Dalai Lama Dilemma

Hey guys, got an interesting situation for you here:
Cooking show Masterchef is really popular here in Australia, and season 3 is well underway, with the final 6 contestants battling it out. The challenges are getting bigger each week, including cooking for the UN headquarters in NY and most recently for the Dalai Lama while he was visitng Australia.
However what caught the headlines was contestant Kate not calling him 'Your Holiness.'
A lot of criticism in the media - my minister and his family actually know her family, and it seems she has also felt a backlash in the show too.
Link is below, but I've copied the article too.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/masterchef-mum-snubs-holy-man/story-fn6b3v4f-1226094800932

MasterChef mum snubs 'holy man'
The Daily Telegraph July 14, 2011 6:10PM

HERE'S one for Dicko and his Can Of Worms: should a Christian show respect to the Dalai Lama by calling him 'Your Holiness' even if they don't believe in Buddhism?
That was the religious test facing MasterChef mum Kate Bracks, who refused to acknowledge the religious leader by his formal title when he was the guest star of this Sunday night's episode.

The 36-year-old Christian from Orange, in regional NSW, was the only contestant who felt "uncomfortable" with the protocol, addressing him only as "Dalai."

His appearance created an emotion-charged challenge for the other five competitors, who all spoke of his "energy," "aura" and "amazing spirit."

But Bracks told The Daily Telegraph on set in Melbourne last month she did not "see the Dalai as a holy man."

"My belief is that God is the only one that is perfectly holy. So in terms of everybody calling him 'Your Holiness' that was probably the only aspect of the challenge I was uncomfortable with ... calling him that, so I didn't. I just called him Dalai Lama."

Interestingly, Baptist minister Tim Costello and Uniting Church minister Bill Crews, who joined the Dalai Lama for the lunch service, happily called him "Your Holiness."

While "privileged" to be part of the challenge, Bracks said "to get down to the nuts and bolts, I don't see any difference if I'd cooked for (rival) Alana."

She questioned whether a Christian leader would have been "received so well" on TV, adding "... probably not."

From what I've heard the Dalai Lama doesn't mind what people call him and doesn't insist on being called 'Your Holiness' (but his minders do.) As the example of perfect enlightenment he is not supposed to have attachment to earthly things anyway. He is the leader of the delug branch of buddhism and seen as the reincarnated leader.

What I find interesting here are a few points:

People do not think it is a good enough reason if someones religious views conflict with calling him by that title. Why is it buddhist sensibilities are given superiority?

Many people in Western society, while they are not buddhist feel the Dalai Lama is a holy man or deserves reverence, even though they do not believe in the religious beliefs that ascribe these qualities. Other religious leaders are not ascribed this respect. I find this interesting because to me, if I am not a buddhist and I do not belief he is perfection or reincarnated then he is just another a relgious leader. He either is who they say he is, or he's not. Like many other religious and national leaders he is kind, intelligent and not without wisdom. A nice guy for the most part. I think there is a move in western society to embracing a vague form of buddhism that allows us to pick and choose.

The Christian leaders called him Your Holiness. I feel this is an example of politically correct compromise?

So what do you guys think?
Would you call the Dalai Lama 'Your Holiness?' Do you think it acceptable to decline using the term due to religious beliefs? Who do you think the Dalai Lama is? And do you think Western society favour buddhism as a vague notion of spirituality while rejecting the inconvenience of properly following it?

New Blog: 'Housewife Mishaps'

Hey folks - have started a new blog called 'Housewife Mishaps' for funny stories, anecdotes and observations of domestic life and my journey as a wife :)

Find it at: http://anecdotinghousewife.blogspot.com/

Feel free to stop on by and say hi xx

Our Wedding

After a comment by Susanne I thought I might post some more details about my wedding, which was on November 27 2010!!

We got engaged soon after Hubby became Christian, because religion had been the dealbreaker for us, so soon after accepting Christ hubby propsed to me in mid-June. We knew we wanted to get married as soon as possible, because we had desperately wanted to get marry beforehand. We filled put the Notice of Intention to Marry paperwork straight away, as that needs to be filled out 30 days before ther wedding.

As I wrote about last year Hubby went home to UAE to tell his parents that we were marrying and most of all to tell them of his conversion. It was risky and we didn't know whether he could be imprisoned, executed or deported for leaving Islam, whch is illegal in UAE and Sudan, where he has citizenship.

As the date approached I wanted to desperately to marry - I was terrified he could be killed before we married. Isn't it odd? Of course the most important issue was his safety, but we were aware that this was the worst case scenario, and I wanted to go into the situation knowing he was my husband. Legally also, I knew as a fiancee I had no rights. We wanted so badly to live together, if only for a day, as a married couple before he left, as we didn't live together before marriage.

I even asked our minister if he would consider a "religious" wedding ceremony only.

Many Muslims in Australia have a religious ceremony, which makes them married in the eyes of Islam, seperate to the legal marriage. As we couldn't get legally married yet I asked my minister to consider a marrying us according to the Christian rites but without filling out all the paperwork that fills the legal side. I don't think it's ever been done before in mainstream Christian circles before but our minister considered it and agreed it was biblicaly ok and he felt able to do it.

We ended up deciding against it, because we wanted to give his parents the chance to attend the wedding or at least show them respect by telling them we planned to marry, rather than informing them we already had.

As I wrote about previously his parents did not accept either his conversion or our marriage, but I'm glad we at least gave the chance.

More than that, the hardship we have been through, including facing the idea we may not see each other again in some ways was a blessing in disguise. Having had to fight to be together, having faced losing each other has always gave us perspective. Having had to work so hard before our marriage and in the first year or so of our marriage and overcome it we are well prepared to meet the challenges of our married life.

So with 5 months to go I began planning out wedding! Because the marriage was so much more important than the wedding for us I didn't loose focus in the planning part! I got stuck straight into dress shopping as it was luckily sale season and I knew this could be tricky! Luckiyl for me I found a wedding dress (brand new) on sale from $1400 reduced to $290!!! It was embroidered with pearls with are my birthstone and a theme for the wedding.
Reception venue was a venue not too far from my home and the church - maybe 15 minutes or so from the suburbs but actually in the country, and in an area where I grew up.

I loved finding a venue that wasn't just a hotel room, or a fancy venue in the middle of the city as is often the case. I wanted somewhere that blended harmoniously into its surrounds and had atmosphere and somehow related to us as a couple. Luckily our venue met all these requirements.
Ceremony was at my wonderful church - walked down the isle to Pachabels Canon in D played on piano and violin (congregation members) and walked out to the traditional from music played on our church organ.

During the signing of the register I had the piece "Your Hands are Cold" (played in Pride and Prejudice movie) which is the most beautiful piano score and Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite literary works.

Colour scheme was pearl, pale pink and champagne colours :)

We tried to bring in some arab touches - our centrepieces were arab-style lanterns from

Emirates, our music at the reception was mixed arabic and western, our programs had arabic symbols, our place cards had the guests name is english and arabic.

I also surprised hubby by learning my vows in Arabic (he didn't know!!)

be-LATE-ed blogging..

How do I start this post? My laptop keys are rusty, my fingers creak and ache with the unfamiliar feel of typing and my brain flickers feebly and with the attemots to string a sentence together. Yes, dear friends it has been a shamefully long time since I have written!
I don't really know where to start so I will keep it short and simple - sorry but this will not an entertaining post...

I have now been married 7 months or so to my darling husband. I have been job hunting after finishing post-graduate studies last year, and working as a waitress in the mean time. Habi has been working as a waitor too.
We are awaiting for the outcome of Habi's application for asylum in Australia, which will grant him permanent residency (a whole other blog topic!)

In general things are good - as some of you may know the we had our fair share of problems but we have faced them together and things are improving.

Financially our situation has improved - his father had stopped all finanical support and he had been left with outstanding study fees of about $4000, plus rent, return airfare and other costs, but we managed to pay it all off and the remaining $5000 for him to complete his units. It was a huge milestone when he went back to study a few weeks ago, and made us both so happy, and so aware for how God has provided for us!

Things have also improved marginally with hubby's family. His family had not spoken to him for a year, with the exception from a few relgious emails criticizing Christianity from his brother and the occaisonal text message saying "how are you" from his sister. When he replied, she did not text back. He continues to text his parents (they don't answer his calls) without response, but his sister has actuallyspoken to him on the phone for the first time! And his other sister has sent a text message, which is very encouraging.

We have wonderful support from our church community, in the Anglican church we attend, the wider christian community and the arabic community especially. It's wonderful for hubby to have other "MBB"s (Muslim Background Believers)to support him, as they have all faced similiar situations.

Well I'm off - hope you are all well xx

P.S Keep an eye out for my new blog, which shall be the more lighthearted vignettes and anecdotes of a new wife :)