Just wanted to share what I read last night about Japanese religion; please keep Japan in your prayers. NB all information comes from, and all credit for this information goes to OMF's prayer guide (it's REALLY good!) 31 Days of Prayer for Japan. :)PLEASE PRAY:
- for wisdom and power to God's workers in Japan to share the gospel in a way that is able to be understood by the Japanese culturally but is faithful to the bible
- for the Japanese, that they will come to know Christ as the only One who is sufficient for them
JAPANESE RELIGION
Stats after the war show that for every 100 Japanese:
- 80 claim they are Buddhists,
- 70 claim to be Shintoists and
- 25 claim to belong to a 'new religion'
(that adds up to more than 100! :O).
- the Japanese word for religion only arose in the late 1800s after interaction with the Western world
- for the Japanese, their word for 'religion' is more a cultural way of life than a 'religion' as such - it's not so much the truths behind Buddhism, Shinto that matter but it's just HOW you look after the dead, how you grow up (with the age ceremonies), blessings at certain points of your life, Christian weddings etc. - more functional in parts than necessarily as wholeful truths
- many don't see an issue with being part/practising more than one religion because they don't see them as necessarily clashing because of different advantages @ different points of life
Hmm, thoughts of Credo's Easter Mission this year springs to mind..
NB: information has been paraphrased but happy to remove if there are copyright issues. :) thanks!
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