[Ads-l] buffet/cafeteria Catholics, Buddhists

[Tim Stewart]

Ha! Meze Muslim could work. Not so much the other 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.

Tim



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
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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