State exhortations to boost monk numbers fail against material incentives
Evidence
Wickramanayaka also claims that family planning has contributed to these shortfalls and encourages Sinhalese Buddhists to disregard the “Small is Beautiful” programs instituted in the 1970s. The prime minister, who is also Minister of the Buddha Sasana, has even placed advertisements in newspapers encouraging Buddhists to join the sangha and recruited lay persons to pay for the novices’ upkeep. Such efforts have mainly ended in failure. The shortage of bhikkhus may have more to do with a materialistic sangha desiring greater comforts; many among the nearly 37,000 monks try to avoid serving in villages because they prefer the better endowed temples in urban areas. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 291
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Offering material incentives for sacred-value compromises backfires and increases hostility — Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges, Sacred Values and Cultural Conflict, 67; Material incentives for relinquishing sacred values backfire and harden resistance — Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges, Sacred Values and Cultural Conflict, 48; Material incentives backfire on sacred values while symbolic recognition softens opposition. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 547
Broader Connections
- Material incentives for relinquishing sacred values backfire and harden resistance
#corroborates(0.90) — Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges, Sacred Values and Cultural Conflict, 48 - Offering material incentives for sacred-value compromises backfires and increases hostility
#corroborates(0.85) — Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges, Sacred Values and Cultural Conflict, 67 - Material incentives backfire on sacred values while symbolic recognition softens opposition.
#expands(0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 547