[Ads-l] buffet/cafeteria Catholics, Buddhists

Tim Stewart timoteostewart1977 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Mar 11 22:37:38 UTC 2019 

“J” is a hard one. Junk Food Aisle Jew isn’t quite right. Vending Machine
Voudoun?

Another Lutheran one I’ve heard is “La-Z-Boy Lutheran” for a Lutheran who
skips church and spends Sunday morning in the recliner watching TV.

My favorite play on words in the denominational pun category is
“Whiskeypalian” for “Episcopalian.”
https://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/whiskeypalian-where-you-find-four-episcopalians-youll-find-a-fifth/

Tim


On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 5:24 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Mar 11, 2019, at 5:33 PM, Tim Stewart <timoteostewart1977 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > Ha! Meze Muslim could work. Not so much the other one.
>
> Yeah, I was pushing the envelope on that.  I was also looking for a "___
> Jew”, but couldn’t think of the appropriate j-initial component.  “Dim sum
> Daoist” is a nice one!
>
> > Maybe Luby’s
> > Lutheran? How about Tapas Taoist? or Dim Sum Daoist? We could play this
> > game a while. ;-)
> >
> > I do know of the portmanteau term “lutepisc” (pun on “lutefisk”) which
> has
> > been used by people who feel a connection to both the Lutherans and the
> > Episcopalians, such as for the kids in a family where dad is a Lutheran
> and
> > mom is Episcopalian, etc.
>
> Surprised I never heard that one on Garrison Keillor’s show or in his
> books, unless I did and forgot.
>
> We could go with “Pot luck Presbyterian”, but are they really into that?
> Unitarians are, but then we lose the alliteration.
>
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 2:52 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>> On Mar 11, 2019, at 2:22 PM, Tim Stewart <timoteostewart1977 at GMAIL.COM
> >
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Benjamin,
> >>>
> >>> Not sure if you're only interested in the "catholic" variant, but I
> have
> >>> "cafeteria Christian" back to 1966 and "cafeteria Christianity" back to
> >>> 1988 in a blog post if you're interested in casting your net in that
> >>> direction:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> https://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/cafeteria-christian-cafeteria-christianity/
> >>>
> >>> I love "buffet Buddhist." New to me.
> >>>
> >>> Tim
> >>>
> >>> ⸻  ⸺   —    ‒    ‒    —   ⸺  ⸻  ⸺   —    ‒    ‒    —
> >>>
> >>
> >> Meze Muslims?  Lutefisk Lutherans?
> >>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, Mar 10, 2019 at 4:35 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com
> >
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I made no attempt to antedate “cafeteria Catholic”. Wikipedia has 1971
> >> for
> >>>> that and 1986 for “cafeteria Catholicism”.
> >>>>
> >>>> Some of these instances of “buffet Buddhist” appear to be nonce.
> >>>>
> >>>> 1.
> >>>>
> >>
> https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/buddhism-meditation-anxiety-therapy/584308/
> >>>> Why So Many Americans Are Turning to Buddhism
> >>>> Olga Khazan
> >>>> 7 Mar 2019
> >>>>
> >>>> ——
> >>>> Much like “cafeteria Catholics” ignore parts of the religion that
> don’t
> >>>> resonate with them, some Westerners focus on only certain elements of
> >>>> Buddhist philosophy and don’t endorse, say, Buddhism’s view of
> >>>> reincarnation or worship of the Buddha. Call them “buffet Buddhists.”
> >>>> ——
> >>>>
> >>>> The English OLD definition almost fits:
> >>>> https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cafeteria
> >>>> North American as modifier Denoting a system in which people may
> choose
> >>>> from a number of available options, especially one in which an
> employee
> >> may
> >>>> select a personal package of company benefits.
> >>>>
> >>>> Merriam-Webster has a similar definition:
> >>>> https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cafeteria
> >>>> providing a selection from which a choice may be made
> >>>> cafeteria benefit plan
> >>>> a cafeteria curriculum
> >>>>
> >>>> Wikipedia
> >>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cafeteria_Catholicism
> >>>> The term cafeteria Catholic is applied to those who assert a Catholic
> >>>> faith yet dissent from one or more doctrinal or moral teachings of the
> >>>> Catholic church or who are viewed as dissenting by those using the
> term.
> >>>>
> >>>> 2. http://www.lawrence.com/weblogs/patrickquinn/2006/jul/1/philemon/
> >>>> 1 July 2006
> >>>> Patrick Quinn
> >>>>
> >>>> ——
> >>>> Americanism is a formal expression of what's better known as "buffet
> >>>> Catholicism": Many American Catholics walk down the serving line
> >> sampling
> >>>> only the doctrines they like, and pass over the rest in silence.
> >>>> Americanism is hardly limited to North America or to Catholics. There
> >> are
> >>>> plenty of buffet Christians of all varieties, as well as buffet
> Muslims,
> >>>> buffet Buddhists, buffet Jews and so on.
> >>>> ——
> >>>>
> >>>> 3. http://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/72885/3
> >>>> traveler
> >>>> 25 September 2002
> >>>>
> >>>> ——
> >>>> Certainly when His Holiness the Dalai Lama denounced abortion as
> >> contrary
> >>>> to the life-affirming principles of Buddhism, the buffet Buddhists of
> >>>> Hooie-wood experienced a dukkha day of Cecil B. Demille proportions.
> >>>> ——
> >>>>
> >>>> 4.
> >>>>
> >>
> http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/19198/disrespect-and-non-disrespect-towards-buddha
> >>>> Shigo
> >>>> July 2013
> >>>> ——
> >>>> Yeah I think theres a lot of buffet buddhists these days. Its not the
> 6
> >>>> fold path with a side of "I'll do whatever I want”
> >>>> ——
> >>>>
> >>>> 5. http://dontknowzen.com/the-death-of-zen-in-the-west-gone-too-soon/
> >>>> Haven Tobias
> >>>> 8 September 2018
> >>>> ——
> >>>> He concluded: the problem (?) with you people (?) is that you act as
> if
> >>>> Buddhism is a buffet. Oh, zen moment! Bingo! Ka-ching! This was about
> >> when
> >>>> Barak Obama was saying: hey, if you want to call it Obamacare, that’s
> ok
> >>>> with me. I said: hey, if you want to call us Buffet Buddhists, I’m
> going
> >>>> with that. There are contemporary and there are ancient elements in
> >> Buffet
> >>>> Buddhism. There are American contributors, and English ones, but there
> >> are
> >>>> also Asian lights, like Thich Naht Hanh. Buffet Buddhism can take a
> >> little
> >>>> from Tibetan Buddhism, but leave the guru worship and the tantric
> magic
> >>>> aside;
> >>>> ——
> >>>>
> >>>> 6.
> >>>>
> >>
> https://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/1bru6g/not_believing_in_karma_and_prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da/
> >>>> therivverrat
> >>>> five years ago
> >>>> ——
> >>>> Well, if there are "cafeteria Catholics, then why not "buffet
> >> Buddhists"?
> >>>> That is, who just take the parts they like?
> >>>> ——
> >>>>
> >>>> Benjamin Barrett
> >>>> Formerly of Seattle, WA
> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> > --
> >
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> > Read about my forthcoming book Mixed Blessings: The Dictionary of Blended
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> > Read blog posts from the ongoing Dictionary of Christianese
> > <https://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/> project
> >
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>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
-- 

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Hire me for copyediting and proofreading at Laurellia Press
<https://www.laurelliapress.com/editorial/>
Read about my forthcoming book Mixed Blessings: The Dictionary of Blended
Religion <https://www.mixedblessingsdictionary.com/blog/>
Read blog posts from the ongoing Dictionary of Christianese
<https://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/> project

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