Stupa and State

Could the world be home to a new theocracy? Starting last month, in a tropical country of 65 million, thousands of faithful, many dressed in religious garb, have marched the capital's streets demanding that the draft of the new constitution currently being debated enshrine their beliefs as the state faith. In our era of sectarian strife, many of us shudder at the prospect of another nation blending church and state. Look what happened in Iran and Afghanistan, we think, or what might have occurred if former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke had reigned supreme in America. Yet the marches in Thailand...