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Introduction

The last five questions in the survey instrument address one of the most pressing issues facing northern Thai Protestants, namely how they behave themselves in the context of Buddhist rites. This issue is raised virtually every time northern Thai Protestants discuss their relationship with people of other faiths, and at no point are the traditions of their culture and their religion more in tension than on the issue of participation in Buddhist rites. Northern Thai culture, on the one hand, values communal unity and frictionless interpersonal relationships. Failure to take full part in the rites of ones' neighbors is seen to be disrespectful of the neighbor. Protestants, on the other hand, have long been taught that participation in the rites of other religions violates the biblical commandments to worship and serve only One God and to refrain, specifically, from the worship of idols. For those not familiar with northern Thai culture and society, we should note that it is virtually impossible for Christians (or, anyone else) to avoid attending Buddhist rites; they are socially ubiquitous. The matter becomes particularly difficult in terms of funerals, for example, where Christians may be called upon to present robes to monks or light incense sticks before a casket—acts missionary teachings traditionally forbade them from doing.

To anticipate the data obtained from these five questions, we will see in this section that the respondents tend to be strongly exclusivist in their attitudes towards Buddhist rites. There seems to be a strong inclination to limit participation in those rites as much as possible and not a little antipathy towards any participation.

In what follows, two Thai terms having to do with gestures of respect are used. The first, phanom mue, signifies the physical act of pressing one's hands together at a level at least chest high or higher in an attitude that Westerners associate with prayer. In contemporary Thailand, it is both a social act of greeting and of showing the respect of a person of lower social status to someone of comparable or higher status. Buddhist rites frequently call on the faithful to phanom mue. The second term, wai, is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it has the same meaning as phanom mue. As a verb, it is the act of phanom mue-ing. The terms are used interchangeably in Thai, and while wai is the more commonly used term both are widely used and entirely understood. It is worth noting that in the past northern Thai Protestants normally did not wai or phanom mue during their own worship services, but in more recent years, especially in the North, it has become common for many Christians to wai during times of prayer and at the time of the benediction.

It should also be noted that beginning with Question 12 the number of valid responses drops below 700 for the remaining four questions. Two reasons are likely. First, many of the respondents are unfamiliar with the mechanics of filling out a questionnaire, and it is likely that they became fatigued even by this deliberately short form. Although we estimated that most people should be able to complete the form in 15 to 20 minutes, the students reported that it took many people, especially in the rural churches, as much as 45 minutes to complete it. Second, Questions 13 and 14 appear complicated on the form and were difficult for many to comprehend and fill out. Some respondents, apparently, became discouraged and gave up.

These two questions, as will be seen below, explore two different aspects of Christian participation in Buddhist rites. The purpose of these two questions is to establish the boundaries of such participation in terms of both cultural issues of communal unity and theological issues of proper Christian conduct.

Question 11 begins with the statement that, "Buddhists sometimes feel that Christians destroy brotherly and sisterly unity with them because they do not show respect (phanom mue) during Buddhist ritual." It then asks, "What do you think?" Respondents are provided with five responses, of which they are to choose only one: [a] whatever others think, Christians absolutely may not phanom mue; [b] although we empathize with them, Christians for the most part may not phanom mue; [c] actually, Christians should be broad-minded and phanom mue; [d] this is not an important matter and we can do whatever we want; and, [e] I'm not sure on this question The first response is taken to be exclusivist, and the third response is intended to be pluralist. The second response is designed to be a medium position, but leans towards exclusivism. The fourth response intends to discover whether the respondents see this question as being worth expressing an opinion.

Table 31
Frequency Distribution for Question 11
Should Christians phanom mue during Buddhist Rituals?

Table 32 shows that respondents over the age of 60 tended to be more exclusivist regarding the question of whether or not Christians should phanom mue or not during Buddhist Rituals. Young people, ages 11-30 tended to be less exclusivist but more uncertain about the issue compared with the older age groups.

Table 32
Summary of Frequency Distribution for Question 11 by Age
Should Christians phanom mue during Buddhist Rituals?

Question 12

Question 12 begins with the statement, "Some people say that there is no problem with Christians showing respect (wai) to Buddha images." It then asks, "Do you agree?" This question addresses specifically the question of Buddhist images, which northern Thai Protestants even today frequently refer to as "idols" (rub kao rob). It was assumed from the beginning that a large majority of the respondents would reject the idea that Christians may wai Buddha images, and the question is purposely phrased in such a way as to imply that agreement to this questions is the preferable answer. As can be seen below, the invitation to a positive answer was overwhelmingly rejected. That is, I knew ahead of time that the response to this question would be overwhelmingly negative and purposely slanted the question against a negative response as a test to see how strong the respondent's attitude against wai-ing Buddha images is. It is strong.

Table 35 shows that 90.5% of the total sample disagreed, including a strong 55.0% who disagreed entirely, with the proposition that, "There is no problem with Christians showing respect to Buddha images." Only 7.6% of the respondents agreed with that statement. It is the decided opinion of the respondents (and of northern Thai Protestants generally) that Christians may not wai Buddha images.

Table 35
Frequency Distribution for Question 12
There is no problem with Christians showing respect (wai) to Buddha images

	Number	Valid %
Disagree Entirely	370	55.0%
Disagree	211	31.4%
Disagree Somewhat	28	4.2%
Agree Somewhat	22	3.3%
Agree	25	3.7%
Agree Entirely	4	0.6%
Uncertain	13	1.9%
N = 673

In terms of the variables of age (Question 16), gender (Question 17), locality (Question 18), position in the church (Question 19), educational status (Question 20), and whether or not the respondents were born into a Christian home (Question 21) or have non-Christians living in their homes (Question 22), there are only minor disparities among these variables. The only exception is age.

Table 36 shows that 10.8% of young people ages 11 to 30 agreed with the idea that Christians may show formal respect to Buddha images where as only 3.2% of those over 60 agreed. While the difference is large, with about three times as many young people agreeing as older people, the figures are still small. The overwhelming majority of people ages 11 to 30 (85.7%) joined their elders in rejecting that proposition.

Table 36
Summary of Frequency Distribution for Question 12 by Age
There is no problem with Christians showing respect (wai) to Buddha images

	Total Sample	11-30	31-60	Over 60
Disagree	90.5%	85.7%	91.9%	96.8%
Agree	7.6%	10.8%	6.6%	3.2%
Number	673	203	396	62

Regarding the other variables, as stated above there are only minor differences in responses. All categories reject the proposition that Christians may wai Buddha images with percentages ranging from a low of 88.1% for men (women scored 92.2%) to as high as 94.0% in the case of deacons.

Reflections on Questions 11 and 12

The data obtained from Questions 11 and 12 raises the important question of whether or not that data reflects a larger pattern of ideological response. Using the exclusivist and pluralist responses to Question 5, again, as a control we can see in Tables 37 and 38 that there is an ideological element involved in the responses to Questions 11 and 12.

Table 37 indicates that over three-fifths (62.9%) of those who agreed with the exclusivist attitude in Question 5 that all non-Christians are damned also agreed in Question 11 with the exclusivist attitude that Christians absolutely may not phanom mue during Buddhist rituals. Only one-fourth (25.3%) of those who agreed with the pluralist statement in Question 5 that all good people of every faith are saved, on the other hand, agreed with the exclusivist attitude in Question 11 that Christians absolutely may not phanom mue during Buddhist rituals. The difference between them is 37.6%, a substantial difference, which indicates that distinct exclusivist and pluralist sentiments informed the respondents' answers to Question 11.

We should note, however, that only a relatively small percentage (11.2%) of those who answered Question 5 in a pluralist way also agreed with the overtly pluralist statement that Christians should be broad-minded and phanom mue during Buddhist rituals. Far more of those who answered Question 5 in a pluralist way (33.6%) opted for the response that this issue is not an important one, and many of them (21.6%) chose the more mildly exclusivist statement that usually Christians may not phanom mue during Buddhist merit-making rituals. In the context of Buddhist rites, that is, the great majority of the respondents eschewed an explicit appeal to pluralism, and those who had taken a pluralist stand in Question 5 chose in Question 11 to mute their pluralism in ways that did not explicitly deny exclusivism. We should also emphasize that the majority of the respondents did not select the most clearly exclusivist option in Question 11, indicating the continuing presence of an important tendency towards pluralism.

Table 37
Comparison of the Frequency Distributions for Question 11 with the
First and Third Responses to Question 5

	Question 11 Total Sample	Question 11 compared to Exclusivist Response in Question 5	Question 11 compared to Pluralist Response in Question 5
Christians absolutely may not phanom mue	40.5%	62.9%	25.3%
Christians usually may not phanom mue	23.0%	16.5%	21.6%
Christians should be broad minded	6.7%	3.1%	11.2%
Not Important	20.6%	11.9%	33.6%
Uncertain	9.2%	5.7%	8.3%
Number	704	194	241

The pattern that emerges from the data obtained by Questions 11 and 12 in comparison to our earlier data, particularly Questions 1 through 5, is that there is a marked tendency among a significant number of the respondents towards ideological pluralism. The tendency is not consistent and it varies in strength, but it is clearly present. A varying majority of the respondents tend, overall, to think about their relationship to people of other faiths much as do other northern Thais. When it comes to participation in Buddhist ritual, that tendency towards pluralism is greatly diminished even among those who may be counted as pluralists on the basis of their previous responses. I would like to return to the issue of northern Thai Protestant participation in Buddhist rites in the conclusion of this section, since we will see that the results discussed here are manifest throughout Questions 11 through 15.

We should note, finally, that Questions 11 and 12, because they are similar, provide something of a check on the consistency with which the respondents filled out the questionnaire. Of those who chose the first, exclusivist response in Question 11, namely that Christians may no phanom mue during Buddhist rites, 97.4% disagreed with the pluralist proposition in Question 12 that Christians may wai Buddha images, and only 2.6% agreed. On these two questions, at least, there is a high level of consistency in response.

Question 13

Question 13 asks, "What do you think if Christians take part in the following Buddhist rites?" and then provides seven items for response. They include participation in: [1] Merit-making (phanom mue); [2] Merit-making (don't phanom mue); [3] Temple processions; [4] Accepting alms; [5] Presenting robes; [6] Respecting a deceased body; and [7] Greeting (wai) a monk.

Many of the respondents found this question complicated and difficult to respond to. Many of them simply answered one line out of the seven, assuming that earlier directions to select only one response on one line (such as in Question 11) applied to Question 13 as well. Others, evidently, simply found the question too big and complex. The total sample, it will be remembered, is 726 respondents. Still, the great majority of respondents were able to complete the question.

There is a high degree of consistency in the responses to these seven items, and general discussion of the results of the question is left for the section "Comparison of Data for Question 13," below. A summary table is included in that section, and differences among the variables will be discussed there. Briefly summarized, the data obtained from Question 13 shows the respondents express a strong inclination to refrain from participation in most forms of Buddhist rites.

Data From Each Line Item

Line 13.1

Line 13.1 asks if Christians should take part in formal Buddhist merit-making rituals including raising their hands (phanom mue) in formal respect. Table 39 shows that nearly four-fifths of the respondents who answered this item (79.1%) stated that Christians should not participate in Buddhist rituals including showing formal respect (wai).

Table 39
Frequency Distribution for Line 13.1
Should Christians take part in Buddhist ritual including phanom mue?

	Number	Valid %
Should Not	515	79.1%
Situational	76	11.7%
Always May	11	1.7%
Unsure	18	2.8%
Unconcerned	30	4.6%
N = 651

Line 13.2

Line 13.1 asks if Christians should take part as observers in formal Buddhist merit-making rituals while refraining from raising their hands (phanom mue) in formal respect. As can be seen from Table 40, the respondents show much more willingness to attend formal Buddhist ritual if they do not phanom mue, but (49.4% still felt that Christians should never take part while only 15.7% agreed that Christians may always take part. We should note here, in any event, that the physical act of phanom mue or to wai is an important issue. In the context of Buddhist ritual, the respondents generally associate it with worship.

Table 40
Frequency Distribution for Line 13.2
Should Christians take part in Buddhist ritual but not phanom mue?

	Number	Valid %
Should Not	308	49.4%
Situational	119	19.1%
Always May	98	15.7%
Unsure	30	4.8%
Unconcerned	66	10.6%
N = 623

Line 13.3

Line 13.3 asks if Christians should take part in Buddhist processions (hae krua tan). Such processions generally involve the temple faithful bringing donations to the temple for the monks. These donations generally include "money trees" (ton krua tan), bamboo frames that have something like the shape of a tree and from which are hung donations of various sorts including money. Table 41 shows that 61.2% of the respondents who answered this item stated that Christians should not take part in such processions.

Table 41
Frequency Distribution for Line 13.3
Should Christians take part in Buddhist religious processions?

	Number	Valid %
Should Not	383	61.2%
Situational	109	17.4%
Always May	44	7.0%
Unsure	34	5.4%
Unconcerned	53	8.5%
N = 626

Line 13.4

Line 13.4 asks if Christians should take part in Buddhist alms giving (ruam rongthan), which giving can involve giving to people in need. Table 42 shows that the respondents who answered this item were somewhat more inclined to agree (13.3%) that Christians may always take part in alms giving in a Buddhist context. Still, nearly half (48.5%) stated that Christians should not do so.

Table 42
Frequency Distribution for Line 13.4
Should Christians take part in Buddhist alms giving?

	Number	Valid %
Should Not	300	48.5%
Situational	152	24.6%
Always May	82	13.3%
Unsure	42	6.8%
Unconcerned	40	6.5%
N = 618

Line 13.5

Line 13.5 asks if Christians should take part in presenting robes to monks (wang pha bangsakun) as a part of Buddhist funeral rites conducted just prior to cremations. This is one of the most frequent moments in which Christians are confronted with the difficult choice of participation or non-participation. Table 43 shows just over half of the respondents who answered this item (51.0%) stated that Christians should not take part in giving robes to monks at funeral rites. A somewhat larger number than usual (29.4%) agreed that what one does depends on the situation.

Table 43
Frequency Distribution for Line 13.5
Should Christians take part in giving robes to monks at Buddhist funerals?

	Number	Valid %
Should Not	324	51.0%
Situational	187	29.4%
Always May	52	8.2%
Unsure	37	5.8%
Unconcerned	33	5.2%
N = 635

Line 13.6

Line 13.6 asks if Christians should light incense sticks in respect of a deceased's body (chudthub waisob). Normally, incense sticks are available for lighting at the foot of the casket, and the act of lighting the stick and wai-ing the casket is seen as an act of respect for the deceased. Buddhists do not consider it as an essentially religious act. Table 44 indicates that the majority of respondents who answered this item (55.6%) do see it as potentially a religious act that Christians should not engage in.

Table 44
Frequency Distribution for Line 13.6
Should Christians light incense sticks in respect of a deceased's body?

	Number	Valid %
Should Not	351	55.6%
Situational	123	19.5%
Always May	82	13.0%
Unsure	43	6.8%
Unconcerned	31	4.9%
N = 631

Line 13.7

Line 13.7 asks if Christians should greet monks by wai-ing them. There was, apparently, some misunderstanding among the respondents concerning this item. The intention of the item was to ascertain if the respondents agreed or not that monks may be greeted socially with a wai, the greeting universally acceptable in Thai society. However, many respondents seem to have associated the act of greeting monks with formal ceremonial occasions, especially given its location at the end of a list of such occasions. As a result, the data shown in Table 45 is somewhat difficult to interpret. It is not clear whether or not those who answered that Christians should not wai Buddhist monks (34.3%) associated the question with participation in Buddhist ritual or not. It is doubtful that such a large percentage would say that Christians should never greet monks, as individuals, according to the proper forms of Thai society. On the other hand, the confusion involved in this question does reinforce the sense that the respondents, as a body, are sensitive to the "dangers" involved in any form of participation in Buddhist rites—or of involving themselves with anything having to do, however remotely, with rites.

Table 45
Frequency Distribution for Line 13.7
Should Christians wai Buddhist monks?

	Number	Valid %
Should Not	219	34.3%
Situational	178	27.9%
Always May	168	26.3%
Unsure	36	5.6%
Unconcerned	33	5.2%
N = 638

Comparison of Data for Question 13

Table 46 compares the results obtained from Question 13, which shows that with the exception of Line 13.7, socially greeting monks, large majorities of the respondents agreed that Christians should not participate in all of the rites listed. They found participating in formal merit-making rituals including phanom mue (Line 13.1) and taking part in Buddhist merit-making processionals (Line 13.3) to be particularly objectionable. Giving alms (Line 13.4) and attending merit-making rituals without phanom mue (Line 13.2) were considered the least objectionable. The percentages of those who were either unconcerned with the issues raised or uncertain about their views are not large, suggesting that most of the respondents who answered Question 13 had thought about the issues of participation raised by the question and had opinions about them.

Table 46
Comparison of Frequency Distributions for Question 13

	13.1	13.2	13.3	13.4	13.5	13.6	13.7
Should Not	79.1%	49.4%	61.2%	48.5%	51.0%	55.6%	34.3%
Situational	11.7%	19.1%	17.4%	24.6%	29.4%	19.5%	27.9%
Always May	1.7%	15.7%	7.0%	13.3%	8.2%	13.0%	26.3%
Unsure	2.8%	4.8%	5.4%	6.8%	5.8%	6.8%	5.6%
Unconcerned	4.6%	10.6%	8.5%	6.5%	5.2%	4.9%	5.2%
Number	651	623	626	618	635	631	638

In terms of the variables of age (Question 16), gender (Question 17), locality (Question 18), position in the church (Question 19), educational status (Question 20), and whether or not the respondents were born into a Christian home (Question 21) or have non-Christians living in their homes (Question 22), the data for Question 13 shows important differences for age, gender, position, and educational status. It would, unfortunately, require an inordinate number of tables to display all of the data for all seven items according to each variable The following tables, thus, contain only the percentages for respondents who felt that they should not engage in the listed activity, that is the first response ("should not") in each item.

Table 47 shows that the responses by age vary considerably and do not seem to fall into a consistent pattern. Those ages 11-30 responded to the first three items (13.1-13.3) with the response that Christians should not participate less often than the other two age categories. The difference for these first three lines between the young peoples' responses and those of the other two age groups is slightly more than 10.0% for each question. That is to say, those aged 30 years or younger seemed less resistant to taking part in merit-making activities than those over the age of 30. In the final four items, however, their percentages are more in line with the other two age groups, and those aged 30 or less were actually more resistant to take part in presenting robes to monks at funerals (Line 13.5) than the other two age groups. The data in Table 49, thus, suggests that age is not a consistent variable for ascertaining how northern Thai Protestants feel about participation in various Buddhist rites. If the data in this table reflects the actual attitudes of local church members, there is no consistent trend towards a more pluralist viewpoint among younger people.

Table 47
Summary of Frequency Distributions for Question 13 by Age
For the First Response, "Should Not" engage in the listed activity

	13.1	13.2	13.3	13.4	13.5	13.6	13.7
11-30	71.7%	41.9%	53.1%	46.4%	55.1%	51.3%	42.0%
31-60	82.5%	51.6%	65.1%	49.6%	50.7%	60.1%	32.1%
Over 60	81.8%	62.3%	60.4%	47.1%	41.1%	40.0%	25.5%
Number	642	617	619	612	629	625	629

Table 48 shows that women more frequently agreed that Christians should not participate in five of the seven activities listed. The differences are not large, the largest being for Line 13.3, taking part in Buddhist merit making processions which shows a difference of 7.8%. The data in this table confirms the findings for Questions 11 and 12, where it was also seen that women rejected wai-ing during merit-making ceremonies or to Buddha images more frequently than men. We should remember that the responses of women to the first five questions on the questionnaire, having to do with ideological perspective, showed that women tended to be somewhat more pluralist ideologically than men (see Chapter 2). In this last set of questions, we find that they tend to be more exclusivist concerning actual participation in Buddhist rites. That is to say that women are slightly more reflective of both the ideological trend towards pluralism and trend in participation towards exclusivism than are the men. Why this might be is, at this point, a matter of speculation.

Table 48
Summary of Frequency Distributions for Question 13 by Gender
For the First Response, "Should Not" engage in the listed activity

	13.1	13.2	13.3	13.4	13.5	13.6	13.7
Women	77.7%	49.9%	64.0%	49.0%	53.4%	55.5%	37.7%
Men	81.2%	47.6%	56.2%	46.6%	48.1%	56.3%	30.0%
Number	632	611	612	606	621	616	623

Table 49 shows that church leaders quite consistently affirmed the proposition that Christians should not participate in the various activities listed in Question 13 than did the general membership. While the differences are not great, usually amounting to between 5.0% to 8.0%, the data in this table does reinforce the sense that church leaders generally tend to be somewhat more exclusivist than the general church membership. In all cases but Line 13.7, having to do with greeting monks socially, pastors score consistently high in terms of their reluctance to participate in Buddhist rites. Why this is so is not certain, but pastors, because of their theological training, may have more of an inclination to equate those rites with biblical concepts of idolatry and the long-standing Protestant rejection of merit making.

Table 49
Summary of Frequency Distributions for Question 13 by Position
For the First Response, "Should Not" engage in the listed activity

	13.1	13.2	13.3	13.4	13.5	13.6	13.7
Pastors	81.8%	54.5%	76.2%	54.5%	59.1%	77.3%	27.3%
Elders	87.5%	52.9%	64.8%	40.7%	38.7%	57.6%	27.5%
Deacons	87.2%	59.5%	71.1%	56.0%	49.4%	64.9%	28.6%
Members	76.3%	46.7%	58.5%	48.9%	54.2%	53.1%	38.1%
Number	635	610	614	606	620	617	621

Table 50 shows that, generally speaking, a greater number of the less well educated respondents and those with a medium level of education tended to agree more often that Christians should not participate in the activities listed in Question 13 than did those with a higher education. In only one instance, Line 13.5 concerning giving robes to monks at funerals, did the more highly educated sample agree that Christians should not participate (51.5%) at a greater rate than did those with lower education status (45.7%). On the whole, however, more highly educated respondents tended to be more pluralist in their responses to Question 13 than did people in the medium or lower education categories. This data fits with that found for Questions 11 and 12, where higher educated respondents tended to be somewhat more pluralist. Again, the differences in percentage are not generally large, but they are consistent. We should also note, however, that large percentages of those with higher education still respond in an exclusivist way to all of these questions and items even if they do so somewhat less frequently than the total sample. In any event, we must conclude that those with a higher education are somewhat more inclined towards pluralism.

Table 50
Summary of Frequency Distributions for Question 13 by Educational Status
For the First Response, "Should Not" engage in the listed activity

	13.1	13.2	13.3	13.4	13.5	13.6	13.7
Lower	82.9%	59.1%	62.2%	48.1%	45.7%	56.1%	33.3%
Medium	79.9%	48.1%	65.4%	52.3%	53.2%	57.1%	39.8%
Higher	74.9%	43.2%	56.2%	44.2%	51.5%	53.8%	29.2%
Number	634	608	611	605	621	615	623

differences between those who have Buddhists living in their homes and those who do not. Geographical location is not an important factor.

Reflections on Question 13

As should be anticipated, the data obtained in Question 13 reinforces the impression gained from Questions 11 and 12, above. The respondents demonstrate a strong, consistent tendency towards exclusivism in their attitudes about participation in Buddhist rites. The data in Table 46 indicates that, first, they most strongly object to participation that involves the act of phanom mue, raising the hands in an attitude of respect, which they apparently interpret as an act of worship that violates biblical commandments concerning loyalty to God. Second, the summary data in Table 48 also shows that the respondents do not think Christians should participate in two acts related to funerals, namely giving robes to monks (Item13.5) and lighting incense sticks as a sign of respect for the deceased (Line 13.6).

More study needs to be given to the issue of participation in Buddhist rites in order to understand more precisely the thinking of northern Thai Protestants generally on this issue. It does seem clear that the respondents were keenly aware of the widely taught injunctions against idolatry and the worship of false gods, and they do associate Buddha images, in particular, with idols. They do perceive that their Buddhist neighbors worship Buddha images in the Christian sense of the term, and that the theoretical argument that the faithful look through the image to the teachings of the Buddha is largely inoperative in reality. Some Buddhist reform movements and leaders in Thailand agree. The sense that participation in Buddhist rites violates biblical teachings may well be reinforced by the feeling among Christians that God relates to them much as a patron relates to his or her clients. Thus, to participate in the rituals of another religion seems to violate one's patron-client relationship of loyalty to one's own patron. On the other hand, I have heard a Christian who does go so far as to wai during Buddhist merit-making rituals justify his act by saying that it is all a matter of the heart or consciousness (lao ta chitchai). He does not believe such acts constitute a violation of his Christian faith. That is to say, there are cultural rationales for whatever stand one takes on issues of participation. Most of the respondents, apparently, believe that there is something objective about participation that goes beyond one's own consciousness, which constrains participation. Undoubtedly, there are other factors at work, and the matter does deserve much more study.

A possible explanation for the respondents' generally strong attitudes against participation in Buddhist rites may be found in an article by Eric Reinders entitled, "The Iconoclasm of Obeisance: Protestant Images of Chinese Religion and the Catholic Church" in Numen 44, 3 (September 1997): 296-322. Reinders argues that the missionary rejection of participation in various Chinese rites has its origins in the Protestant denunciation of Roman Catholic worship practices, particularly those showing physical obeisance. Protestants prefer to stand or sit at worship rather than kneel; if they kneel, the trunk of the body is still held upright. Protestants do not prostrate themselves and they do not show physical obeisance. Historically, Protestant have equated such obeisance with what they take to be the Catholic worship of saints and statues. When Protestant missionaries went to China (and Thailand) they applied their attitudes towards physical obeisance to the various forms of indigenous worship they found there. Reinders states, "Acts of obeisance were taken as sufficient signs of idolatry." (page 301) He argues that several other factors were involved including European prejudices against Orientals, the sense that physical obeisance is "low class," and the association of prostration with feminine inferiority. Reinders does not state that the Western missionaries communicated these attitudes to their converts, but it is impossible to believe that they would have failed to do so. Reinders, thus, provides us with a cogent and persuasive theory for explaining the marked reluctance of our northern Thai respondents to engage in Buddhist rites, which also include prostrating oneself before Buddha images and Buddhist monks. The very act of wai-ing would have, in this context, been associated with obeisance to idols.

While it is clear that the respondents, as a whole, show a strong tendency in their responses to the seven items in Question 13 towards an exclusivist attitude concerning participation in Buddhist rites, it is not an overwhelming tendency. Table 48 shows that a fairly sizeable minority for each item responded that participation is "situational" (laa ta okad), which may be taken as an alternative pluralist response. Those who professed themselves "unconcerned" by the issue of participation might also be included in the category of pluralist responses. That is to say, open acceptance of participation, was not the only option for those who did not agree with the exclusivist, first choice of non-participation. When combined in Table 51, below, it is evident that pluralist options remained a viable ones in terms of participation in Buddhist rites.

We note, again, the particular difference wai-ing or not wai-ing makes the data obtained from Lines 13.1 and 13.2.

Table 51 (based on Table 48)
Summary of Frequency Distributions for Question 13 by Exclusivist & Pluralist Choices

	13.1	13.2	13.3	13.4	13.5	13.6	13.7
Exclusivist Choice 1	79.1%	49.4%	61.2%	48.5%	51.0%	55.6%	34.3%
Pluralist Choices 2,3, 5	18.0%	45.4%	32.9%	44.4%	42.8%	37.4%	59.4%

As we have seen throughout this study, in sum, wherever one of the options of exclusivism or pluralism predominates, the other remains as an option for the minority of respondents.

Questions 14 & 15

These two questions are designed to ascertain how the respondents feel about participation in Buddhist rites, including whether or not they feel social pressure from other Christians to refrain from participation. It is assumed that northern Thai Protestant attitudes towards such participation has an affective element to it, and the purpose of these questions (esp. Question 14) is to discover the extent of those feelings.

Question 14

Question 14 asks, "Generally, when you have to attend the ceremonies listed in Question 13, how do you feel?" Three sets of emotional responses are then provided on separate lines. They are: [1] feelings of discomfort or comfort; [2] feelings of unwillingness or willingness; and [3] feelings of dislike or like. This question focuses on the respondents' feelings about a common interfaith situation in most of their lives, namely when they are socially bound to attend a wedding, a funeral, or some formal merit-making function. The events may have to do with Buddhist relatives, members of the same community, or colleagues at work. Negative feelings are taken to be an indication of exclusivism and positive feelings of pluralism.

Some respondents had the same difficulty answering this question that they had with Question 13, and some were evidently doubly confused by this questions' reference to Question 13. The purpose of referring back to question 13 was to give the respondents a clear idea of what types of Buddhist rites were to be included in their response to this question. From feedback gathered later, quite a few respondents, apparently, thought that all three line items in Question 14 should be applied separately to each line item in Question 13. They did not know what to do with this question, and nearly 200 respondents simply skipped over Lines 14.2 and 14.3. Still, the great majority of respondents did fill out this question correctly, and clear patterns in their responses do emerge, as will be seen below.

As was the case for Question 13, a general discussion of the results of the question is left for the section "Comparison of Data for Question 14," below. A summary table is included in that section, and differences among the variables will be discussed there. Briefly summarized, the data obtained from Question 14 shows the respondents as a whole tend to feel uncomfortable about attending Buddhist rites. They feel unwilling to attend, and they do not like to attend.

Data From Each Line Item

Line 14.1

Line 14.1 asks if the respondents feel comfortable or uncomfortable if they have to attend Buddhist rites as listed in Question 13. Table 52 shows that nearly half of the respondents (47.1%) who answered this question agreed that they feel discomfort or some discomfort when attending such events, whereas only 13.5% feel comfortable or somewhat comfortable. A large number of the respondents (35.7%) had no feelings on the matter.

Table 52
Frequency Distribution for Line 14.1
Feelings of Discomfort or Comfort when attending Buddhist events listed in Question 13

	Number	Valid %
Discomfort	180	28.7%
Some Discomfort	116	18.5%
No Feelings	224	35.7%
Some Comfort	22	3.5%
Comfort	71	11.3%
Uncertain	14	2.2%
N = 628

Line 14.2

Line 14.2 asks if the respondents feel willing or unwilling to attend the Buddhist rites as listed in Question 13 in situations where they feel they must attend. Table 53 shows that just at two-fifths (39.7%) felt unwilling or somewhat unwilling to attend even in situations where they must, while 23.4% were willing or somewhat willing.

Table 53
Frequency Distribution for Line 14.2
Feelings of Unwillingness or Willingness when attending Buddhist events listed in Question 13

	Number	Valid %
Unwilling	120	21.9%
Somewhat Unwilling	97	17.7%
No Feelings	187	34.2%
Somewhat Willing	50	9.1%
Willing	78	14.3%
Uncertain	15	2.7%
N = 547

Line 14.3

Line 14.3 asks if the respondents like or dislike attending the events listed in Question 13 when they feel constrained to attend. Nearly half (46.5%) agreed that they do not like or somewhat do not like to attend, while 21.6% stated they like or somewhat like to attend. The number who responded that they have no feelings on the matter (30.0%) is somewhat lower than in Lines 14.1 and 14.2.

Table 54
Frequency Distribution for Line 14.3
Feelings of Dislike or Like when attending Buddhist events listed in Question 13

	Number	Valid %
Dislike	161	28.5%
Dislike Somewhat	101	17.9%
No Feelings	169	30.0%
Like Somewhat	75	13.3%
Like	47	8.3%
Uncertain	11	2.0%
N = 564

Comparison of Data for Question 14

Table 55 compares the data obtained for the three lines of Question 14 and shows a general consistency in the feelings of those who answered this question concerning attendance of the various events listed in Question 13. The majority of the respondents in each case, expressed negative or somewhat negative feelings, that majority amounting to roughly two-fifths or slightly more of the total that answered the question. Roughly another one-fifth or slightly more expressed positive or somewhat positive feelings concerning attendance, and a figure of roughly two-fifths or slightly less stated that they have no feelings about or are uncertain about their feelings.

Table 55
Comparison of Frequency Distributions for Question 14

	Line 14.1 Discomfort or Comfort	Line 14.2 Unwilling or Willing	Line 14.3 Dislike or Like
Negative Feeling	28.7%	21.9%	28.5%
Somewhat Negative	18.5%	17.7%	17.9%
No Feelings	35.7%	34.2%	30.0%
Somewhat Positive	3.5%	9.1%	13.3%
Positive Feeling	11.3%	14.3%	8.3%
Uncertain	2.2%	2.7%	2.0%
Number	628	547	564

Table 56 shows that women, on the whole, consistently agreed that they had greater negative or somewhat negative feelings than men. We should remember that in Chapter 2 women were generally more willing to accept people of other religions. When it comes to actual attendance, however, they feel greater discomfort, unwillingness, and dislike. The reason for these feelings are not clear from the study itself, but whatever they may be the reasons for these negative feelings are not because women are more ideologically conservative than men.

Table 56
Summary of Frequency Distributions for Question 14 by Gender
For Negative and Somewhat Negative Responses to the listed feeling

	Line 14.1 Discomfort or Some Discomfort	Line 14.2 Unwilling or Somewhat Unwilling	Line 14.3 Dislike or Dislike Somewhat
Women	51.2%	46.2%	48.1%
Men	41.4%	40.4%	43.5%
Number	613	536	552

Regarding the other variables, there are a number of particular differences of some degree for one of the three lines, but there are few distinguishable patterns. The most important pattern has to do with age. While young people, ages 11-30 feel roughly the same level of discomfort in attending Buddhist rites, Table 57 shows that they distinctly feel less willing and more dislike at attending than do middle aged people, and that their feelings about attending Buddhist rites more nearly parallel those of people over the age of 60. One possible explanation is that while older people more often feel that Christians cannot or should not participate in Buddhist rites, as seen in the responses to Questions 12 and 13, young people may simply not like having to sit through the rites because they are not interested in them.

Table 57
Summary of Frequency Distributions for Question 14 by Age
For Negative and Somewhat Negative Responses to the listed feeling

	Line 14.1 Discomfort or Some Discomfort	Line 14.2 Unwilling or Somewhat Unwilling	Line 14.3 Dislike or Dislike Somewhat
11-30	48.2%	44.1%	50.5%
31-60	46.7%	37.7%	44.1%
Over 60	48.2%	35.1%	46.8%
Number	618	542	702

A final pattern of some note has to do with the differences between those who were and were not born into Christian families. Table 58 shows that people who were not born into Christian homes felt more negatively or somewhat negatively about attending Buddhist rites in comparison to those born into Christian homes.

Table 58
Summary of Frequency Distributions for Question 14 by Family Religious Status at Birth
For Negative and Somewhat Negative Responses to the listed feeling

	Line 14.1 Discomfort or Some Discomfort	Line 14.2 Unwilling or Somewhat Unwilling	Line 14.3 Dislike or Dislike Somewhat
Born into Christian Home	43.2%	38.1%	45.8%
Not Born into Christian Home	55.7%	43.8%	49.1%
Number	611	540	558

Reflections on Question 14

The respondents who answered this question generally expressed either actively negative feelings about attending the various rites listed in Question 13 or indifference to attendance. On the whole, they showed relatively little positive feelings about attendance.

As mentioned above, we assumed that negative feelings towards attendance of Buddhist rites is an indication of an exclusivist perspective and positive feelings of a pluralist perspective. Table 59 compares the responses given in the three lines of Question 14 with those in Question 11 for those classified there as exclusivists (Response 1) and pluralists (all other responses). The first response in Question 11, we will remember, states that Christians may never phanom mue during merit-making rituals. The table shows that those who selected the exclusivist response in Question 11 were more likely to express negative feelings in Questions14 about attending Buddhist rites. Thus, for example, for Line 1 of Question 14 some 47.2% of the total sample expressed discomfort or some discomfort when attending Buddhist rites. For those who gave an exclusivist response (Response 1) to Question 11, however, 56.5% expressed discomfort or some discomfort when attending Buddhist rites. The data for Lines 14.2 and 14.3 show a similar difference between those classified as exclusivists in Question 11 compared with the total sample in Question 14.

Table 59 also shows the differences between those who gave what were classified as pluralist responses in the Question, (all of the response except Response 1). To take Line 14.1, again, as an example, where 47.2% of the total sample expressed discomfort or some discomfort when attending Buddhist rites, 41.6% of the pluralists from Question 11 expressed discomfort or some discomfort when attending Buddhist rites. While that difference is not great, it is consistent.

Most striking is the fact clearly shown in Table 59 that there is a large difference between negative and positive feelings for those who scored as pluralists and as exclusivists on Question 11. The difference in negatives feelings between for Line 14.1 is 17.2%, for Line 14.2 is 19.1%, and for Line 14.3 is 16.7%. The responses of positive and somewhat positive show similar differences, although the figures are much smaller. We should also note that the figures for those who feel somewhat negative and those who have no feelings about attendance one way or the other remain relatively consistent.

Table 59
Comparison of Frequency Distributions for Questions 11 and 14

	Question 11 Response 1 (Exclusivists)			Question 11 Other Responses (Pluralists)
	Line 14.1	Line 14.2	Line 14.3	Line 14.1	Line 14.2	Line 14.3
Negative	39.3%	33.6%	38.3%	22.1%	14.5%	21.6%
Somewhat Negative	17.2%	19.2%	20.7%	19.5%	16.9%	15.9%
Neutral	34.4%	30.4%	23.8%	36.5%	36.3%	34.5%
Somewhat Positive	1.2%	7.9%	9.7%	4.8%	10.2%	15.5%
Positive	7.4%	6.5%	6.2%	13.3%	19.1%	10.1%
Uncertain	0.4%	2.3%	1.3%	3.5%	3.1%	2.4%
Number	285	285	285	419	419	419

We may conclude, then, that the respondents' attitudes about participation in Buddhist rites does have an affective component. Those who reject participation in Buddhist rites are more likely to feel uncomfortable when they have to attend, attend less willingly, and do not like to attend. This conclusion is hardly surprising, and it may be a measure of the place of pluralist thinking among northern Thai Protestants that those who feel adverse to participating in Buddhist rites is still not greater than an average of roughly two-fifths of the respondents who answered Question 14.

Question 15

Question 15 asks, "Do you agree that for the most part you don't want to go to the rituals of other religions because you worry about what other Christians will think?" The purpose of this question is to test whether or not northern Thai Protestants feel social pressure from within the Christianity community to refrain from attending Buddhist rites. The responses to this question are not classified as exclusivist or pluralist as such.

Table 60 indicates that only 27.8% of the respondents agreed to one degree or another that they feel reluctant to attend Buddhist rites because of worry about what other Christians think. Of that percentage, almost half (13.0%) responded with the relatively weak response that they agree only somewhat. We may conclude, then, that the reluctance northern Thai Protestants feel concerning attendance at Buddhist rites, as expressed in the responses to Question 14, are not generally caused by feelings of social constraint within the Christian community.

Table 60
Frequency Distribution for Question 15
Are respondents reluctant to attend Buddhist rites because of worry about what other Christians think?

	Number	Valid %
Disagree Entirely	111	16.2%
Disagree	228	33.3%
Disagree Somewhat	120	17.5%
Agree Somewhat	89	13.0%
Agree	84	12.3%
Agree Entirely	17	2.5%
Uncertain	36	5.3%
N = 685

Table 61 shows that young people worry more about what other Christians think about their attending Buddhist rites, while those respondents ages 31-60 worry about the matter somewhat less than the other two age groups.

Table 61
Summary of Frequency Distribution for Question 15 by Age
Are respondents reluctant to attend Buddhist rites because of worry about what other Christians think?

	Total Sample	11-30	31-60	Over 60
Disagree	67.0%	59.5%	70.7%	65.60%
Agree	27.7%	33.2%	24.8%	31.30%
Number	685	205	403	64

Table 62 shows that men worry more about what other Christians will think about their attending the rites of another religion than do women. This is in spite of the fact that, as we saw in Question 14, women have greater negative feelings about attending Buddhist rites than do men. Women's feelings against attending Buddhist rites, whatever the source, are evidently not based on feelings of social constraint within the Christian community.

Table 62
Summary of Frequency Distribution for Question 15 by Gender
Are respondents reluctant to attend Buddhist rites because of worry about what other Christians think?

	Total Sample	Women	Men
Disagree	67.0%	70.0%	62.7%
Agree	27.7%	25.1%	31.2%
Number	685	390	276

Table 63 shows that those with a higher educational status worry about what other Christians think when they attend the rites of other faiths than do those with a lower educational status. In some ways, we would expect the opposite since a high educational status should, supposedly, provide the respondents with a better understanding of themselves. We saw in Chapter 2, furthermore, that education had something of a positive correlation with pluralism, which should encourage people to feel comfortable in attending Buddhist rites. Such seems not to be the case.

Table 63
Summary of Frequency Distribution for Question 15 by Educational Status
Are respondents reluctant to attend Buddhist rites because of worry about what other Christians think?

	Total Sample	Low Education	Medium Education	High Education
Disagree	67.0%	74.1%	66.9%	62.3%
Agree	27.7%	20.5%	26.2%	34.3%
Number	685	166	263	239

Table 64 shows that people who live with people of other faiths in their homes feel more constrained in attending the rites of other religions than do people who live only with other Christians. The reason for people who live in the same home with people of other faiths do feel constrained may be because they are more likely to have occasion to take part in the rites of other religions, specifically, of Buddhism and more likely to feel they must take part. Living at the boundaries, at is were, of their Protestant religious community may well put more, not less pressure on them as they are more frequently caught between the expectations of the non-Christians in their own home and the Christian community of which they are a part.

Table 64
Summary of Frequency Distribution for Question 15 by Residence with People of Other Faiths
Are respondents reluctant to attend Buddhist rites because of worry about what other Christians think?

	Total Sample	Living with Other Faiths	Not Living with Other Faiths
Disagree	67.0%	60.0%	70.8%
Agree	27.7%	34.6%	24.0%
Number	685	240	445

Reflections on Question 15

In general, as we have already seen, the respondents do not feel a great deal of social pressure from other Christians regarding attendance at the rites of other religions. By and large, feelings of social pressure do not seem to be an important element in the respondents' attitudes about attending the rites of other religions.

Conclusion to Chapter 3

One of the most important findings of this study is the difference between the respondents' attitudes towards people of other faiths, which tends to be somewhat pluralist, and their attitudes towards participating in the religious rites of other religions, which tends to be decidedly exclusivist. This contrast offers a key to understanding how northern Thai Protestants integrate their Thai and Western religious heritages into a useable, meaningful whole. Ideologically, the majority of them have apparently accepted to a greater or lesser degree the pluralist attitudes of their society, although we must never forget that a strong exclusivist "residue" remains. Ideological pluralism, however, has not translated into behavioral pluralism when it comes to the rites of other religions. In fact, although not so much in theory, northern Thai Protestants still tend to treat the rites of their neighbors of other faiths as if they are idolatrous and to treat Christian participation in them as an offense to God and the Christian faith. Again, we must remember that there is a definite "residue" of pluralism apparent in the behavioral attitudes of the respondents, although it is not as strong as the exclusivist ideological residue mentioned above. Only in Question 12, concerning wai-ing Buddha images, do we have an apparently overwhelming rejection of pluralism. Even Question 13, Line 1, regarding phanom mue while attending formal merit-making rituals, retains a rate of one fifth (20.9%) of the respondents who give a response that is more or less pluralist.

Why this configuration? It seems to me that the bulk of our respondents have worked out a compromise between the apparently contradictory strictures of Theravada pluralism and Protestant exclusivism. Their Thai heritage enjoins them to not think ill of people of other faiths, and they do not. Their Western heritage enjoins them to have no other gods but God, and they do not. As Protestants they physically embody their Christian loyalty to God by refraining from acts that might be construed as worship of another god. The old-time Presbyterian missionaries' teachings against obeisance in Buddhist contexts, in sum, was so effective that Protestants all but congenitally refuse to physically demonstrate respect for Buddha images and Buddhist rites. One problem facing northern Thai Protestants, as the data from Question 13 suggests, is how to define what acts really are idolatrous. Different individuals come to different conclusions, but they all face the same issue. As we saw in both Questions 12 and 13, however, the more overt the obeisance and the more worship-like the setting of Buddhist rites, the more Protestants have negative attitudes towards participation.

That is to say, theological and faith concerns play a central role in the thinking of the respondents. Those concerns guide their behavior even in the face of powerful socio-cultural attitudes that expect northern Thais to accept and be willing to participate in the religious acts of other religions. Within a Thai and northern Thai context, we need to remember that beliefs and attitudes are largely a private matter; the society does not particularly worry about what people think so long as they behave in the "right" ways. It is Western culture that puts such a heavy emphasis on theological or ideological correctness. In this context, it does not matter a great deal whether a Protestant believer thinks that his Buddhist neighbors can attain heaven from within their own faith or not—although, admittedly, it is better if one does not say such things in public. What does matter is maintaining a faithful relationship with God, which northern Thai Protestants apparently interpret to mean refraining from participation in what may be construed as the acts of worship of another faith. The true power of traditional Protestant exclusivism in the thinking of northern Thai Protestants, then, may be seen in the way in which they continue to behave on its strictures against involvement in idolatry. Socially, rural Protestants continue to isolate themselves religiously from their larger communities by restricting their participation in Buddhist rites. They effectively put their neighbors of other faiths in a Protestant context and behave towards them out of that context, a fact that has caused a great deal of social tension and even overt persecution of Christians in the past.

My own personal sense is that this configuration of private pluralism and public exclusivism "works" well enough, but it does not resolve the inherent tension between the two. As we have noted earlier, whenever northern Thai Protestants talk about their relationships with people of other faiths they invariably discuss and worry over the boundaries of what they can do. They seem to be asking that question from both sides of the boundary between Thai cultural and Protestant religious expectations. As northern Thais they want to participate as much as possible in the religious life of their neighbors in order to preserve communal unity, but as Protestants they want to do only what is appropriate to their fundamental loyalty to God even if that means disregarding communal unity. What must be emphasized repeatedly is that different individuals make different decisions about these issues and clear strains of both pluralist and exclusivist thinking can be seen in the attitudes of nearly all of them as will be seen in the next Chapter. Yet, as the data from Question 12 suggests, we must also never forget the strength of their exclusivist attitude regarding Christian participation in Buddhist rites.

In the introduction to this report, I suggested that the relationship between Thai and Protestant cultural elements is not that of Thai context and Protestant intrusion, such as it usually thought of, so much as an intermingling of two cultural streams. With the data from all fifteen questions now "on the table," we begin to see the value of an interactive model that does not give theoretical priority to either element. It is just as possible and valid to think of Protestant culture as context from one perspective as it is to think of Thai culture as context from another perspective. The following chapter reinforces this sense of mutual influence by showing that it is very difficult to discern exclusivist or pluralist "core groups" of individuals who hold to a consistent line. The great majority of the respondents mix and match their views, as we have seen in these first three chapters.