]

yup. .....

 

[Sweet C]

Yes, I would go. I see nothing wrong according to the Word that would say I shouldn't go. Hey, even Paul visited the temples in Athens, he talked about the inscription of the statue to the unknown God and used this to minister to the Athenians about Christ (Acts 17).

I do know that as a Christian you need to be aware of your environment and be spirit led. I know that older people in general are more resistant to change. For example, my mom refuses to go to church in pants. And there is no scripture I can quote her that will make her do otherwise. This seems like perhaps the case with your mom. If you are a Christian, and you gave her the scripture above in Acts, and she still said no, then I would have just left it alone, b/c there is nothing you can say to change her mind. Now if the Holy Spirit said otherwise, I don't care if Peter, James, and John, was holding a revival there, I wouldn't go.

 

[phynestone]

Yes, I visited some temples while I was in Egypt. They were just so beautiful and marvelous to look at. As a Christian, we do have to be mindful of the places and enviroments we're in, but I see nothing wrong in just visiting a temple, shrine or mosque. Now worshipping is a different story.