Synchroblog : Just a God of the West?
This month’s synchroblog topic is Faith and Ethnicity and I’m feeling decidedly unqualified to write on this topic. Australia, where I live, is referred to as a multi-cultural society, however this is really only true of the major cities. I have lived in country towns which have been predominately Anglo-Saxon so I have had little experience of expressing faith in any other settings. Nevertheless from my limited experience I would like to share three things, which are probably more cultural observations than anything else, but still, here they are:
Firstly in the area of women in ministry:
Some years ago the conservative church I was attending did not agree with women in any upfront or leadership role. When a young boy reached his teenage years he was added to the roster to do the Bible reading, helping with communion, and the like. The teenage girls were added to the cleaning roster! This church was very supportive of missionaries and one of the missionaries they supported was a single lady who they knew personally. Now here’s the point, this lady was allowed to preach, teach, pastor in a foreign culture but they would not let her do any of this in our church. What were they thinking? (Just as an interesting aside, while at this church I wrote my devotional thoughts for their church paper. It seems that because it was written and not spoken, this wasn’t deemed to be a woman teaching!) It is culture that turns God into a domineering male.
Secondly in the area of work and recreation:
Another church I attended had several people with various addictions. Internet addictions, smoking, alcohol and also some who were addicted to their work. The ones who were addicted to their work were held in high esteem as hard working, valuable citizens. Yet they were often unable to attend church activities or spend time with family and friends because they were working. Their thinking was that God would be pleased with hard work, yet the Biblical pattern is for work and rest. In the Bible rest is seen as valuable and necessary and so are times of celebration. It is culture that turns God into a slave driver.
Thirdly in the area of family:
Every church I have attended has made faith to be a very individual thing. This too, is a Western trend and while personal commitment is important it isn’t exclusive. In other parts of the world faith is modeled in families and communities. Families, whatever part of the world they are in, have tensions yet it seems other cultures are better able to handle this than Western culture. We excuse our lack of tolerance by making our faith personal and individual. Yet throughout the Bible we see community, we are given word pictures of sheep, of a body, of a wedding, of a building. God works through people groups. It is culture that turns God into my Father (instead of Our Father).
So these are my scattered thoughts on the topic of Faith and Ethnicity. Following is a list of links to other bloggers who have posted on this topic:
Phil Wyman on Seeing the Middle East from a Jewish Perspective
Susan Barnes on Just a God of the West
K.W. Leslie on Why I went to an all-white church
Adam Gonnerman on Multicultural experience (and inexperience)
Matt Stone on Is the church ready for a multiethnic future?
Beth Patterson on Viva la particularities
Steve Hayes on Christianity and ethnicity”
Matthew Snyder asks What’s Your Nation?
Jeff Goins on Gypsies in Spain
Plus a couple of late additions:
Joshua Jinno the Antechurch
Raffi Shahinian on Faith and Ethnicity: A True Story
4 thoughts on “Synchroblog : Just a God of the West?”
Dear Susan–
Thanks for your so-called ‘scattered thoughts’! What they pointed out to me were very real ‘particularities’ at work…
and they are as prickly as other languages, other paradigms of God, etc. THANK YOU for elucidating them for us.
I particularly resonated with your last point. That is part of the reason that I have left the institutional church to find the depth and breadth of community to worship with. If it isn’t ‘our father’ it’s doesn’t feed our souls.
Many thanks, Susan.
Thanks Beth for your comments.
Thanks for sharing. What do you do for community now? How have you disabused yourself from Western ideologies to experience a deeper faith (as expressed in Scripture)?
Jeff, I still go to church, I didn’t mean to create the impression that I had given up on church. I figure God hasn’t given up on the institutional church so I shouldn’t either.
And I guess that’s where it all changed for me. I stopped expecting church to be what I wanted it to be and started looking at it from God’s perspective. I started listening to people with “new ears” and started “seeing signs of life” (indications of God’s involvement) in people’s lives. I hadn’t seen the things before because they weren’t what I want to see. God was doing stuff in people’s lives that was outside my current understanding of God.
I don’t know how to explain it any better. I could say my faith and my church experience are two separate things which is sort of true though not exactly true. I do love my church community and I love to worship and fellowship with them but my faith is so much bigger than that. And I trust God to deal with his church the way he see fit.