Cultural Cancers

My first lessons in analyzing culture were in a class I took in college. Unfortunately I could not afford the cross-cultural trips. (I wanted to go to Costa Rica where my room mate was from.)Instead I ended up reading books on cultural issues. I remember reading a couple fascinating stories which emphasized that it is very difficult to analyze one's own culture from within.

One reason we can't analyze our culture completely from within is because we are blinded by our own traditions and need to remain acculturated. There are limits to what we dare do in fear of being ostracized or seen as a rebel. This is the way culture protects us and ensures we have a cultural "family" to "come home to," in a certain sense. However, this "fear of being different" can also be a type of cultural cancer for Christians, a disease which can prevent us from having the ability to speak out on issues that should be issues of the Church. We are so sick from our blindness and weak immune system that we never exert the energy needed to critique and speak truth.

One thing that was so refreshing when living overseas was that I was freed from that. For the most part I was free to be able to critique my cultural background and the behavior exhibited by my culture and homeland. It was like blinders were lifted and suddenly I could see the United States and Western culture with new eyes. Daily I sat with people from around the globe who were practicing this same exercise but with different lenses. It was as if, because we were far from our homelands, we could speak freely and honestly without feeling like our co-citizens were going to judge us, impose a false sense of political correctness, or try to make us re-conform to the patterns of thinking and believing that were acceptable or expected back home.

Furthermore, through the dialogue which ensued, we could all much more easily identify those issues which affected our Christian faith. We would speak candidly about the tragedies of genocide, militarism, anarchy, materialism, consumerism, human trafficking, dictatorships, environmental decay, etc. which happen all around the world in the countries from where we all came or worked. We were not afraid to ask pointed questions and debate the issues. But more importantly, our faith was more real as we applied it to these real-life situations which we were seeing and dealing with daily.

I think in America we are blinded by many things. First of all we have a very strong culture, one that is fast consuming the weaker cultures of the world. A strong culture keeps a strong hold on us here too, demanding our allegience, respect and trust. We are blinded by our isolation from the rest of the world, ironically the same world on which we have the strongest influence of any nation. We have never had to deal, first-hand, with the tragedies I listed above. Finally, we are blinded by the American version of Christianity which short-lists for us the issues the Church should be addressing and which ones are "non-issues." In fact, we accept our blindness without even realizing our disability.

I believe when Jesus said, "I have come to give sight to the blind," he was not only talking about the blindness of non-Christians, but also those with religious fervancy, those who think they speak God's word and have a strong grasp on the Scriptures. Basically, I believe we, as Christians, can be very blind and need Christ's healing, healing not only to see what Christ sees, but healing which enables us to speak as Christ would speak. We need healing from the cultural infestations and cancers which prevent us from seeing and speaking Truth which our culture tells us to ignore or avoid because it would be seen as disrespectful or non-conformity or divisive, etc.

On that note, I offer a word of Truth to ponder from a dear man of God from Australia, Pastor Graham Chipps the pastor at the International Church of Phnom Penh. I have stood in awe of this man for the last 10 years as I worked with him and learned from him. Graham's cultural lens has been adjusted to a much broader scope than my own and his age has brought him much more wisdom than I could ever hope to attain in my lifetime. He speaks pointedly but with gentleness and grace.

Graham wrote a letter in the most recent ePistle online PRISM magazine responding to an article where someone called George Bush to repentance but also referred to Bush as a "man of God." I cannot help but affirm Graham's critique, which, I submit, calls into question our American blinders. I do not want to make this a blog about politics, but rather about how I believe our culture too strongly blinds our Christian faith.