Pastor Jerome Fernando’s controversial statement that the followers of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam should be encouraged to seek love and light in Jesus has triggered criticism on many fronts. Followers of the said religions including certain religious leaders and activists have denounced Fernando while interpreting the statements in question as an “insult” to their religions. In addition, several complaints have been filed against those statements, while President Ranil Wickremesinghe has informed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to launch an immediate investigation into Fernando's controversial statements.
Fernando went to great lengths to explain why Buddhists need Jesus. He said that Buddha was merely the ‘enlightened one’ whereas Jesus was the ‘light’, and that when Buddha was looking for light, he was in fact looking for Jesus. He even claimed that every Buddhist needs Jesus. He presented more or less similar opinions about Hinduism and Islam too.
These statements are not difficult to be interpreted as insults, in a context where matters pertaining to religions, especially Buddhism, are taken extremely seriously in Sri Lanka. Although some Buddhists’ feelings may have been hurt by Fernando’s statements, which is justifiable, labelling Fernando’s statements as outright insults may not be the best approach to respond to this situation, because many of the things that he said were purely opinions that cannot be labelled as correct or wrong. Whether Fernando said anything that can be constituted as an insult is a debatable and subjective matter, because essentially what he said was that there is something more for followers of other religions to achieve through Christianity. During his speech, he added that followers of other religions are not very far from what he referred to as the ‘truth’ and that there is a truth deeper than what is accepted by followers of other religions as the ‘truth’. In fact, he asked his followers to never persecute or shame another person’s faith and to never disrespect another person’s belief.
One statement that he made, i.e. Buddha was looking for Jesus when the former was looking for light, however, cannot be factually correct, because Buddhism came into existence centuries before Christianity did.
As any other promoter of a religion, Fernando too said what he thought about his religion, with a comparison between Christianity and several other religions including Buddhism. However, his comparison of religions involved claiming that other religions needed Christianity, which is not quite uncommon in Sri Lanka where religious leaders, including those of Buddhism, claim that their religion represents the deepest and purest forms of truths about many things. Therefore, there is a question as to whether it is possible to really challenge Fernando for talking about religion in a manner that puts on a pedestal the religion in which he believes in and which he is trying to promote. At the centre of Fernando’s statements is the freedom of expression, which is a Fundamental Right guaranteed through Article 14(1)(a) of the Constitution and to which every citizen is entitled to. When it comes to religions, a significant share of the advancement and survival of any religion depends on the freedom of expression. At the end of the day, whether a statement is accepted as true and the extent to which that truth matters to the people is decided largely in the marketplace of ideas.
Opinions are what help the society evolve without which the human race would not move forward. While religions evolve slowly, they still need a certain level of public opinion in support of them to survive, and therefore, freedom of expression in the context of religions should receive more attention. Buddha was an ardent supporter of the freedom of thought, belief and expression. However, modern day Buddhism and Buddhists seem to have conveniently ignored those aspects of Buddhism, which now results in any statement that Buddhists do not welcome being labelled as an insult. Trying to counter opinions through laws and regulations is not an effective endeavour. As a country that boasts about having a religious and cultural foundation strengthened by Buddhism, Sri Lanka should understand that open discourses that welcome diverse opinions is the best approach to countering opinions.