Mizukokuyo

October 17, Wednesday
8:00 a.m.

I just took a little break before continuing to write about yesterday’s little venture to see a nearby volcano and ancient castle.

Dale will write more about the volcano and castle in a moment, but first I would like to describe something very disturbing that we saw along the way, just outside of the city where the ancient castle stands. We drove by an idol in the form of a woman holding a small baby in her arms, large and standing at least 100 feet into the air, and overlooking the city as if she were its guardian.

The idol itself is associated with Buddhism. In recent years, the Buddhists have played more to the spiritual needs of women. It would be more appropriate to say they have played on the spiritual needs of women. The 100 foot tall idol is just one example.

Another example is an idol called mizukokuyo. Years ago in Japan, there were some 5 million abortions every year. Nobby thinks the statistics are probably higher now. Indeed, there is such a concern over the low number of pregnancies carried to term that various governments actually give money to people here when they have a baby. The Tajimas received $2000 US for the birth of one of their children.

Abortion not only has taken its toll on population growth, but also on the souls of the women involved. They live on with a tremendous burden of guilt and shame. The Buddhists play on this by offering to care for the spirit of the aborted babies with chants that they sell to these needy women. They also pressure them to buy small idols, which are replicas of mizukokuyo, charging them as much as $2000 US, by coincidence approximately the same amount as a government payment for the birth of a child.

The chants and purchase of an idol accomplish nothing other than to bring women under even greater bondage to the guilt and shame, and to the devil. By the way, the city of Koriyama, where we are staying now, has the highest incidence of pregnancy and abortion among junior high girls. As you might imagine, there are Christian women who in the past have had an abortion but who have found true forgiveness in Christ. The difference between them and the others is so remarkable that it nearly defies description. Among the women enslaved by mizukokuyo, there is debilitating gloom and depression. Among Christian women, there is the joy and blessing of eternal forgiveness.