I’m planning on posting just one video on YouTubesday, sometimes writing a brief thought of my own in response to the video, and encouraging others to do the same. I’ve found YouTubesday is one of my most popular series (and only really ongoing one) on the blog, but it’s often the least commented on. Here’s to opening the Conversation.
Know Who You Are (2 minutes long) via
This is the line that struck me the most:
“If I have a missionary who comes to me and says, ‘I have no culture,’ I’m terrified of him because they’re going to think that the way they do things is the Christian way.”
This hints at the reason that discussing race (and racism) in the church is so important. If we act like race and culture is a non-issue, then we are most likely maintaining the dominate race and culture as the norm, and there is a great danger in that.
What struck you?
"If we act like race and culture is a non-issue, then we are most likely maintaining the dominate race and culture as the norm, and there is a great danger in that."
I think it's important the way that you put that Ariah. I say that because I think that he was right to point out that many people (especially white Americans) think that they "have no culture". On the other side someone who becomes aware of how their culture affects them often tries to get rid of it completely so as to be able to deliver the "pure" gospel. But I think that we can never really "shed" our culture. To be aware of your culture and to try to become culture-less is not the solution (to be clear, I don't think he was advocating that at all, it's just the way that the video was cut).
Culture is not a bad thing. But must be aware of it and how our interactions with others will be affected because of it.
right on. I think you said that far better then I did. It's funny, what I almost wrote on the post (drawing from Wheaton and a contextualization class) would have sounded nearly the opposite of what I meant to say, and you would have been leaving your comment to correct my wayward notion, not agree with it. Culture, language, context, it all does have a big impact on our interactions, relationships and the gospel.