When Buddhists learn Buddhism from falled Christians

Ron at Life in Australia has This link to a First Things account of Buddhism and its complicated relationship to the West.

Apparently, Asian Buddhists owe their unified front to a lapsed Presbyterian:

Before Olcott arrived in Ceylon, Christian missionaries had achieved considerable success in Christianizing the island, particularly in its educational system. Buddhist monks had already begun resisting the missionaries, yet Olcott’s influence was decisive. Believing the Ceylonese were appallingly ignorant of their true religious heritage—and that this ignorance made them vulnerable to Christian missionaries—he embarked on a program to consolidate Sri Lankan Buddhism, becoming one of the most important anti-mission missionaries in modern history. He provided instruction and inspiration for Dharmapala, the “Homeless Protector of the Dharma,” who traveled to Japan, India, Burma, Thailand, Europe, and the United States, becoming what one history calls “the founder of international Buddhism.”

Mr. Leithart observes one of the many ironies that go around this story:

The ironies of this story run in many directions. Westerners who convert to Buddhism are frequently attracted to a form of Buddhism that is the creation of the modern world. Western converts are often attracted to precisely those features of Buddhism that owe most to liberal Protestantism: tolerance, elevation of reason, compatibility with science, hostility to elitism and hierarchy in religion, and so on.

What a surprise. Buddhism by baby-boomers is rehashed Liberal Protestantism in Eastern trimmings. No wonder so many of them feel so much at home in it. No wonder the traditional Buddhists are aghast! Another fine example of cultural diffusion at work. Brought to you by that great leveler of culture, Secular relativism. After all, if there is no God, anything goes. Why not wed the “masculine” technological superiority of the West with the “feminine” spirituality of the East? It's the only Reasonable thing to do.

Meanwhile, hear the Fools laugh out loud. If the Reasonable took a breather, they might hear why, once the Fools get themselves off the floor. "What's so funny?" They might ask

"Well, you're bonding the ultimate message of hope with the ultimate vehicle of despair," laughs one Fool in reply, "Exactly what are the kids going to look like?"

There you go. By your fruits will you know them, sayth the Lord. Exactly how good have been the fruits of a Western Buddhism? Has it altered the consumerism of one person? Has it fostered that encounter of silence in which one could listen to the One? Has it changed the face of the world as so many that first practiced it had hoped?

The Fools still await an answer. I get the feeling we'll wait a long time.