In the past few weeks, Taitung County’s Xuanji Temple (玄濟宮) has attracted no shortage of attention. Wu Hsin-ru (鄔馨茹), the temple’s female leader, who uses the title Zen Master Ji-dian (濟顛禪師), claims to be able to communicate with aliens and sells “consecrated eggs” with purported therapeutic powers.
On Sunday last week, there was a confrontation with a rival temple, which arose amid concerns about bullying by believers and potentially illegal construction work.
The controversies touch on a sensitive subject: the question of religious management in Taiwan.
French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory might be useful, providing a framework to understand emerging religious movements as a competition for power and capital in the social arena of religious life.
Bourdieu contends that society consists of multiple “fields” — each governed by its own internal logic — in which groups and individuals compete.
Within Taiwan’s religious field, established religions have accumulated substantial symbolic capital based on honor and recognition through their long histories.
Emerging religious groups, by contrast, often seek to distinguish themselves by creating distinctive forms of cultural capital — such as extraordinary doctrines and narratives of miracles — to build their own symbolic capital.
However, the process of accumulating authority is frequently accompanied by what Bourdieu calls “systemic violence,” or the non-physical violence that emerges between social groups with power differentials. Followers are indoctrinated into believing in the legitimate and divine authority of the emergent leader, leading to extreme behavior from adherents and retaliation against critics.
Controversies surrounding Xuanji Temple exemplify the regulatory vacuum surrounding religious organizations in Taiwan. A religious leader is wielding symbolic authority based on claims of supernatural power to extract tangible economic gains and serve expansion projects — such as through alleged financial exploitation and illegitimate building practices.
Disparate regulations are no longer enough to provide effective oversight, so enacting a broader religious groups act is necessary.
Once proposed in 2004, the idea of a religious groups law has faced resistance because of concerns over religious freedom.
However, such legislation is not intended to interfere with religious doctrine itself, but simply to establish fair rules governing the field.
Requiring financial transparency, regulating land use and clearly defining organizational responsibilities helps to prevent symbolic authority from harming the public interest.
That would allow religious organizations to continue enjoying constitutional protections while also meeting their social responsibilities.
As Taiwan’s religious landscape becomes increasingly diverse, the response should be based on reason rather than fascination with sensationalism.
The Xuanji Temple incident should not be reduced to the object of gossip and intrigue, but serve as a catalyst for institutionalizing the governance of religious organizations.
John Chang is a cultural critic.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
