a senior pastor from Singapore recently made unruly comments and insensitive remarks on Buddhism. Pastor Rony Tan, who claims to have a congregation of 12,000+ in Singapore, made a video of a church service speech. In this video, Pastor Tan referred to Buddhism and each time accompanied it with his opinion of the religion. I watched this video, which was first available from Tan's website and subsequently in several video sharing websites. This matter has created a huge outcry within Singapore's civic circles on various fronts. Tan has since apologised for his actions, and promised not to repeat the same mistake again.
In this past decade, we have seen almost daily how bigotry and fundamentalism has caused tensions and conflicts within communities and across continents. It is human to err, but irresponsible religious speeches can threaten social stability of a secular country like Singapore. It is not my intention to "talk" about the person on this forum. Only one point I like to discuss: at one point in the speech, Pastor Tan said that when the Buddha was about to pass away, he uttered the last words "I am still seeking the way."
I thought I have heard this before, but used on someone else. So, I am curious if Christian evangelicals used "canned messages" in their preaching to win ignorant converts. Is there anyone who knows Christian evangelism methods well enough to comment?
Also, "I am still seeking the way." is obviously a quote taken from someone or somewhere and inadequately applied to the Buddha. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am sure most Buddhists would agree the Buddha's final words are "Transient are all compounded things, strive on with diligence!". This is of course from the Pali tradition. Is there any difference from the Chinese and Tibetan traditions?