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Organized religion
and the end of individuals
By J. Michael Cole 寇謐將
Not once during the three-hour funeral did the voice of the master of ceremonies
depart from his meticulously calibrated tone, soothingly providing comfort to
the grieving while announcing the delegations of people who had come to pay
their respects. But every now and then, he would say something that stung like a
stun gun.
We were in Taoyuan on Friday attending the funeral of a young Taiwanese woman
who decided to end her life last month. Her father, who spent about five years
in jail following the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, a protest by pro-democracy
activists, is a former legislator for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who
now faces a 10-year prison term for corruption. While local media reported that
the young woman decided to end her life due to pressures associated with her
studies, it is difficult to imagine that her father’s travails did not also
weigh heavily upon her.
The woman — a beautiful and wonderfully talented artist who had gone to school
in New York — also studied law so that she could help with her father’s defense,
reviewing interrogation tapes and turning to well-known international lawyers
for assistance. Much of her art reflected the deeply held political views of her
family, which emphasize a Taiwanese identity separate from China. Some of her
creations had been used, or were to be used, by the Formosan Association for
Public Affairs’ Young Professionals Group, an assemblage of young US-based
Taiwanese who support Taiwanese self-determination. The beautiful booklet, DVD
and postcards handed to those who attended the service also had an undeniably
pro-Taiwan slant.
Yet, the MC repeatedly used the phrase “we Chinese” (我們中國人), which stopped us in
our tracks. How could the man not have been aware of the political views of the
grieving family and those of the woman whose life and death we had gathered to
remember? How insensitive would the man have had to be not to realize that her
father, a well-known DPP politician with a reputation for singing and wearing
costumes, had served five years of his life behind bars because he and others
had stood up to the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
and the White Terror of the Martial Law era? How could he not take her work, her
life, into consideration, knowing full well that in life she fought for and took
pride in her Taiwanese identity and would always refer to herself as “Taiwanese”
(台灣人)?
To me, the affront again confirmed that organized religion has little patience
for individuality and limits itself to general platitudes. I have seen this
occur time and again at weddings and funerals — regardless of the belief system.
That is why priests or monks will movingly talk of “loving husbands” when
describing a deceased man who spent his married life inflicting physical and
emotional pain on his wife and members of his family.
I do not think the MC meant any slight or sought to impose his political views
on the family; he was simply following the script (this could also be indicative
of the extent to which the KMT sinicization of Taiwan also left its mark on
religion).
By focusing on the masses, organized religion — and the same could be said of
another system of control, politics — fails to bring itself to the level of
those it claims to represent. How simple it would have been for the temple to
change the wording so that it actually meant something for the grieving family
and reflected their desires, wishes and beliefs during that one last moment.
There is no reason why priests and monks and rabbis should not have to do their
homework on the people whom they purport to serve as celestial intermediaries.
But then again, when have religious figures ever been servants of mankind?
J. Michael Cole is deputy news editor at the Taipei Times.
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