Fairly interesting, just came across this view yesterday, and don't have much of a knowledge-base to compare it to...

I took a few theology and religious history classes when I was in college, which was a long time ago. So I won't go into super huge details about things, for fear of being wrong, misrepresenting the issue, etc.

There are some parallels between Buddhism and Christianity, some dogmatic, others philosophical. Some similarities are so close, that people have said everything from books of the Bible were influenced by Buddhist teachings to Christ himself went eastward during the gap of time in the bible when his wearabouts were unknown. I like my teacher's theory in particular. "Christ didn't go east. He stayed home, working as a carpenter. That shit is boring. Why would anyone write about it?" Check out apocryphal texts if you're ever interested on some of the things written about Jesus that didn't make it into the Bible.

That said, one of the most important things to realize when it comes to religion, is that when a culture adopts it, they nativize it and this is especially true in America. We as a nation are less than 300 years old, as a result religion, especially Christianity, seems to make massive developmental leaps once it reaches our borders. When a culture adopts a religion, a lot of things happen to it. I'll make a list . . .

1) They more often than not practice and celebrate that religion in their native tongue, thereby viewing the religion in the cultural lense of their language. This causes changes in the religion.

2) They more readily adopt ideas and traditions that either easily fit their pre-existing culture or fill in gaps that they think are missing in their pre-existing culture. This causes changes in the religion.

3) They often mix their newly adopted religion with current spiritual beliefs. Animism in Asia and Buddhism are a great example of this happening. Once again, this causes changes in the religion.

4) Political and cultural movements inside a nation affect the population and their viewpoints as a whole, including their views on the religions they practice. Once again, this causes changes in the religion.

I am by no means an expert on religion, let alone Buddhism here in America. So take what I say with a grain of salt. If I had to say though, I think for the most part it's easy to expect that Buddhism here in the states is a completely different animal compared to Buddhism practised in its mother continent, Asia, especially when you consider that there are hundreds of sects of Buddhism and almost as many different cultures that celebrate it. We aren't Asians thinking about and practising Buddhism. We're Americans thinking about and practising Buddhism. We're trying to understand it and have it reconcile with how we already see the world. So of course, it's gonna be different.