Sex, lies and religious roles

Many who trek to the renowned temple in Dengfeng city, Henan province, are tourists rather than pilgrims. Sure, some may leave token donations, but isn't it fair to charge them an appropriate entrance fee for sightseeing?

In fact, you must pay to enter nearly all of China's religious venues that also function as tourist attractions. Ideally, there should be a separation of tourists and pilgrims, but only a few, such as the Potala Palace in Tibet, are able to do that.

There is one aspect to commercialization that seems to be unique to Shaolin.

The temple has reportedly set up dozens, if not hundreds, of corporations all around the world.

Abbot Shi espouses this as a means to promote Shaolin-style Buddhism.

It is totally conceivable that religious institutions have ancillary businesses.

But, in terms of evangelism through pop culture and globalization, Shaolin must be considered highest on the perch.

Now, it is up to regulators who should determine, in advance preferably, whether this should be allowed－and to what extent.

Theoretically, whatever isn't forbidden should be regarded as legal.

It still falls within the realm of differing points of view to see Shi either as a smart businessman whose suit is a bright red-and-yellow robe and who happens to be in the faith business or as a hypocrite who wants to capitalize on the faith and tourism boom with little regard for the sanctity of religion.

The recent accusations, if proven true, will definitely nudge him over to the dark side.

The early litany of "wrongdoings" includes Shi taking up as much as 80 percent of the temple's equities, which has since been explained by the temple as a mere technicality.

However, a group of seven senior members from the temple traveled to Beijing on Aug 8 and filed a formal report with the State Administration of Religious Affairs, presenting what they claimed to be evidence of Shi's appropriation of millions of yuan from the temple.

That includes the 2006 purchase of a motor vehicle Shi allegedly got after borrowing 190,000 yuan ($29,700) from Shi Yanlu, one of the filers. The abbot then allegedly claimed it as a temple expense without repaying the amount borrowed.

Abbot Shi "got a free vehicle and 190,000 yuan in cash, which should both be the temple's assets", according to Shi Yanlu.