Culture Clash

I would like to share part of a story from another blogger known as Stacy From Louisville. It's been quite awhile since she's posted anything, but perhaps she's been called to do other things. So I'll set the stage for this small part of the story. On one of Stacy's blog posts she was talking about a guest speaker who had come to the college she was attending. He was a lifelong missionary who had been serving in a secluded area of Africa. Here's the rest:

When he and his wife first began their ministry in Africa a large portion of their financial support came from one particular church. He frequently sent that congregation letters to update them on how his work was progressing. On one occasion he sent several photos. The women of the church were horrified to see the women of that tribe were naked from the waist up. In response to the ungodly, offensive nature of the native women the church banded together to collect t-shirts for each one. The shirts were then sent to the missionary - as a surprise - for those impoverished women.

Several weeks later the missionary sent another letter to the church. In it he enclosed a photo. He relayed that the women were overjoyed with the colorful t-shirts. So much so, they CUT SPECIAL HOLES IN THEM SO THEY COULD WEAR THEM AND STILL FEED THEIR CHILDREN. The picture showed a large group of smiling African women wearing new t-shirts - with the front cut out.

I think I just about died laughing when I read that story. But this story also brings up a good question. Was it wrong for the African women to be naked from the waist up, or was it wrong for the women of the church to think it was wrong? Perhaps in that culture in that secluded area of Africa it is just the norm for women to walk around topless, no problem. Of course here in America if that happened it would cause car accidents, arrests, and just a lot of other problems. But that's our culture, not theirs.

What's wrong in one part of the world may not be wrong in another part of the world. That's kind of how I view the idea of sin. I think when most people hear the word "sin" they automatically think sin is always about bad things or things that are wrong. I think sin is more about what separates us from God rather than what's bad or wrong. What may be a sin to one person may not be a sin to another. In Romans 14 Paul uses food and drink as an example:

It's high time that you welcome all people weak in the faith without debating and disputing their opinions. Here's the issue: One person believes that nothing's off the menu; he'll eat any food put before him with no concern whether or not it has been associated with a pagan ceremony. But here's another believer-we'll call him the weaker-who eats only vegetables because the meat is tainted through contact with an idol. If you are an eater of all things, do not be condescending to your vegetarian brother or sister. In turn, those who abstain from certain foods on religious principles should not judge your brothers and sisters who eat meat-if God has accepted them, you have no reason to reject them.

vs. 1-3

In light of this, we must resolve never to judge others and never to place an obstacle or impediment in their path that could cause them to trip and fall. Personally I have been completely convinced that in Jesus, our Lord, no object in and of itself is unclean, but if my fellow believers are convinced that something is unclean, then it is unclean to them. If the food you eat harms your brother, then you have failed to love him. Do not let what you eat tear down your brother; after all, the Liberating King laid down his life for him. Do not allow people to slander something you find to be good because the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking. When God reigns, the order of the day is redeeming justice, true peace, and joy made possible by the Holy Spirit. You see, those who serve the Liberating King in this way will be welcomed into the whole acceptance of God and valued by all men. Join us, and pursue a life that creates peace and builds up our brothers and sisters.

vs. 12-20

I think a good example would be something like this: Alcohol in and of itself is not unclean or bad or wrong. The abuse of alcohol is where the problem lies. So even though you may be a responsible drinker, it would not be wise to have even a sip of it if you are around someone who may be a recovering alcoholic. Here's one more thing from Romans 14:

It is right for you to abstain from certain meats and wine (or anything else for that matter) if it prevents your brother from falling in his faith. Hold on to what you believe about these issues, but keep them between you and God. A happy man does not judge himself by the lifestyle he endorses. But a man who decides for himself what to eat is condemned because he is not living by his faith. Any action not consistent with faith is sin.

vs. 21-23

The word sin is a term used in archery. The sin is basically the measurement between the bullseye and where the arrow lands on the target. If the arrow hits the bullseye, there is no sin. So another way to describe sin is to "miss the mark".

But back to cultural differences. I was reading an article in the July/August 2008 issue of Relevant magazine. The article is called "God Bless the Broken Road" by Christine Stanley. The article talks about how missionaries have been doing some good work in Nagaland, which is in north-eastern India. It's great that they've gone there and helped to change lives and share the life and teaching of Jesus with them, but something else happened as well. The Naga were introduced to Western culture.

Like I said, it's great that missionaries were going there to share Christ's love, but the influence of Western culture is erasing their identity. Here is a snippet from the article:

The Naga, an indigenous peopl of Indo-Mongoloid decent thought to have migrated to their current territory more than 500 years ago, have, in just three generations, undergone a rapid religious transformation that's inspired the majority of Nagaland's 2 million people to dedicate their lives to Chirst.
The conversion has proven positive on a number of social levels for these hill tribes, but change didn't come without severe and ultimately detrimental impacts to the very way Nagas understand themselves, their history and their future. In fact, their cultural transformation has been so marked that many Naga believe with certainty that in 10 or so years, the traditions of this culture will cease to exist.

Here are a few quotes from the article that came from some of the Naga people themselves:

The younger generation will lose our identity. We've totally forgotten the traditions of our culture.

We should keep our identity. I highly object to these changes. You see my tattoos? Any man should have these tattoos-they make you handsome. But now, my son thinks not. He has said no to them, and that is his choice.

The missionaries came and we jumped from one life to the next without the journey between, and that's dangerous. So now we have a Bible in our hands but no land or tradition, it pains me.

At first we could not differentiate between culture and faith. We thought that all things our forefathers used were evil-traditional song and dance, ethical values. All these things we disregarded with the introduction of Christianity, and many of these items were destroyed.

We don't just blame Christianity, but also modernity-[Western] lifestyle, dress, music. It was all coming together at the same time, and we could not differentiate, and that was the problem.

I wouldn't put the blame on Christianity as a whole. But there seems to be an American brand of Christianity here in the US and it's that kind of Christianity that so many times is presented to the people of foreign lands. I think the American brand of Christianity may be to blame for trying to convert the world to an American version of Christianity. I reject American Christianity and I embrace a world-wide Christianity. One that works with and through the cultures and traditions of people all over the world. Christianity doesn't look exactly the same all over the world.

So if you happen to go to a foreign land on a mission trip, learn about the culture of the people you are going to see. And it's not wrong to teach them about your own culture, it just shouldn't be forced on anyone. Well, that's all I've got for this one. Comments and other insights are always welcome. I want this blog to start conversations. I want to know what others think, I'm not always happy with just my thoughts and opinions. What are yours?

Freakin' Funny Friday ~ CCE: Album Covers

The reason why I've decided to do a series of Christian culture posts on Fridays is partly because of my friend Jesse. He sent me a link in an e-mail to another blogger site called Funny & Worst Album Covers. I had already planned on doing a post on Christian t-shirts, so when Jesse sent me the e-mail it gave the idea to do this series since there's a wide range of things to talk about and poke fun at. But remember, it's all in good fun until someone loses an eye. But how many people have lost an eye while reading a blog, honestly? So today we'll be looking at some of the funniest and worst Christian album covers.

They may walk by faith, but I don't have much faith in their math skills. I see more than three people in the Tyler trio. And what's up with the guy on the left? Did he miss the photoshoot with the rest of the group and they just added a picture of him to the left? Couldn't they have just Photoshopped him in? What do you mean they didn't have Photoshop back then?



Is it just me or is that pink phone floating in mid-air?



Watch out for his "Crain Kick" Ha ha! Sweep the leg Johnny!



Long before Damon Wayans persona of Homey the Clown saying "Homey don't play dat" we had The Rappin' Reverend Dr. C. Dexter Wise, III saying "I ain't into that"



Butch Yelton and Upbound sounds like an awesome indie band name. What exactly are you gonna swing at with that gospel axe? What the heck is a gospel axe? Why doesn't everyone else have gospel weapons. Where's the gospel chain, the gospel brass knuckles, the gospel lead pipe, and the gospel sack of doorknobs?



Is that a young Peter Griffin in a gospel quartet?



Yea, and he has buck-teeth!



Yea, come to the chapel, Carroll Atchison is lookin' for a fight. C'mon, bring it on you punks with your rock music and your yoo-hoo chocolate drinks!



I wouldn't want to mess with Father Rober White. He could take on Carroll Atchinson and his wife, Butch Yelton and his gang, and Dr. Roy Anderson Jr. and the Tyler trio all at the same time. But just in case things got a little rough, Mike Crain would have his back. The Reverend Dr. C. Dexter Wise, III would help out but he just ain't into that.



But poor Liz is. Anyway, there's plenty of booze, syringes, and women to go around!



Uhhh, yea...I'm not touching that one.

So there you have it. I hope the dude that started the Funny & Worst album cover blog doesn't mind me "borrowing" some of the pictures from his blog. I'm sure he "borrowed" them from somewhere else. But go check it out, funny stuff. I did some research and found a few more covers that are just as bad as the ones above. Here they are.

They must have been in the same math class as Dr. Roy Anderson Jr., and the Tyler Trio.



Wrong picture or wrong title on this album cover?



I don't know what that would accomplish, but at least you wouldn't have to change your name.



The guy in the middle doesn't look real. He either looks like a mannequin or a muppet. I think Jim Henson had something to do with this.



Uh, wow. I really don't know what to say about this one. Next!



Gee, I'm really sorry to hear that...hey, is that the same font they used for the title sequence in "All in the Family" with Archie and Edith Bunker?

A few years ago I used to listen to Christian music (nothing like the albums above though, ugh). In fact it was the only thing I listened to because at one time I used to think it was wrong to listen to anything else. I'm glad I grew out of that though. If something sounds good I'll listen to it. I enjoy Jars of Clay, Switchfoot, Derek Webb, Kevin Max, Five Iron Frenzy, P.O.D., Dr. Dog, mewithoutYou, DeVotchKa, Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, Sufjan Stevens, Copeland, Emery, Anberlin, Spoken, Starflyer 59, The Myriad, Fiction Family, Jon Foreman, Chase Pagan, David Bazan, Radiohead, U2, Cool Hand Luke, The Welcome Wagon, Mae, Farewell Flight, M.Ward, Lorien, The Chariot, Deas Vail, Brave Saint Saturn, Further Seems Forever, Two Gallants, Reign of Kindo, Danielson, Ashton Allen, Brooke Waggoner, and many more I can't think of right now. Yes, some of those bands people may consider to be Christian bands but I don't think the bands themselves would give their music that label.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, see you on Monday!

Freakin' Funny Friday ~ Christian Culture Edition: T-Shirts

I thought I would try something different. For the next few weeks or however long it takes I'm going to call Fridays, Freakin' Funny Friday ~ Christian Culture Edition, or CCE for short. I will talk about something within the Christian culture and most likely poke fun at it. But it will be all in good fun, I'm not doing it to be malicious. I used to be a part of the it and in some ways I guess I still am. But I want to talk about the most ridiculous things that come about within the culture. In yesterday's post I hinted at Christian culture so that's why I decided to do this mini-series.

I read a book that was a real eye-opener to me. It's written by Matthew Paul Turner called "The Christian Culture Survival Guide: The Misadventures of an Outsider on the Inside".


You can find Matthew Paul Turner's website and blog here. The book was put out by Relevant Books and you can buy it here. Turner also has a book out now called "Churched".

There is also a blog called Stuff Christians Like that I mentioned in my first introductory post. This is a blog devoted to poking fun at Christian culture. It was created by Jon Acuff and he does a much better job at talking about Christian culture than what I'm about to do. I'm going to try to be original and not emulate what he does on his blog, but you can check his out here. Okay, that's enough links for one post!

In today's CCE I'd like to talk about Christian t-shirts, or rather †-shirts. First of all I want everyone to know that I am not opposed to someone who wants to share their faith through the use of a t-shirt. I think it becomes a problem when a logo or a figure from pop-culture is taken and changed to reflect a Biblical message. Though Christians believe that we are "not of this world", every opportunity is taken to emulate the things of this world and twist them around for their own use and say "that's clever". What's so clever about stealing? I'm pretty sure there's something in the Bible about not stealing, but I could be wrong. It's probably in some obscure passage somewhere. Okay, so without any further ado, bring on the †-shirts!

Okay this one makes no sense to me at all. I know the shirt is talking about idolatry, but doesn't "Amazing Grace" sound a lot like "Amazing Race"? All you need to do is add a "G" for crying out loud!



I have no idea what peanut butter cups have to do with Jesus. You've heard the slogan "There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's" So I guess what this shirt is saying is "There's no wrong way to follow Jesus". Just make up the rules as you go.



Yes, I'd like to order a Half caff, double holy, non fat, whole truth, Double cupp, no satan, to go.



Wow, that is a steep price to pay to get social networking in heaven. What needs to happen to get face book up there?

I drink Pepsi. Am I going to hell?

Um, so are we worshiping Jared Fogle now or what? I'm confused.



Wow, this shirt is offensive on so many levels.

So there you have it. Honestly how did it ever get to this point? It's sad really. I'll admit that at one time I owned a bright red shirt that had the Taco Bell chihuahua on it saying "¡Yo quiero Jesus!" But those days are over. There was one company that isn't around anymore that made some very creative t-shirts. They were called One Truth clothing. Even though they're not in business anymore, but you can find what's left of their website here. I bought a few of their shirts a couple years ago. I'm going to finish this post with some of the shirts I found while researching that I thought were funny and clever. Have a great Memorial Day weekend. God bless.

This one is funny because it doesn't make any sense.

I wish I had this one when I was in youth group.

I like this one because it reminds me of a friend from college who would always ask a question and then answer it by pointing his thumbs at himself and saying "This Guy". So this shirt reminded me of him.

Personally I prefer cross-word puzzles, I mean †-word puzzles.

Hide and seek with Jesus sounds like fun! Of course he would always be able to find me right away.

I don't have any tattoos, but just in case I get one or two someday...

I don't know what it is about this one, but it's funny.





I like this one, maybe it's because I have a beard.




This is a shirt put out by xxxchurch.com. Is it controversial? Perhaps. But is it the truth? Absolutely. Check out the xxxchurch website here.

Artsy Fartsy Wednesday ~ Take it to the Banksy

I never paid much attention to graffiti art until I learned about a man from Bristol who is known only as Banksy. Not much else is known about this man. He wants to remain anonymous. Many sources claim they have learned his identity, but it's hard to know who is right. He wants his work to be seen, but he does not want to be seen. He is not doing his artwork for himself. He wants to use his art to make people laugh, make people think, and to make a statement. Much of his work is satirical including topics such as culture and ethics. It's very different from most graffiti art. He uses stencils and he often uses the environment as a part of his work. Since I don't know much about the man I won't spend a whole lot of time talking about him. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I will talk about how I found out about Banksy. One day I was listening to the Mars Hill Bible Church podcast. Mars Hill is where Rob Bell teaches and gives his messages. He started talking about a guy named Banksy and was showing the congregation some of Banksy's work. There was a lot of laughter coming from the crowd and from Rob. Since it was an audio podcast I had no idea what was going on. So I hopped online to see what all the noise was about. And this is what I saw:

Oh, poor Thomas.


I thought the guy and the scaffolding was real at first.


There's something very Looney Tunes-ish about this one.


I guess even the earliest artwork ever discovered
could be considered graffiti. By the way, does this
picture depict anti-graffiti graffiti?


A good example of how Banksy uses the environment
in his work.


Does it smell like wet dog or wet paint?


Claude Monet's famous painting "Japanese foot-bridge
over the water-lily pond in Giverny".


Banksy's version of it.


Awesomness.


Unfortunate, but so true.

Check out Banksy's website here. Some of the content on his site is NOT suitable for children, just a warning. Come back tomorrow for Deep Thought Thursday. Have a nice Day!