A highly-publicized visit earlier this year by Tibetan Buddhism’s leader, the Dalai Lama, to Pasadena, Calif., and three major Canadian cities motivated some Christians to pray and raised others’ awareness of the growing presence of a previously ignored religion.
When he landed in Los Angeles in April, the Dalai Lama was met by Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky and later hosted three days of Buddhist teaching. He also spoke to 4,500 school children, lectured 5,000 university students and dispensed advice – at $100 a head – to a crowd of business executives.
James Stephens, a doctoral student at Fuller Theological Seminary in California who was a devout Buddhist for 14 years, said the spiritual threat of Buddhism influencing unsuspecting “seekers,” even some who consider themselves Christians, is very real.
“I call [the Dalai Lama] the ‘pluralist pope’ because he advocates exploring Buddhism while staying within the security of your professed religion. And he attracts huge crowds and all kinds of funding from movie stars, teaching institutions, governments and churches,” Stephens, who leads the Sonrise Center for Buddhist Studies, which teaches Christians how to evangelize Buddhists, told “Charisma” magazine in the August issue, out now. The full report on Buddhism in North America can be found in the magazine.
There are an estimated 10 million Buddhists in the United States and 305,000 in Canada, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada. House of the King (HotK), a Toronto-based prayer and worship movement of almost 2,500 intercessors and volunteers, was set up specifically for the Dalai Lama’s 12-day Canadian visit.
Supported by a variety of Toronto churches and denominations HotK commissioned shifts of prayer-walkers to intercede at key spiritual locations around the city, while friendship evangelists were posted in a Tibetan teahouse and art gallery set up inside a downtown church.
“The Dalai Lama’s visit gave us a chance to represent Jesus to the visiting Tibetans, who responded very positively,” HotK’s Hany Boghossian said. “Tibetans usually get saved relationally, and the average length of time for one to convert is eight or nine years.”
