The president of China came to speak at Yale yesterday. Yalies had the choice of watching the live broadcast of the speech, or watching the protests outside. From the conversations that ran through the rest of that day, I'm guessing people found the protests a lot more exciting.

While we’re on the topic of what counts as religion and what doesn't, I'd be eager to listen in on a discussion on the falun gong movement. Is it a religious movement? A cult? And what's the difference between the two? Does either, if there is a difference, threaten social order and/or the existing political system?

Here are two starting quotes off the top of my head:

"Any religion that’s not at least two thousand years old is a cult."
- Louis, in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America

"A cult is a religion without political power."
- Tom Wolfe

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [1:54 PM]

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