Schedium

One day I was taking one of my long walks from Taipei 101 to Xindian District, when I stumbled upon a Buddhist shrine. It was one of the smallest and strangest shrines I'd ever seen.  Usually Buddhist shrines are situated inside buildings that are often constructed in a traditional Chinese style. But this one was different. It was inside a narrow cubicle-like room. There was music playing and the shiny yellow Buddha statue continuously rotated.  The shrine, which is located on Yongkang Street, near the bustling Dongmen night market, is called Yongkang Four-Faced Buddha (永康四面佛). A plaque inside the shrine informs you that if you want to "prayer [sic!] or redeem a vow to the Buddha" you can buy a flower bouquet that costs NTD200 (about US$6.50).  Another plaque explains why the Buddha is called "four-faced". Each face represents four aspects of human life: 1) career success and fame; 2) marriage and romantic relationships...

2018 State of the Union (by The White House via Wikimedia Commons) "Our Lord has made us free by sending us a man like Adolf Hitler as a leader," said  Arnold Gustavs , pastor in the small northern German island of Hiddensee, in one of his sermons in the 1930s. " Heil Hitler ! we shout. And day after day millions of arms are raised for this salute, and millions of lips speak out these words ... We often read the word Heil ['salvation', 'hail '] in the Old and the New Testament: but salvation is always given by God. Therefore, when we say Heil Hitler !, we wish him God's salvation. This salute is actually a prayer, for we pray that God save this man, our Führer , that he protect and bless him, that he give him the helmet of salvation so that he may bravely carry on the struggle for the renewal of the German people."  Pastor Gustavs was only one of many church leaders in Nazi Germany who enthusiastically supported Hitler, and who port...