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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

"Never in all of recorded history has there been a more degenerate form of religion."

2. A Completely Opportunist Group

The Mental Illness of Soka Gakkai has Long Endured

Even so, that this mass movement called Soka Gakkai has an
abundance of unusual vitality cannot be denied. Once they set
up their goals-to increase membership, to win the election,
or whatever, they launch their attack and go all out, sweeping
everything in their path as did the Imperial Military Forces
of old. Once the attack is launched, they use _any means_ until the
goal is attained. They will do _anything_ to attain victory. It
does not matter what form the organized effort may take. This
method in short is: "Might Is Right"--the strong wins and "the
victor is right and the defeated is wrong. These are oppressive
and brazenly forcible tactics which have nothing whatever to
do with the inner religious life of people. In short, they have a
_markedly _aggressive_ character.

Such a group which is noted for using such tactics, are the
disreputable people who make up the leadership of Soka Gakkai.
They are always ready to use their power of intimidation on
others. In various forms they show off the almightiness of their
organization. Almost all of them are this kind of people, and I
cannot from my heart respect them as pious and religious types.
I have met most of the staff of Soka Gakkai, and among them,
from the top to the bottom levels, there are small politician
types, branch bank manager types, lower ranking executive
types, and at worst, some gangster types, but almost none who
have religious humility and modesty. They are much more like a
strong secularistic religious group. This is the firm impression
at the present time. This tendency may be the unavoidable fate of
Soka Gakkai. This secularistic tendency is one of the
basic characteristics of Soka Gakkai, and for this very reason it
betrays their excessive nature and their disease of
self-display. This same tendency to excessiveness and disease
of self-display could be said to have been exemplified in the
Nazis and the Old Japanese Militarists, who were progenitors
of these traits.

The primary purpose of these mass demonstrations which
Soka Gakkai stages, is to make an outward display of their success,
while spiritual considerations are only secondary. From the
viewpoint of religion, I must say this is a clear-cut example of
degeneracy. Soka Gakkai may thus be called a cult and we
can only feel pity for those who are the "playthings" of this mass
movement, for the more one becomes involved in such a
movement, the more foolish they are apt to become. As to the
happiness, or unhappiness, of those who are the playthings
of such movements, it is well to recall the days of the Nazis and the
Old Japanese Militarists, and the fate of those of our fellow
countrymen who were the victims of that regime. It is not neccesary
to go into details here about the problems of those days.
All the while, as they pompously promote this sort of mass
movement, by means of excessive propaganda, by their
opportunistic religious philosophy, by their self-aggrandizement,
by pious talk of obutsu myogo (the fusion of government and
Buddhism), they make fools of the public. I do not exaggerate
when I say that never in all of recorded history has there been a
more degenerate form of religion. So we think the time has
come to make a thorough examination of the present problems
being posed by Soka Gakkai.

Source:
Hirtatsu Fujiwara, PHD
A Critique of Soka Gakkai
1970 Nisshin Hodo Co.
Tokyo, Japan

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