What’s Your Culture?

This MSNBC article is focused on Chinese-Americans, but the applicability goes much further.  One part of the article discusses a Chinese-Canadian who faced the same truth.

I was struck by the phrase, “… social culture was a large hurdle.”

The American ambassador to China is of Chinese ethnicity, but his culture, his position, his responsibilities are American, causing a critic to describe him as a "fake foreign devil who cannot even speak Chinese."

I just finished a book, Stolen Woman by Kimberly Rae about a Bengali woman adopted and raised in America who goes to India speaking Bengali – with a southern American accent. Her first few hours at the airport displays multiple cultural differences.

New Christians feel a similar disconnect with their surroundings. There should be changes in their lives, their speech, their culture. Their friends aren’t ready for such differences – which in some instances appear to be negative views of their lifestyles.

When my son-in-law became a Christian he no longer came home drunk every once in a while.  Friends who spent an evening at a bar before going home were offended when he declined to spend ‘happy hour’ with them. They could not understand a fourth-generation alcoholic realizing there were places he could never visit again.

A co-worker married into a family that said grace at every meal. Not used to this, she wondered why the family thought it was important to be seated at the same time and make the excited children settle for a moment of prayerful thanksgiving.

The goal for a Christian, who comes to understand and love God’s law, is to reach the point described in Psalms:

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. (Psalms 119:165 KJV)

Christians should not be offended when others look at their lives and wonder why they are different.  Not even when that wonder is expressed in a negative manner.  We should be able to explain the changes, as Peter wrote:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (1 Peter 3:15 KJV)

I think I’ve done a decent job over the last few years of explaining the source of my faith, the questions I’ve had regarding faith and the foundation on which my faith is built.  I think it’s evident I’m always willing to answer any question that might arise as to what and why I believe.  If it is not, please, feel free to ask!

As a Christian, my goals are pretty well explained in Psalms, too:

LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments. My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee. (Psalms 119:166-168 KJV)