I can respect that . . . I think He was, like, a servant to the max. Like, the night of the Last Supper, He took off all his clothes, He wrapped a towel around himself and He washed their feet. And then He took the towel off and dried their feet. And that's the epitome of humility. But I come to the conclusion that the reason He died is because of His claims, that He claimed to be God. To a Jewish culture, you don't go around saying, "I am," and "Before Abraham was born, I am" and "The Father and I are One." I mean, He knew what He was getting into, in the context of the people He was talking to. And so, in my opinion, He went to His own death, not for His teachings, but because of Who He said He was, and that He was the Sacrifice that's gonna take the pain, like you said, for us, so we don't have to. But to me, there's a lot of common ground between every religion in the world, when it comes to the exterior parts, like, Be nice to each other.' But when you get to the core, you've got one in Buddhism that says, "Become nothing, and just isolate yourself from everything." And then you've got Christ, who said, "Serve mankind," and "I am God, and I'm dying for your sins, and you can get forgiveness . . . " The closer you get to the middle, the more you find that they don't agree with each other.

"I think you're right on the money. I agree with you 100%. But the difference is, let's say you've got Eastern people, like, you know, the Buddhist philosophy. You've got that consciousness, that lifestyle. Buddha was the man to relate to those people, and could take them there. That's why I say there's different teachers, and the important thing is that you get to a godliness through an enlightened faith. It doesn't matter how you get there. See, Jesus related to His people, and it's just like every disciple that came from these different areas, they had to have their qualities. It's like me, mister blond, curly-haired white dude ain't gonna go down into the ghettos and grab these black crack people, these dealers, and people that are out there killing people in the street, these gang members, and go, ‘Hey you guys. Knock it off!' That ain't gonna work. You need some other black dudes that are just like ‘em, who finally come up one night, and go, ‘No, no, no, this is bad (bleep). Put your gun away.' And they go, ‘Who the (bleep) are you, man?' ‘Well, it's me.' That's what it takes to deal with those kind of people. That's why I'm telling you why Buddha was right for his people, and for that area, and Jesus was right for His. And now, we've grown up into a world that now, we can get on the telephone and talk to someone in Israel or China. Therefore, now Jesus is international, and Buddha is international. But at the time, they were just neighborhoods. Well, they were a little bigger than that, but you see what I'm saying. Of course, they sort of disagree, and that's where man has misinterpreted their writings and teachings. Because really Buddha is saying that in order to live a Christ-like existence, such as pure, giving love, I have to go to the mountain, because in my world, if wash people's feet and stuff, I'm a peasant. Some guy's gonna . . . I'm gonna make that guy be a bad guy, because he's gonna take advantage of me and make me his servant. Because that's the way they have it there. They're servants. So in order to break all those rules, you have to go up into the mountains, and you have to hide away to become enlightened so that you don't influence anyone to be a bad person. So it's half your fault if someone (bleep)s up around you.

"So, Christianity is a great philosophy, but you go out and, say you're walking down a cobblestone street, and your feet hurt and you're barefooted. Well, Christ would say — I don't think Christ would say this, but -- well, the philosophy would be that you take all the cows, kill them, take their hides, and cover the whole road with them so that we can all walk, so it won't hurt our feet. And Buddha would say, ‘No, you take a piece of the cow, and you'd wrap your individual feet.' You know what I'm saying? That's kind of like, ‘You take care of yourself, and if you're perfect, the whole world's perfect.' Christ is saying, ‘No, the whole world has to be perfect first.' And it works either way. If everyone was like you, then they'd be perfect, and the whole world would be perfect. But Christianity is more like, ‘Help your brother,' and I like that. That's why I say I'm more of a Christian, but I can see the philosophy of an Eastern person. You had to be an individual, you had no choice. Genghis Khan, man, if you come around saying you want to wash his feet, he'd say, ‘Yeah, well, I'm cuttin' your (bleep) head off. But you walk your (bleep) down to the ghetto, man, to a crack house, all those crack dealers with guns and some (bleep). You go down there as some white dude, man, it ain't gonna work. You need Martin Luther King to go down there, as best. That's the way I look at it."

That's a good point. I still don't buy into the fact that they're telling the same story, because Jesus talks about a Heaven and a Father, and Buddha talks about nothingness.

"Yeah, I don't like that part of Buddhism. I must admit. I don't believe in that. Buddha is all for life, in a way, and I believe life is a wonderful, wonderful thing. But those guys are so much heavier and deeper than us, that you can't quite comprehend what they're talking about. That one baffles me, because I'm not anti-life. I'm pro- life. Life is so cool. I'm the opposite of that."

Hey, do you have a cousin named Ken Tamplin, who's into Christian rock music?

"Yeah, but I've only met him once. But you know, he sends me his records and all that stuff. Yeah, he's totally into Christian stuff, which is cool. There's nothing wrong with it. I just think it's been so abused. I would almost be embarrassed to say I would have belonged to one of those organizations. The Bakkers, I think, and the Swaggarts are the worst in my mind. But those are only the big guys that they've exploited. You don't how much of that (bleep) is going on everywhere. I've seen it too much. But, like I said, you can't blame Jesus for that."