[Ads-l] buffet/cafeteria Catholics, Buddhists

[Tim Stewart]

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

⸻  ⸺   —    ‒    ‒    —   ⸺  ⸻  ⸺   —    ‒    ‒    —
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



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