KR, regarding the destruction of the Shohondo -- you can google and read for hours. It boils down to, pro-SGI writers say that High Priest Nikken destroyed a beautiful, structurally-sound building out of hatred for President Ikeda, and pro-Nichiren Shoshu writers say that the building was poorly constructed and in danger of collapsing.
www.toride.org, the "Victims of the Soka Gakkai" website, argues that the danger was the roof, this huge concrete elliptical canopy-ish thing. This part of the roof was estimated to weigh about 20,000 tons. I have no background in architecture or engineering, but it seems like an odd thing to build in an earthquake zone.
The concrete was poured over a framework of steel bars, for reinforcement, a common practice when someone is making a big concrete structure. An engineer friend said that this generally works well because concrete usually is alkaline, and so will not break down the steel.
The Nichiren Shoshu folk say that they were finding a lot of rust on the concrete and stone in the Shohondo. This was a sign that the reinforcing bars inside the concrete roof canopy were breaking down. They say that it was because the concrete was made with ocean-beach sand...which has salt in it. Salt weakens metal and causes it to rust. If this is true...then yes, parts of the Shohondo's roof might have started breaking off and falling down, especially during an earthquake.
SGI supporters say that for the Shohondo construction, river sand, which is alkaline and not salty, was used. They also say that the reinforcing bars were made of ship steel, which has been treated so that it can be immersed in salt water and not rust or weaken.
Each side presents documents and testimony from "experts." So who is right? I don't think that we'll ever know.
One interesting claim that the Toride website makes: the money to build the Shohondo did NOT come from members' donations. SGI had a huge fund-raising campaign at the time -- "Donate money to build a sanctuary for the Dai-Gohonzon," Toride says that the money that built the Shohondo came from money that SGI made through interest on its investments.
I agree with you, KR, that this was all a ploy that Ikeda came up with. We do know that there was bad blood between the Nichiren Shoshu priests and Presidents Toda and Ikeda since the 1940's. I've always believed that Ikeda and Toda resolved to split with Nichiren Shoshu once SGI became wealthy and large enough to manage on its own.
What better way to stick it to the priests than to give them a troublesome gift? Design and create a building that will need extensive and expensive maintenance. Next, drastically cut the priests' income.
Then watch the fun. The roof could collapse. Or maybe the priests would have to sink a ton of money into repairs and maintenance. In the end, maybe the priests would just have to tear it down. Since members believed that this building was built with their savings, and hard-earned donations, they'd be furious, and SGIkeda would look like the good guys. Or they could claim that the priests angered the shoten zenjin and created bad karma, so see what happened to them? Divine retribution. Maybe they were hoping that the roof would collapse on Nikken himself.
Again, this is all just my guess. It's interesting to speculate, but in the end, how much does it really matter? Can anyone really prove anything either way?
I would focus on what we do know. SGI has billions of dollars in investments and property. It manipulates members into donating money and working for free, yet refuses to tell the members what it has or how their donations are spent.
General members have no vote, no grievance procedures, no redress if they feel that SGI has wronged them.
If you look at the Rick Ross archives, there have been many financial scandals -- embezzlement, fraud, linked to SGI.
It calls itself a Buddhist organization, but promotes a personality cult, rather than Buddhism. It essentially says that Buddhism is about making money!
It shuts down websites that criticize it, and harasses its critics.
Its leaders give "guidance" on issues that they are not qualified to address, such as medicine, dealing with troubled kids, personal finance, and domestic violence -- sometimes with disastrous results for the members who try to follow the guidance.
Members are manipulated into neglecting their careers, education, marriages, children and health in order to devote more time to SGI.
I think that these are enough reasons to leave, or never join, SGI. Even if someone had proof that SGI really did set this all up, as you and I suspect, KR -- I doubt that it would shatter SGI's credibility with its core believers. Any proof that anyone could present -- they'd say it was somehow made up by enemies of SGI. They will believe in Ikeda and SGI no matter what. For the rest of us, there are enough other reasons to mistrust SGI.
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