My Culture – Right Or Wrong

Henk DeWaard. Trowel & Sword. June 1979.

Preamble: When we think “missionary” we tend to think of men and women going off to far away places like Africa, Asia or perhaps the Pacific region to spread the gospel message to people who may have never heard it before. When Henk Points out that, “Most mission work is done in sprawling cities – Tokyo, Jakarta, Nairobi, Sao Paulo,” it is telling that places like Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane do not rate a mention. Have we ever thought about sending a missionary to Alice Springs? Henk does an excellent job in outlining the difficulties faced by overseas missionaries in adjusting to different cultures but perhaps it is also time we started thinking about the many needs closer to home. While it is true that there is a shortage of ministers in both Australia and New Zealand it could as well be argued that there is an absolute dearth of CRCA&NZ missionaries working in our respective countries.

My Culture – Right Or Wrong

“What would it take to be a missionary?” That’s the question I was asked to speak on to a church group, and perhaps I could use this question to give you a better picture of what the missionary task involves. For mission work is probably different from what you think; just as that real holiday is different from what the advertisements say. Too much information about mission is little more than ‘propaganda’ aimed at obtaining support rather than conveying accurate information.

The word ‘mission’ conjures up all sorts of pictures in your mind. The white missionary (did you know that there are many black and coloured missionaries?) is pictured as making his way through jungles and mountains, preaching the gospel to the natives as he goes along. No doubt, some missionaries are working in these frontier situations. The majority are not. Most mission work is done in sprawling cities – Tokyo, Jakarta, Nairobi, Sao Paulo. That is where many hidden, unreached peoples are. There is no great romance attached to working in a chaotic, smog filled city.

So, what would it take to be a missionary? Great faith? No doubt. But does it not take great faith to live as a Christian anywhere? It takes more than faith to be a missionary.

Self-denial at a deep level…

I would single out self-denial as a prime requirement. Look at Corinthians 9. Paul speaks about his rights as an apostle:

– the right to bodily comforts (v.4).

– the right to family life (v.5) 

– the right to free time (v.6) 

– the right to an adequate salary (v.7)

Paul was prepared to give up all these rights. (Most missionaries today do not have to give up any of these ‘rights’). But Paul went even further, to a deeper level. He was prepared to give up his cultural identity as a Jew. (v.21 ff). For the sake of the Gospel, Paul would be prepared to give up his Jewishness, which he prized so much. And he did give up some of his Jewishness as he crossed into the Gentile world.

Crossing boundaries….

A missionary is one who crosses cultural boundaries and not just geographical ones. A tourist does the same, but he has a return ticket. The missionary has to settle down and work…. that is, if he can get adjusted to a new culture. For all of a sudden, everything he has always taken for granted does not apply. He is almost like a child. He can’t say anything. And when he tries to speak, people will laugh. How do you eat here? And how do you use the bathroom? And why don’t people keep their promise? He said ‘besok’ and the dictionary says that means tomorrow.. but nothing happens! What strange people and weird customs!

Ethnocentrism….

The missionary is judging and evaluating every new experience on the basis of his own culture. We all do that. From the minute we are born, we learn a particular culture pattern and as we grow up we consider our way of doing things right and all other ways are weird, strange, untrue or bad. This attitude: My culture is right!, is deeply in-grained in every one of us. We call this attitude ethnocentrism. Let me give a few examples.

(a) When the European powers around 1500 A.D. discovered sea routes to Africa, America and the Far East, they discovered many new peoples. One of the big questions was: Do these people have a soul? They were so unlike European people that our forebears did not know what to think of these people. At one stage the Pope in Rome had to rule that the Pygmies in Central Africa do have a soul! But labels like ‘savage, ‘primitive’, ‘underdeveloped’, ‘childish’ continued to be used by Europeans to characterise these new peoples. Because they were different, Europeans considered them inferior.

(b) The theory of sickness held by these newly discovered peoples was called backward and superstitious. Their medicine man was called a witchdoctor. They believed that sickness was due to evil spirits. We know better! One missionary wanted to prove to the natives that disease was due to germs, bacteria and parasites. So he prepared a slide of a drop of blood from someone having malaria. A blue stain which the malarial parasites absorbed, made them visible among the blood cells. The missionary wrote:

“To me it was obvious that once one saw the germs under the microscope it would be clear that sickness is caused by germs. The Indian seeing them through the microscope looked at his friends in surprise: ‘Come here and look. I didn’t know that those spirits were that small and that they were blue at that’ “

Apparently, we see what we look for! However, today many writers are saying that the witchdoctor performs essentially the same function as a psychiatrist in western society and with an even greater degree of success!

(c) It is to the credit of missionaries that they generally protected newly discovered peoples from the greed and exploitation of traders and colonists. The missionaries opposed slavery and championed the rights of native peoples. Even so, missionaries were also ethnocentric. They could only think of the church in a western sense, according to a western pattern, structure and liturgy. There were notable exceptions but many held that ‘you must civilise before you can evangelise!’ The natives were thought to be incapable of understanding the gospel and therefore needed education. Many missionaries could not conceive how non-western culture could become the vehicle through which God would communicate with these peoples. There was an unspoken feeling that God was against these non-western cultures and that there was nothing worthy of being incorporated into the service of Christ.

(d) Today we speak about aiding underdeveloped countries of the Third World. The assumption is that these countries should imitate the West, for our ways are the best. We think we know what people need and we will help them improve their lot. I could give many more examples. But the point is clear. The attitude: ‘my culture is best, is contrary to the law of love.

Love your neighbour….

To love one’s neighbour is to respect him/her for what he/she is, and not try to make the other person in our image.

To be a missionary is to deny that my way of doing things is the only right way. It is to deny many habits and attitudes that were instilled from childhood. Love demands the appreciation of another’s personhood. Love demands the willingness to learn, to adapt and to understand another culture.

Generally we judge other cultures on the basis of our own strength, that is, technological advance. Western countries are more advanced technologically, but socially we may not come out so favourably. We can learn much from other cultures and ethnic minorities in our midst. We ought to appreciate the variety in God’s creation and the many and varied ways in which people try to meet their common needs. I am not saying that everything is ultimately relative and that there are no absolute truths. Naturally, when a people accepts Christ as Lord, changes must and will occur in their world view and life-style. But that is not the point here. What I am referring to here is that cultures AS A WHOLE are attempts by societies to come to terms with basic, felt-needs. All cultures do a reasonably good job at that. We need not all become the same. When the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness, people from all nations, peoples, tribes and tongues will come in. (Rev.7:9).

Simpler life-style….

Part of the self-denial is the willingness to adopt a simpler life-style. This should not be too difficult and may be a blessing, for we are increasingly becoming aware that the western lifestyle has serious drawbacks. We suffer from obesity, heart disease, lung cancer, at least in part due to our eating habits and life-style. And surely there must be something wrong with a society, where per year more is being spent on chewing gum than on mission?

The missionary (whoever he is and wherever) has a deeper motivation in denying himself.

“That I might by all means save some.” I. Cor.9:22.

Henk DeWaard.

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