I'm an outsider looking in here, but I'd like to offer a parallel experience.
I'm an American Buddhist. Yet it's amazing how many of my acquaintances and colleagues presume that I'm Christian simply because they are. I get Biblical references made me to me, and I'm expected to understand them. I hear people talk about "God's will," and I'm supposed to agree with them.
When I meet other Buddhists, there's usually a brief discussion of what "type" of Buddhist we each here. There's Zen and Tibetan and Pure Land and many more. But after we identify ourselves, we identify with each other. There's a recognition, sometimes spoken and sometimes not, that we have far more in common with each other than with do with most Americans who don't share our traditions. We are strangers in a strange land.
By focusing on our sameness rather than our differences, we are able to smile and say, "Same to you!" with compassion when some well-meaning soul wishes us a Merry Christmas.
Unity
I'm an American Buddhist. Yet it's amazing how many of my acquaintances and colleagues presume that I'm Christian simply because they are. I get Biblical references made me to me, and I'm expected to understand them. I hear people talk about "God's will," and I'm supposed to agree with them.
When I meet other Buddhists, there's usually a brief discussion of what "type" of Buddhist we each here. There's Zen and Tibetan and Pure Land and many more. But after we identify ourselves, we identify with each other. There's a recognition, sometimes spoken and sometimes not, that we have far more in common with each other than with do with most Americans who don't share our traditions. We are strangers in a strange land.
By focusing on our sameness rather than our differences, we are able to smile and say, "Same to you!" with compassion when some well-meaning soul wishes us a Merry Christmas.