In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
What do McCauly Culkin, Senator McCain, and Professor Bubba have in common? Well, they all successfully wowed two classrooms full of Japanese jr. high students today during my introduction. Hard to believe my first two classes are over. The stress is over. The heat, not over. But I’m glad it played out like it did. I can’t even begin to divulge into the differences that abound between jr. high students here and back in the states. And how sad is it that all I really have to go by is my own experience in a Catholic school nonetheless. These kids are perfect, disciplined, structured beyond belief. While presently beneficial in terms of behavior and studies, in the future it only serves to drain them of true individualized personalities and interests. But you can’t change the world in a year, and attempting to reshape a culture shouldn’t be within anyone’s aims…it seems immoral to some degree.
Take missionaries, for example. I understand the rallying call to want to witness to cultures devoid of religious knowledge and fanfare. But part of each separate culture is the unique spiritual and religious essence to which only they adhere…whether that religion falls into the category of Christianity, Judaism, or atheism, for that matter. A respectable Christian wouldn’t make the long trek to Israel to witness and convert the Jewish masses, or even the Muslim masses…and not just because the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is beyond all possible hopes of ethnic stability and cultural acceptance. But rather, because they accept a monotheistic faith, believe in one god, whether his name be Allah or Yahweh. Who are they to claim that their monotheistic faith is any more credible than the Taoist beliefs, or Hinduism with it’s multiple gods, or even ancient Indian religions linking gods to natural entities and such? No one can make that call.
A few years ago I was attending church with my parents, as I used to do, though not of my own accord, and my father was offering up money to missionaries who had come to collect. They took annual missions trips to rural Africa (I ask, what parts aren’t rural, save South Africa) to preach and convert the non-believers, and by that they mean non-believers of a mono-theistic faith, into believers of Christ, whether they like it or not. When will we stop? When the entire world is white, believes in God, stops at McDonald’s on the way home from mass before heading home to a 2.5 child family in the suburbs? Africa is not the west in this screwed up Christian manifest destiny. They’re not us, they’re never going to be us, and even if we shape them in our image, force our culture upon them and beat them into coercion, it’ll always be off. It’s a different culture. Quit trying to assimilate the differences which make us unique and instead accept the divergences for what they are. There’s beauty in the idiosyncrasies and imperfections, the differences and the similarities.
What good is international travel if every city looks like the next, if all cultures maintain the same beliefs and practices. That’s bullshit, I say. More importantly, is Christianity really the end-all-be-all of necessity to Africa. Their problems are more innate, social, defensive, rather than spiritual. When the Wolof tribe is battling all out war against the Fulanis in Senegal, will it matter if they believe in god? When children are kidnapped or enslaved and used as soldiers, committing atrocities of genocide, will they stop to pray for a burial befitting a fellow man? When a family living in Tanzania loses another child to famine, or aids, will god look upon them any differently?…make their suffering any less? Doubtful. You can believe it if you want, and, in all honesty, it’d be easy to believe it, at least a little more hopeful than acknowledging death is death, it’s every man for himself, and our fate is what we make of it instead of some divinely woven pattern which rarely incorporates free choice.
Anecdote time. As part of my peace and conflict studies concentration, yeah, I’m REAL diverse, I took a religions of the world class as well as a class on war, peace and religion. It’s amazing the dissent profs came across when explaining Buddhist beliefs, or the Tao, even Judaism. (This was the predominantly Republican, Christian, Midwest, mind you.) We’d have discussions for days about Bible passages, controversial topics to Christians, mainly capital punishment and abortion, euthanasia, etc. You could tell who the Christians were. Always on the defensive, as if the mere discussion of Allah or the Qu’ran might make them less of a believer. Learning about varying religious beliefs doesn’t diminish your own beliefs, or limit them in any way. Quite the contrary. In accepting other religious practices as in existence, and mutually in the right, you’re strengthening your own beliefs through knowledge. If you can listen to the arguments which comprise Confucianism and solemnly say you don’t agree, then haven’t you chosen your own religion over another? You’ve learned the ways of another and chosen your own. Acceptance based upon ignorance is juvenile.
When we were young we were taught that the sky is blue. I never questioned that, blue is blue. Only now do I question, what is blue…just a word? And, furthermore, what’s blue to you is seen differently through eyes of the colorblind, or any other person for that matter. How do I fully accept blue as the color of the sky if I don’t compare it to green, or pink, or burnt sienna? It’s acceptance by elimination. The dressing room of spirituality, if you will. Trying on a pair of Bhagavad Gita Levis or a Talmud blouse. Only then will you find the perfect fit.
Take missionaries, for example. I understand the rallying call to want to witness to cultures devoid of religious knowledge and fanfare. But part of each separate culture is the unique spiritual and religious essence to which only they adhere…whether that religion falls into the category of Christianity, Judaism, or atheism, for that matter. A respectable Christian wouldn’t make the long trek to Israel to witness and convert the Jewish masses, or even the Muslim masses…and not just because the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is beyond all possible hopes of ethnic stability and cultural acceptance. But rather, because they accept a monotheistic faith, believe in one god, whether his name be Allah or Yahweh. Who are they to claim that their monotheistic faith is any more credible than the Taoist beliefs, or Hinduism with it’s multiple gods, or even ancient Indian religions linking gods to natural entities and such? No one can make that call.
A few years ago I was attending church with my parents, as I used to do, though not of my own accord, and my father was offering up money to missionaries who had come to collect. They took annual missions trips to rural Africa (I ask, what parts aren’t rural, save South Africa) to preach and convert the non-believers, and by that they mean non-believers of a mono-theistic faith, into believers of Christ, whether they like it or not. When will we stop? When the entire world is white, believes in God, stops at McDonald’s on the way home from mass before heading home to a 2.5 child family in the suburbs? Africa is not the west in this screwed up Christian manifest destiny. They’re not us, they’re never going to be us, and even if we shape them in our image, force our culture upon them and beat them into coercion, it’ll always be off. It’s a different culture. Quit trying to assimilate the differences which make us unique and instead accept the divergences for what they are. There’s beauty in the idiosyncrasies and imperfections, the differences and the similarities.
What good is international travel if every city looks like the next, if all cultures maintain the same beliefs and practices. That’s bullshit, I say. More importantly, is Christianity really the end-all-be-all of necessity to Africa. Their problems are more innate, social, defensive, rather than spiritual. When the Wolof tribe is battling all out war against the Fulanis in Senegal, will it matter if they believe in god? When children are kidnapped or enslaved and used as soldiers, committing atrocities of genocide, will they stop to pray for a burial befitting a fellow man? When a family living in Tanzania loses another child to famine, or aids, will god look upon them any differently?…make their suffering any less? Doubtful. You can believe it if you want, and, in all honesty, it’d be easy to believe it, at least a little more hopeful than acknowledging death is death, it’s every man for himself, and our fate is what we make of it instead of some divinely woven pattern which rarely incorporates free choice.
Anecdote time. As part of my peace and conflict studies concentration, yeah, I’m REAL diverse, I took a religions of the world class as well as a class on war, peace and religion. It’s amazing the dissent profs came across when explaining Buddhist beliefs, or the Tao, even Judaism. (This was the predominantly Republican, Christian, Midwest, mind you.) We’d have discussions for days about Bible passages, controversial topics to Christians, mainly capital punishment and abortion, euthanasia, etc. You could tell who the Christians were. Always on the defensive, as if the mere discussion of Allah or the Qu’ran might make them less of a believer. Learning about varying religious beliefs doesn’t diminish your own beliefs, or limit them in any way. Quite the contrary. In accepting other religious practices as in existence, and mutually in the right, you’re strengthening your own beliefs through knowledge. If you can listen to the arguments which comprise Confucianism and solemnly say you don’t agree, then haven’t you chosen your own religion over another? You’ve learned the ways of another and chosen your own. Acceptance based upon ignorance is juvenile.
When we were young we were taught that the sky is blue. I never questioned that, blue is blue. Only now do I question, what is blue…just a word? And, furthermore, what’s blue to you is seen differently through eyes of the colorblind, or any other person for that matter. How do I fully accept blue as the color of the sky if I don’t compare it to green, or pink, or burnt sienna? It’s acceptance by elimination. The dressing room of spirituality, if you will. Trying on a pair of Bhagavad Gita Levis or a Talmud blouse. Only then will you find the perfect fit.
posted by Chishiki Lauren at 1:23 AM
1 Comments:
"A respectable Christian wouldn’t make the long trek to Israel to witness and convert the Jewish masses, or even the Muslim masses…and not just because the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is beyond all possible hopes of ethnic stability and cultural acceptance. But rather, because they accept a monotheistic faith, believe in one god, whether his name be Allah or Yahweh."
Unfortunately that's not true of most Evangelicals, the most fervent proselytisers. Since Vatican II, the RCC has acknowledged that members of the other monotheistic faiths may still be in a 'state of grace', but most conservative protestants still regard a belief in Jesus as fundamental to salvation, even for Jews and Muslims, and many Evangelical organisations do in fact send missionaries to places like Palestine and parts of the Muslim world.
If there's a disparity between their missionary efforts in the monotheistic western world and the polytheistic east, it likely has to do with the fact that conversion is illegal in many Muslim countries, whereas such laws are comparatively less common in the Hindu or Buddhists world (Although they've become more popular as of late—Sri Lanka, for example, one of the last countries where Theravada Buddhism still flourishes, has recently been considering laws against unethical conversion in order to stem what they see as the destruction of their culture by Jehovah's Witnesses and Evangelical sects).
But on a different note, very brave of you to take a world religion class. I've toyed with the idea of teaching a Bible as Literature class someday— if I can ever get this damnable thesis done and actually get someone to hire me—because I do find the topic interesting, but I'm not sure I could handle the Christians that would inevitably be in such a class. Anyhow, sorry for taking up so much space on your blog, but I find this topic interesting and I appreciate what you had to say on the matter ...
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