May the Lord Jesus open the eyes of these people to see how foolish all of this is and lead them to salvation!<\/p>\n
Japanese people often insist they are not religious, but shrines and temples are everywhere and they do a booming business. Here is a photo of the Tenmangu shrine and also a photo of the place where prayers are hung on wooden tablets. \u00a0At this shrine and at this time of year, the prayers are almost all for, “passing exams,” since the Japanese school year ends in March and final exams have already started. People pay 2,000 yen (about $24) for each tablet and I estimated that about 10,000 tablets were hanging on the display. That is almost a quarter-million dollars of prayer tablets. If you go to the reception desk, you can arrange for a Shinto priest to say a special prayer – but that costs much more than a wooden tablet. At Shinto shrines, nearly everything costs money, sometimes lots of it. But like in real estate, there is a feeling that the more you pay, the better product you will get, so many people spend extravagantly on special prayers and numerous good luck charms.<\/p>\n
Who are they praying to at this shrine ? A long-dead scholar:\u00a0“Sugawara no Michizane, a famous 10th century scholar and warrior, is enshrined here as the principal deity, and worshiped by many people as a god of scholarship and fine arts.”<\/em><\/p>\n May the Lord Jesus open the eyes of these people to see how foolish all of this is and lead them to salvation!<\/p>\n
![\"Tenmangu](\"http:\/\/proverbs2525.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/TenmanguShrineOsaka.jpg\" "\\"Tenmangu")
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