On October 5, a comment appeared from someone called JJYZ to The Falun Gong Machine , which appeared in June 2010.
JJYZ says, “I leave this discussion with a foul taste in my mouth.” He or she also says, “Lloyd (me) has swallowed CCP propaganda hook, line, and sinker.” (This post is a short version of a reply to JJYZ’s comment)
I have news for JJYZ. My opinions formed from direct interactions with the Falun Gong.
I’ve had Falun Gong members sitting around my kitchen table. I’ve attended a Falun Gong Chinese New Year’s musical production at a theater in San Francisco and discovered that it was propaganda designed to recruit and retain religious cult members
I’ve also written other posts on the topic of Chinese religious cults: The Millennium Cult and The White Lotus Mutation.
JJYZ provides a link to a site called “defend democracy.org”, which doesn’t make much sense unless it is another gear in the Falun Gong running machine.
China has NEVER been a democracy so what is there to defend against. In 1982, the structure of China’s government became a one party republic, which offers more representation than any government in China’s history.
In fact, Chinese culture has never accepted organized religions or cults as a permanent element of the culture as the West and the Middle East have done.
There were four Buddhist persecutions in China carried out between the fifth through the tenth centuries by four Chinese emperors. Source: Four Buddhist Persecutions in China
The most brutal was in 845 AD by Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty. He decided that the Buddhists were growing too influential and wealthy so he outlawed the religion.
Wuzong also persecuted Christians, Muslims, Jews and other organized religions.
As for the bad taste in JJYZ’s mouth, this symptom may be a side effect of being brainwashed by a religious cult and becoming a fanatic.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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Mr.Lofthouse, I find it interesting that jjyz is trying to force you to read his own links when it seems pretty apparent that he either did not watch the youtube video that you posted on your previous post regarding falun gong or he simply ignores the fact that the falun gong were celebrating about the deaths of nearly 80,000 Chinese.
If they are really only about qi gong, what does that have ANYTHING to do with having demi-gods and using magical spells to curse the CCP? Its obviously just a very screwed-up cult. It’s sad and ridiculous that the western governments continue to sponser them, especially considering all the problems that they are currently facing.
Terry,
The way I see it, the reason western governments sponsor organizations such as FalunGong has nothing to do with freedom of religion. Instead, an old saying explains why.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend“, and from the way the West behaves politically through the media, it sees China as a potential enemy.
An example could be what happened during the Taiping Rebellion, The West actually helped China defeat the Taipings because the Taipings were seen as a future enemy the West didn’t want to deal with. At the same time, the West fought against China during the Opium Wars. But China and the Taipings were enemies so the West sided with China against the Taipings while also fighting with China.
Now in our time, the West works with China against fundamentalist Islam too while still painting China as a potential enemy.
perhap’s if the falun dafa practioner’s In America would listen to “ordinary” people, they would realize they are all lost & looking for answer’s to life. They study it differently than chinese people. Many family’s, marriage’s have been broken up because of the practice. If we could only get the government to realize that fact. I am proof.
I’m not sure if you support the Falun Dafa (Falun Gong cult) or are complaining about it taking advantage of others and brainwashing them. If you are saying that the falun dafa can save marriges, I would have to disagree. Individuals (man and wife making the decision to work together) save marriages — not cults or shrinks or priests.
If you are saying that the Falun Gong cult contributed to the end of your marriage and/or broken family, I want to hear more.
And what do you want the government to do and which government? The US, China or both. And what are you proof of? If you want the government to act to stop the cult from messing with people’s lives, China is already doing that but the US since it has 100% freedom of religion even for cults, can’t do that without changing the US Constitution–and that isn’t going to happen. China’s 1982 Constitution allows the government to ban a cult such as the Falun Gong but the US Constitution doesn’t.
In my opinion, this comment is unclear as to its meaning.
you’re in a mix-racial relationship, and it’s against their holy millionaire master’s rules. Just ignore these wrack jobs. They believe in a religion that was founded by a poor communist moron that didn’t even go to high school. You’re not arguing with intelligent people here. You are fighting with low-self esteem people that don’t have confidence to stand on their own. I know I tried.
My intent is not to fight with the Falun Gong and the cult’s members but to make sure there is another voice out there besides their own. If all that is heard or read is only the voice of the Falun Gong and the cult’s members, sympathy from people ignorant of the cult and China (and there are many outside China) will go toward the cult and add to its support.
It’s bad enough that the Falun Gong has so much support in the West. It seems as if anything outside China such as the Falun Gong and the Tibetan Separatists living in India, who represents about 1% of all Tibetans, the US provides shelter and financial support for them.
However, there are horrible things going on outside China that seldom get the attention they should in the major Western media beyond a few second sound bite. Take the poverty and suffering of the many in India for example. While China is almost the only developing country in the world to almost erase the lifestyle suffering and hunger of the poor, China seldom gets much credit for what it has accomplished.
For example, in 1976 when Mao died, the literacy rate in China was about 20% and those living in poverty equal to the worst in India today was more than 80%. In about thirty years, China raised literacy to more than 90% and lowered the poverty number to about 10%.
Sure, there are still many in China that do not live in modern houses and drive cars but almost everyone including the rural Chinese has seen dramatic improvements in lifestyles across the country compared to where it was before 1980.
In fact, the World Bank and a UN agency that monitors these things have said that the vast economic and modern improvements that have taken place in China in the last three decades have never been seen in the known history of humanity. Most of the improvements in poverty in the globe took place in China while little has changed outside China. Even in the US, poverty has increased while China keeps shrinking poverty.
If you pay attention to what the US focuses on, it seems as if the US is more interested in freedom of religions and cults and multi-party politics than dealing with poverty, illiteracy and the suffering of the poor and sick.
This is one of the most irrational things I’ve seen. It is pure bigotry and vitriol. The unfortunate thing is that you didn’t even read what I sent to you. That website, defenddemocracy.org, is just where the text for the article is located; it was an article in the National Review that explained the details of the Zhongnanhai protest, and Falungong in China in the early years. I gave you those links because I thought you would want to know more about the background of this–I mean, facts. You clearly didn’t even click on those links, or you wouldn’t raise such a nonsensical objection.
This: “In fact, Chinese culture has never accepted organized religions or cults as a permanent element of the culture as the West…” — is just patently untrue.
And your listing of religious persecutions in Chinese history is equally meaningless and irrelevant.
This is the standard of anti-Falungong rhetoric? I know I’m on the right side then. I find it utterly baffling. And I’m sorry to see it. I won’t bother you any more.
JJYZ, Have a good day. You will not find support here for your religious cult and its empty promises.
The people and party that rules China says no to Falun Gong. Falun Gong finds sympathy and monetary support in the West.
It is my opinion, that the West and America has no business telling China’s government (which is made up of 70 million Communist Party members) how to rule and run China. China has its problems and America has problems too. Instead of spending all this energy and wealth supporting a religious cult, the US has better things to do to solve problems at home and there are many.
You accuse me of not reading the democracy site you suggested. No, I haven’t. As I said, when I had time. No one puts pressure on me to do what I’m not ready to do. After all, I do live in America and am an American citizen.
There is an old saying “When in Rome do as the Romans do.” Well, I’m in America — not China. China is another country and if enough people in China decide they want change they will bring it about without any help from the West or Falun Gong, and China’s centeral government is aware of the mandate the majority of more than 1.3 billion mainland Chinese give, which can be and has been taken away from Chinese leaders before.
You have your opinion and I have mine.
Before you accuse another person of being a “bigot” and full of “vitriol”, you should know what those words mean.
• Provide evidence from my post that shows I am a “bigot”.
• From Princeton I give you the definition: (adj) bigoted (blindly and obstinately attached to some creed or opinion and intolerant toward others) “a bigoted person”; “an outrageously bigoted point of view”
I also provided facts to support my claims of religious persecution and intolerance going back thousands of years in China showing that what is happening today has happened before and is not unique. Yet, you dismiss them because you are intolerant toward my supported point of view.
There is only one answer you will accept from anyone and that is total agreement with your opinions and beliefs, which makes you the bigot – according to that definition.
In the US (if you are here), you may practice your religion without government interference as long as those beliefs do not break the law. However, religious freedom in the US does not mean other Americans have to agree with you. We have a right to a different opinion.
Sorry dude, but Falun Gong is a cult alright. Their glorious leader puts himself on the same level as jesus and budda. He believes he can levitate and tha extra-terrestrials are going to replace us with clones. For once I actually support the ccp in something, the suppression of Falun Gong. I support the Chinese government in their fight aganst Falun Gong, because these wackos need to be dealt with. Religion is a poison that needs to be wiped off of the face of the earth. I have no compassion for the falun gong. They lost my support when they abandoned their sovereignty of reason. May the falun gong be destroyed!
Ted,
Thank you for your comment. You may be the right person to respond to a comment at another post that I wrote of the Falun Gong. If you have the time, I’d appreciate it if you would drop by…
http://ilookchina.net/2010/04/25/the-alleged-cia-connection/#comment-5317