The CBE Scroll

Comment by Jody Fernando

June 22, 2008 @ 8:31 pm

Interesting post - I’m glad to see cultural issues being brought up in relation to the discussion of equality. My husband is from Sri Lanka and I am from America, and we deal with such cultural “conflict” of gender roles on a regular basis. Though we do have an egalitarian relationship, it sometimes looks different than what an American egalitarian relationship might look like.

For example, I’ve had to curb my tongue probably more than I would if I were married to an American. Asian culture is oriented enough around respect, hierarchy, and consideration for the community that if I went with my independent American nature of say-what-i-want-when-i-want, I’d offend a lot of people unnecessarily.

I’ve written a bit more about this in an article on my blog, The Link Between (http://thelinkbetween.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/intercultural-marriage-a-model-of-reconciliation-for-the-church/) if you’re interested.

Comment by faith

June 23, 2008 @ 7:09 am

I think that is what the film, Crash was about. I took away from the film that i needed to listen more carefully, ask more questions of the person i am engaging with as well as of God. it also helps to learn something about any cultural norms that i come in contact with. Also to suspend judgement and remind myself that present is anxiety about differences.

I was part of a Latino Church and was speaking with a woman friend about gender roles. She said something quite interesting… the evangelical sub-culture with the wife at home and the hsuband as wage earner was a very white middle class construct. Most Latino women she knew needed to work outside the home in order to make it in the US as a family. She saw it as sort of an Americanized “Biblical” expectation not as a mandate for all time.

Comment by Brian Howell

June 25, 2008 @ 9:25 am

At the risk of sounding self-promoting, what is being identified here is the anthropological principle of cultural relativism. That is, cultural behavior can only be understood in terms of the whole context in which it developed and is understood. That doesn’t mean we can’t judge cultural norms as wrong by biblical standards, but it does mean we simply can’t understand someone from the point of view of our own cultural context; we have to ’step into their shoes’ to use an old metaphor.

Both of the post above state the idea very well, but as an anthropologist at a Christian college, I would just want to point out that this is at the very heart of what I and other Christian anthropologists do every day. We all need to understand that our entire lives are wrapped in historically and culturally particular worlds. All these need to be held up to the critique of scripture, but none are purely “Christian” or uniformly superior.

Comment by Watcher

June 26, 2008 @ 6:36 am

Brian,
What you are saying reminds me of a time back when I was in college and just new in my faith. Someone was concerned that I was being “brain washed”.

Without skipping a beat I said, “Everyday life is brain washing.”

My fellow student’s jaw dropped and she said, “That’s profound.”

I didn’t think so. I thought it was obvious. We are so molded by our culture. Perhaps “brain washing” is too strong of a term since in our usage, it involves more of a transition from one way of thinking to another with negative results. But we are all very conditioned by our culture. Some of us are just more aware of it than others.

Comment by Guen

June 29, 2008 @ 10:12 am

This is totally what CBE and the gender issue is all about. It is inconceivable to me as a Christian who grew up in Sweden, and now has lived in American culture for more than 30 years, that people don’t realize the difference between biblical and cultural differences. The men who drew up the Southern Baptists’ norms of male leadership and the hierarchy in the church didn’t see that this is all based on their American culture, not on biblical principles. By this they showed their closeminded small cultural view, and lo and behold, now all American evangelicalism seem to have to follow, because “this is what the Bible teaches about gender roles”!

Comment by Lolly

July 4, 2008 @ 8:50 am

Faith in 86686:

[blockquote]I was part of a Latino Church and was speaking with a woman friend about gender roles. She said something quite interesting… the evangelical sub-culture with the wife at home and the hsuband as wage earner was a very white middle class construct. Most Latino women she knew needed to work outside the home in order to make it in the US as a family. She saw it as sort of an Americanized “Biblical” expectation not as a mandate for all time.[/blockquote]

I might add that this is a “white middle-class [b]American[/b] construct.” I lived in Britain for several years, and the culture is definitely more egalitarian over there. People take it for granted that women will work outside of the home, even after they’re married. Wives are seen as partners who are supposed to contribute equally. It was quite sad for me to get back to the States last year and find that American women were still getting the tiresome “you’re neglecting your kids if you’re working” guilt trip laid on them.

I think this has something to do with WWII. Since the British people suffered tremendously during and after the war, they didn’t have the luxury of fantasizing about an “ideal” role for women. Yes, lots of women were still housewives, but they were expected to be tough and suck it up. Food rationing did not end in Britain until well into the 50’s, so British wives had a much tougher time than their American counterparts. Since America never really suffered during the War, then when it ended and the economic boom came, we were able to create the fantasy of the happy wife in her spotless dress and pearls, waiting for her husband who went out and did the “real” work.