Chapter 54 373

Cultural Differences andthe Communication

of the GospelPaul G. Hiebert

You were excited. You were accepted as a missionary.The church held a big farewell in which you werecenter stage when all your life you had sat only in the

pews. There was the thrilling, sorrowful parting at the airport,the flight in the giant 747, and a little uneasiness as you landedin a strange country. But friends were there to meet you. Youcouldn’t read the menu at the restaurant so you pointed know-ingly at something you didn’t recognize and took yourchances. You recognized half the food on the plate. The otherhalf looked inedible—was it roasted insects or goat’s entrails?Later you went to the market to buy oranges but the womancouldn’t understand a word you said. You pointed to yourmouth and rubbed your stomach like a little child. You had topay her, but all you could do was hold out a handful of thestrange coins for her to take what she wanted. You were sureyou were cheated. You got on a bus to go across town, and gotlost. You imagined yourself spending the next ten years ridingthe bus trying to get home. You got sick and you were sure thelocal doctor didn’t know how to treat American diseases. Nowyou are sitting on your bed, wanting to go back where youcame from. How did you get yourself into this anyway, andwhat do you say to your church after a few weeks of ‘missions’abroad? “The job is done”? “I can’t take it”?

Your reaction is perfectly normal.

Paul G. Hiebert

is Chairman of

the Department

of Mission and

Evangelism and

Professor of Mission and Anthro-

pology at Trinity Evangelical Divin-

ity School. He previously taught

Anthropology and South Asian

Studies at Fuller Theological

Seminary’s School of World Mis-

sion. Hiebert served as a mission-

ary in India with the Mennonite

Brethren Board. He is the author

of Cultural Anthropology, Anthro-pological Insights for Missionaries,and Case Studies in Mission with

his wife, Frances H. Hiebert.

Adapted from Crucial Dimen-sions in World Evangelization, by

Arthur F. Glasser, et al. , 1976.

Used by permission of William

Carey Library, Pasadena, CA.

Level of Satisfaction

Tourist CultureShock

Time

Adjusted BiculturalPerson

want to

go home

want to

stay

Culture shock is a sense of cultural disorientation in a different society.

Chapter 54 CULTURAL DIFFERENCES375

It is the culture shock everyone experi-ences when they enter a new culture. Touristsdo not really experience it because they re-turn to their American-style hotels afterriding around looking at the native scenery.Culture shock is not a reaction to poverty orto the lack of sanitation. For foreigners com-ing to the U.S. the experience is same. It is theshock in discovering that all the cultural pat-terns we have learned are now meaningless.We know less about living here than the chil-dren, and we must begin again to learn theelementary things of life—how to speak,greet one another, eat, market, travel, and athousand other things. Culture shock reallysets in when we realize that this now is goingto be our life and home.

THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

To understand culture shock and the prob-lems of intercultural communication, we

need to first understand the concept of “cul-ture.” We will begin with a simple defini-tion that we can modify later, as our under-standing of the concept grows. Culture is“the more or less integrated systems of be-liefs, feelings and values, and their associ-ated symbols, patterns of behavior andproducts shared by a group of people.” Letus unpack this definition.

Patterns of Behavior and ProductsMost people begin learning a culture by ob-serving the behavior of the people and look-ing for patterns in their behavior. We see twoAmericans grasp each other’s hand andshaking them. In Mexico we see them em-brace. In India each puts his hands togetherand raises them toward his forehead with aslight bow of the head—a gesture of greetingthat is efficient, for it permits a person togreet a great many others in a single motion,and clean, for people need not touch each

PAUL G. HIEBERT 375

other. The latter is particularly important in asociety where the touch of an untouchabledefiles a high caste person and forces him totake a purification bath. Among the Sirianoof South America, people spit on each other’schests in greeting.

Probably the strangest form of greetingwas observed by Jacob Loewen in Panama.Leaving the jungle on a small plane with thelocal native chief, he noticed the chief go toall his fellow tribesmen and suck theirmouths. When Loewen inquired about thiscustom, the chief explained that they hadlearned this custom from the white man.They had seen that every time white peoplewent up in planes, they sucked the mouths oftheir people as magic to insure a safe journey.Americans, in fact, have two types of greet-ing, shaking hands and sucking mouths, andwe must be careful not to use the wrong formwith the wrong people.

Not all behavior is culturally shaped. Informal situations, behavior and speech arecarefully circumscribed by the culture. Ev-eryday life is usually less formal; we are al-lowed to choose from a range of permissiblebehaviors. Our choices reflect the occasion(swimming suits are out of place in theclassroom) and our personalities. Our cul-ture is the sets of rules that govern thegames of life that we play in our society.Like players in most games, we often try to“bend the rules” a little and get away withit. If we are caught, we are punished; but ifnot, we gain some advantage or sense ofachievement. All cultures have ways to en-force their rules, such as gossip, ostracismand force, but not all violators are punished.A society may ignore some transgressors,particularly those who are important andpowerful. Or it may be unable to enforce aspecific rule, particularly when a greatmany people break it. In those cases cul-tural ordinances may die, and the culturechanges accordingly.

Culture also includes material objects—houses, baskets, canoes, masks, carts, com-puters, and the like. People live in nature andmust adapt or mold it for their own pur-poses. Most traditional societies live in an en-vironment largely formed by nature. In com-plex industrial societies, much of the human

environment is culturally molded. Electricityblurs the distinction between day and night,and planes and phones break the barriers ofgeographic distance.

Human behavior and material objects arereadily observable. Consequently, they are im-portant entry points in our study of a culture.

THE HEART OF CULTURE:

BELIEFS, FEELINGS AND VALUES

At the heart of a culture is the shared be-liefs, feelings and values of a community ofpeople. Through their experiences, peopleform mental pictures or maps of their world.For instance, a person living in Chicago has amental image of the streets around her home,those she uses to go to church and work, andthe major arteries she uses to get aroundtown. Obviously, there are a great manystreets not on her map and as long as shedoes not go to these areas, she has no needfor knowing them.

Not all our ideas reflect the realities of theexternal world. Many are the creations ofour minds, used to bring order and meaningto our experiences. For example, we see agreat many trees in our lifetime, and each isdifferent from all others. But it would be im-possible for us to give a separate name foreach of them, or to each bush, each house,each car—in short, to every experience wehave. In order to think and speak we mustreduce this infinite variety of experiencesinto a manageable number of concepts bygeneralizations. We call these shades ofcolor “red,” those “orange,” and the thirdset “yellow.” These categories are the cre-ations of our minds. Other people in otherlanguages lump them together into a singlecolor, or divide them into two or more col-ors. Do these people see as many colors aswe? Certainly. The fact is, we can create asmany categories in our minds as we want,and we can organize them into larger sys-tems for describing and explaining humanexperiences. Culture is a people’s mentalmap of their world. This is not only a map oftheir physical world, but also a map for de-termining action. It provides them with aguide for their decisions and behavior.

Chapter 54 CULTURAL DIFFERENCES377

BeliefsShared beliefs about the nature of realitymakes communication and community lifepossible. They provide people with the cat-egories and logic they use to experience theworld. Beliefs also tells people what existsand what does not. For instance, most West-erners believe in atoms, electrons, gravityand DNA, although they have never seenthem. South Indian villagers believe in fiercerakshasas—spirits with big heads, bulgingeyes, fangs and long wild hair, which inhabittrees and rocky places, and jump on unwarytravelers at night. Not all Indians believe inrakshasas, just as not all Americans believe inGod. But all must take into account the cat-egories that exist in their culture.

FeelingsCulture also has to do with the feelingspeople have—with their notions of beauty,tastes in food and dress, likes and dislikes,and ways of enjoying themselves or express-ing sorrow. People in one culture like theirfood hot, in another, sweet or bland. In somecultures people are encouraged to sing insharp, piercing voices, in others to sing indeep, mellow tones. Members of some societ-ies learn to express their emotions and maybe aggressive and bellicose; in others theylearn to be self-controlled and calm. Some re-ligions encourage the use of meditation, mys-ticism and drugs to achieve inner peace and

tranquility. Others stress ecstasy throughfrenzied songs, dances and self-torture.

The affective dimension of culture is re-flected in standards of beauty, and taste inclothes, houses and food. It also plays an im-portant part in human relationships—in ournotions of etiquette and fellowship. We com-municate love, hate, scorn and a hundredother attitudes, by our facial expressions,tones of voice and gestures.

Values and AllegiancesCulture includes the values by which peoplejudge the experiences of their lives. Thesevalues determine what is right and wrong,what is good and what is evil, in the culture.For example, in ancient Japan it was a sin tobeat a horse while it is lying on its back, andto sow seed where someone else has alreadydone so. In parts of India, losing one’s temperis a greater sin than sexual immorality.

More or Less IntegratedA culture is made up of a great many pat-terns of behavior, ideas and products. But itis more than the sum of them. These patternsare integrated, more or less, into larger cul-tural complexes and total cultural systems bya worldview which forms the core of the cul-ture. This worldview is made up by the fun-damental cognitive, affective and evaluativeassumptions the people make about reality.Because these assumptions are taken for

The Dimensions of Culture

EXPERIENCES

WORLD-VIEW

BEHAVIORPRODUCTS

Values

Beliefs

Feelings

Decisions

EXPERIENCES

PAUL G. HIEBERT 377

granted, they are generally unexamined andtherefore largely implicit. They are whatpeople ‘think with,’ not what they ‘thinkabout.’ People believe that the world really isthe way they see it. Those who disagree arewrong or crazy.

To see this integration of cultural patternswe need only observe the average American.On entering an auditorium to listen to a mu-sical performance, she looks until he finds achair—a platform on which to perch himself.If all these platforms are occupied, he leavesbecause the auditorium is “full.” Obviously,there are a great many places on the floorwhere he can sit, but this is not culturally ac-ceptable, at least not at the performance of asymphony orchestra.

At home Americans have different kindsof platforms for sitting in the living room, atthe dining table, at a desk and on the lawn.They have large platforms on which theysleep at night. When they travel abroad,their greatest fear is being caught at nightwithout a platform in a private room, sothey make hotel reservations well ahead oftime and pay hundreds of dollars for asingle night’s sleep. People from many partsof the world know that all one needs atnight is a blanket to keep clean and warm,and a flat space—and the world is full of flatplaces. At the airport, at three in the morn-ing, American travelers are draped uncom-fortably over chairs because they wouldrather be dignified than comfortable. Travel-ers from other parts of the world sleepsoundly stretched out on the floor.

Not only do Americans sit and sleep onplatforms, they build their houses on them,hang them on their walls, and put fencesaround them to hold their children. Why thisobsession with platforms? Behind all thesebehavior patterns is a basic worldview as-sumption that floors are dirty. This explainstheir obsession for getting off the floor. It alsoexplains why they keep their shoes on whenthey enter the house, and why the motherscolds the child when it picks a potato chipoff the floor and eats it, even though the floorhas just been washed.

In Japan the people believe floors areclean. They take their shoes off at the door,and sleep and sit on mats on the floor. When

we walk into their home with our shoes on,they feel much like we do when someonewalks on our couch with their shoes on.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND

THE MESSENGER

So long as we live in our own culture, we arelargely unaware of it. When we enter new cul-tures, however, we become keenly aware ofthe fact that other people live differently. Atfirst we see the differences in dress, food, lan-guage and behavior. Then we learn that thereare profound differences in beliefs, feelingsand values. Finally, we begin to realize thatthere are fundamental differences inworldviews. People in different cultures donot live in the same world with different labelsattached to it, but in radically different worlds.

Cultural differences are at the center of themissionary task which is to minister to ‘oth-ers.’ How can we communicate the Gospel inother languages, and plant vital churches incultures which differ markedly from our own?

MisunderstandingsAfter we get beyond our initial culture shock,we are faced with three lifelong problems.The first has to do with cognitive misunder-standings. Some missionaries in Congo hadtrouble in building rapport with the people.Finally, one old man explained the people’shesitancy to befriend the missionaries.“When you came, you brought your strangeways,” he said. “You brought tins of food. Onthe outside of one was a picture of corn.When you opened it, inside was corn andyou ate it. Outside another was a picture ofmeat, and inside was meat, and you ate it.And then when you had your baby, youbrought in small tins. On the outside was apicture of babies, and you opened it and fedthe inside to your child!” To us, the people’sconfusion sounds foolish, but it is all too logi-cal. In the absence of other information, thepeople must draw their own conclusionsabout our actions. We do the same abouttheirs. We think they have no sense of timewhen, by our culture, they show up late. Weaccuse them of lying, when they tell us thingsto please us rather than as they really are

Chapter 54 CULTURAL DIFFERENCES379

(although we have no trouble saying “Justfine!” when someone asks “How are you?”).The result is cultural misunderstanding, andthis leads to poor communication and poorrelationships.

Edward Hall points out how differentviews of time can lead to confusion (1959).When, for example, two Americans agree tomeet at ten o’clock, they are “on time” ifthey show up from five minutes before tofive minutes after ten. If one shows up at fif-teen after, he is “late” and mumbles an un-finished excuse. He must simply acknowl-edge that he is late. If he shows up at halfpast, he should have a good apology, and byeleven he may as well not show up. His of-fense is unpardonable.

In parts of Arabia, the people have a dif-ferent concept or map of time. If the meetingtime is ten o’clock, only a servant shows upat ten—in obedience to his master. Theproper time for others is from ten forty-fiveto eleven fifteen, just long enough after theset time to show their independence andequality. This arrangement works well, forwhen two equals agree to meet at ten, eachshows up, and expects the other to show up,at about ten forty-five.

The problem arises when an Americanmeets an Arab and arranges a meeting for teno’clock. The American shows up at ten, the“right time” according to him. The Arabshows up at ten forty-five, the “right time” ac-cording to him. The American feels the Arabhas no sense of time at all (which is false), andthe Arab is tempted to think Americans actlike servants (which is also false).

Misunderstandings are based on ignoranceof the beliefs, feelings and values of anotherculture. The solution is to learn how the otherculture works. Our first task in entering a newculture is to be a student of its ways. When-ever a culture ‘makes no sense’ to us, we mustassume that the problem is ours, because thepeople’s behavior makes sense to them.

EthnocentrismMost Americans shudder when they enter anIndian restaurant and see people eating curryand rice with their fingers. Imagine divinginto the mashed potatoes and gravy with yourhand at a Thanksgiving dinner. Our response

seems natural, to us. Early in life each of usgrows up at the center of our own world. Inother words, we are egocentric. Only with agreat deal of difficulty do we learn to breakdown the circle we draw between me andYou, and learn to look at things from the view-point of others in our group. Similarly, whenwe first encounter other cultures, we find ithard to see the world through other culturaleyes. We are ethnocentric.

The root of ethnocentrism is our humantendency to respond to other people’s waysby using our own affective assumptions, andto reinforce these responses with deep feel-ings of approval or disapproval. When weare confronted by another culture, our own iscalled into question. Our defense is to avoidthe issue by concluding that our culture isbetter and other people are less civilized.

But ethnocentrism is a two-way street.We feel that people in other cultures areprimitive, and they judge us to be uncivi-lized. Some North Americans were hosting avisiting Indian scholar at a restaurant, whenone of them who had never been abroadasked the inevitable question, “Do you re-ally eat with your fingers in India?” Implicitin his question, of course, was his culturalattitude that eating with one’s fingers iscrude and dirty. North Americans may usefingers for carrot sticks, potato chips, andsandwiches, but never for mashed potatoesand gravy or T-bone steaks. The Indianscholar replied, “You know, in India we lookat it differently than you do. I always washmy hands carefully before I eat, and I onlyuse my right hand. And besides, my fingershave not been in anyone else’s mouth. WhenI look at a fork or spoon, I often wonderhow many other strangers have already hadthem in their mouths!”

Ethnocentrism occurs wherever culturaldifferences are found. North Americans areshocked when they see the poor of other cul-tures living in the streets. People in thosesame societies would be just as appalled toobserve how we North Americans surrenderour aged and sick and the bodies of our de-parted to strangers for care.

The solution to ethnocentrism is empathy.We need to learn to appreciate other culturesand their ways. But our feelings of superiority

PAUL G. HIEBERT 379

We need to let

the gospel work

in the lives of

new Christians,

and recognize

that the same

Holy Spirit who

leads us is at

work in them.

and our negative attitudes toward strange cus-toms run deep and are not easily rooted out.

Premature JudgmentsWe have misunderstandings on the cognitivelevel and ethnocentrism on the affectivelevel. On the evaluative level we tend tojudge another culture too quickly, before welearn to understand and appreciate them.Our initial assessment is often that they aresomehow inferior and ignorant.

As people learn to understand and appre-ciate other cultures, they come to respectthese cultures as viable ways of organizinghuman life. Some are stronger in one area,such as technology, and others in other areassuch as family ties. But all “do the job,” thatis, they all make life possible and more or lessmeaningful. Out of this recognition of the in-tegrity of all cultures, emerged the concept ofcultural relativism: the belief that all culturesare equally good—that no culture has theright to stand in judgment of others.

This position of cultural relativism is veryattractive. It shows high respect for otherpeople and their cultures and avoids the er-rors of ethnocentrism and premature judg-ments. The price we pay, however, in adoptingtotal cultural relativism is the loss of suchthings as truth and righteousness. If all expla-nations of reality are equally valid, we can nolonger speak of error, and if all behavior is jus-tified according to its cultural context, we canno longer speak of sin. There is then no needfor the gospel and no reason for mission.

What other alternative do we have? Howdo we avoid the errors of premature and eth-nocentric judgments and still affirm truthand righteousness? There is a growingawareness that all human activities are full ofjudgments. Scientists expect one another tobe honest and open in reporting their find-ings and careful in the topics of their re-search. Social scientists must respect therights of their clients and the people theystudy. Businessmen, government officials,and others also have values by which theylive. We cannot avoid making judgments, norcan a society exist without them.

On what basis, then, can we judge othercultures without becoming ethnocentric? Wehave a right as individuals to make judg-

ments with regard to ourselves, and this in-cludes judging other cultures. But these judg-ments should be well informed. We need tounderstand and appreciate other cultures be-fore we judge them. Our tendency to makepremature judgments is based on ignoranceand ethnocentrism.

As Christians, we claim another basis forevaluation, namely, Biblical norms. As divinerevelation we stand in judgment of all cul-tures, affirming the good in human creativity

and condemning theevil. To be sure, non-Christians may re-ject these norms anduse their own. Wecan only present thegospel in a spirit ofredemptive love andlet it speak for itself.Truth, in the end,does not depend onwhat we think orsay, but on reality it-self. When we bearwitness to the gos-pel, we do not claim

a superiority for ourselves, but affirm thetruth of divine revelation.

But what keeps us from interpreting theScripture from our own cultural point ofview, and so imposing many of our own cul-tural norms on other people? First, we needto recognize that we bring our cultural biaseswith us when we interpret the Scriptures. Wemust be open to recognizing these biaseswhen they are pointed out to us. We alsoneed to let the gospel work in the lives ofnew Christians and recognize that the sameHoly Spirit who leads us, is at work in them.We need to allow them the greatest privilegewe allow ourselves, the right to make mis-takes and to learn from them.

Second, we need to study both the culturein which we minister and our own in order tocompare and evaluate the two. The process ofgenuinely seeking to understand another cul-ture breaks down our cultural biases, and en-ables us to appreciate the good in other cul-tures. It is important, too that Christianleaders in other societies learn our culture tounderstand us.

Chapter 54 CULTURAL DIFFERENCES381

The dialogue between us and our nationalcolleagues is important in building bridges ofcultural understanding. It is also important inhelping us develop a more culture-free un-derstanding of God’s truth and moral stan-dards as revealed in the Bible. Our colleaguescan detect our cultural blind spots better thanwe can, just as we often see their cultural pre-judgments better than they. Dialogue withChristians from other cultures helps keep usfrom the legalism of imposing foreign beliefsand norms on a society without taking intoaccount its specific situations. It also helpskeep us from a relativism that denies truthand reduces ethics to cultural norms.

Evaluation in theThree DimensionsAs humans, we pass judgments on beliefs todetermine whether they are true or false, onfeelings to decide likes and dislikes, and onvalues to differentiate right from wrong. Asmissionaries we are faced with evaluatingother cultures and our own along each ofthese dimensions.

On the cognitive level, we must deal withdifferent perceptions of reality, including di-verse ideas about hunting, farming, buildinghouses, human procreation and diseases. Forexample, in south India villagers believe ill-nesses are caused by angry local goddesses.Consequently, sacrifices must be made to themto stop the plague. We must understand thepeople’s beliefs in order to understand theirbehavior, but we may decide that moderntheories of disease are more effective in stop-ping illnesses. On the other hand, after exam-ining their knowledge of hunting wild game,we may conclude that it is better than our own.

We need to evaluate not only the people’sfolk sciences, but also their religious beliefs,for these affect their understanding of Scrip-ture. Although they already have conceptssuch as God, ancestors, sin and salvation,these may or not be adequate for an under-standing of the gospel.

Becoming Global ChristiansSomething happens to us when we learn tolive deeply in a new culture: we become glo-bal people. Our parochialism, based on ourunquestioned feeling that there is really one

civilized way to live, and our way is it, isshattered. We must deal with cultural vari-ety—with the fact that people build culturesin different ways, and that they believe theircultures are better than ours. Aside fromsome curiosity at our foreignness, they arenot interested in learning our ways.

But to the extent we identify with peopleof another culture and become global, wefind ourselves alienated from our kinsmenand friends in our homeland. This is not re-verse culture shock, although we will experi-ence that when we return home after a longstay abroad. It is a basic difference in how wenow look at things. We have moved from aphilosophy that assumes uniformity to onethat has to cope with variety, and our oldfriends often don’t understand us when wereturn. In time, we may find our closest asso-ciates are other global people.

In one sense, global people never fully ad-just to one culture—their own or theiradopted one. Within themselves, they are partof both. When Americans are abroad, theydream of America, and need little rituals thatreaffirm this part of themselves—a food pack-age from home, a letter, an American visitorfrom whom they can learn the latest newsfrom “home.” When in America, they dreamof their adopted country, and need little ritu-als that reaffirm this part of themselves—avisitor from that country, a meal with its food.Global people seem happiest when they areflying from one country to the other.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND

THE MESSAGE

Cultural differences affect the messengers, butthey also affect the gospel message. Each soci-ety looks at the world in its own way, and thatway is encoded in its language and culture.No language is unbiased, no culture theologi-cal neutral. Consequently, the translation andcommunication of the gospel in new culturesis no easy task. If we do not understand this,we are in danger of being ineffective messen-gers at best, and, at worst, of communicating agospel that is misunderstood and distorted.

Cultural differences affect the message inseveral ways. First, the messengers must

PAUL G. HIEBERT 381

communicate in the language the people un-derstand. This means learning new lan-guages and translating the Bible into theselanguages. This involves not only using lo-cal words that have similar meanings to theoriginal, but also checking that the mean-ings of those words in the broader context ofthat culture do not introduce distortion. Sec-ond, new believers must learn how to dealwith their old cultural ways. Can they con-tinue to participate in local festivals, singold songs, cremate the dead, venerate theirancestors and go to the diviner for guid-ance? Birth rites, weddings, funerals andother rituals must be made indigenous, yettruly Christian. Third, if the church is tofunction well, church buildings, forms ofworship and leadership styles must beadapted to fit the local cultural practices.Fourth, evangelistic methods must be cho-sen that fit the culture. Methods that workin small tribal societies normally do notwork in rural or urban settings. Nor domethods appropriate for the city, work intribal and rural societies. Finally, the peoplemust develop a theology in which Scripturespeaks to them in their particular historicaland cultural settings. These are all part ofthe contextualization of the gospel in newcultural settings.

Contextualization raises difficult questionsthat must be addressed. We will examinethree of them.

Gospel and CultureWhat is the relationship between the gospeland culture? We must distinguish betweenthem, for if we do not, we will be in dangerof making our culture the message. The gos-pel then becomes democracy, capitalism,pews and pulpits, Robert’s Rules of Order,and suits and ties on Sunday. One of the pri-mary hindrances to communication is theforeignness of the message and, to a greatextent, the foreignness of Christianity hasbeen the cultural load we have placed uponit. As Mr. Murthi, an Indian evangelist, putit, “Do not bring us the gospel as a pottedplant. Bring us the seed of the gospel andplant it in our soil.”

It is not always easy to distinguish be-tween the gospel and human cultures for the

gospel, like any message, must be put intocultural forms to be understood and commu-nicated by people. We cannot think withoutconceptual categories and symbols to ex-press them. But we can be careful to let thebiblical message shape not only our beliefs,but also the categories and assumptions ofour culture.

A failure to differentiate between the bib-lical message and other messages leads toconfusion between cultural relativism andBiblical absolutes. For example, in manychurches where it was once considered sin-ful for women to cut their hair or wear lip-stick, or for people to attend movies, theseare now acceptable. Some, therefore, arguethat today, premarital sex and adultery arethought to be sinful, but that in time they,too, will be accepted.

It is true that many things we consideredsin are now accepted in the church. Arethere, therefore, no moral absolutes? Wemust recognize that each culture definescertain behaviors as “sinful,” and that, asthe culture changes, its definition of what issin also changes. There are, on the otherhand, moral principles in Scripture that wehold to be absolute. Even here we must becareful, however, for some biblical norms,such as leaving the land fallow every sev-enth year and not reaping the harvest (Lev25) or greeting one another with a holy kiss(1 Th 5:26) seem to apply to specific culturalsituations.

Contextualization VersusNoncontextualizationCultures are made up of systems of beliefsand practices that are built upon implicit as-sumptions that people make about them-selves, about the world around them, andabout ultimate realities. How can Christianscommunicate and embody the gospel interms of these worldviews and the beliefsand practices associated with them, whenmany of these are unbiblical?

One response has been to reject most ofthe old beliefs and customs as “pagan.”Drums, songs, dramas, dances, body decora-tion, marriage customs and funeral rites arefrequently condemned because they arethought to be directly or indirectly related to

Chapter 54 CULTURAL DIFFERENCES383

traditional religions, hence unacceptable forChristians. This wholesale rejection of oldcultural ways creates problems. First, itleaves a cultural vacuum that needs to befilled, and this is often done by importingthe customs of the missionary. Drums, cym-bals, and other traditional instruments arereplaced by organs and pianos. Instead ofcreating new lyrics that fit native music,Western hymns and melodies are intro-duced. Pews replace mats on floors, andwestern style churches are built, althoughthey appear incongruous alongside mudhuts and thatch gathering halls. It is no sur-prise, then, that Christianity is often seen asa foreign religion, and Christian converts asaliens in their own land.

A second problem arises when missionar-ies attempt to suppress old cultural ways.These simply go underground. New convertscome to church for worship, but during theweek turn to shamans and magicians for an-swers to the everyday problems of their lives.

A third problem with the wholesale con-demnation of traditional cultures is that it notonly turns missionaries and church leadersinto police, but keeps converts from growingby denying them the right to make their owndecisions. A church only grows spiritually ifits members learn to apply the teachings ofthe gospel to their own lives.

A second response to traditional ways isto see them as basically good, and to acceptthem uncritically into the church. Few, ifany, changes are seen as necessary whenpeople become Christians. Those who advo-cate this approach have a deep respect forothers and their cultures, and recognize thehigh value people place on their own cul-tural heritage. They also recognize that the“foreignness” of the gospel has been one ofthe major barriers to its acceptance in manyparts of the world.

This approach has serious weaknesses.It overlooks the fact that there are corporateand cultural sins as well as personal trans-gressions. Sin is found in cultural beliefs andexhibited as group pride, segregation againstothers and idolatry. The gospel calls not onlyindividuals, but societies and cultures tochange. Contextualization must mean thecommunication of the gospel not only in

ways the people understand, but in ways thatalso challenge them individually and corpo-rately to turn from their evil ways.

Another weakness in uncriticalcontextualization is that it opens the doors tosyncretisms of all kinds. If Christians con-tinue in beliefs and practices that stand in op-position to the gospel, these in time will mixwith their newfound faith and produce vari-ous forms of neopaganism.

If both uncritical rejection and uncriticalacceptance of old ways undermine the mis-sion task, what should we and Christianconverts do with the people’s cultural heri-tage? A third approach is to evaluate it inthe light of biblical teachings. The first stepis to study the old ways in order to under-stand them. The missionary and churchleaders should help new converts to exam-ine their traditional practices. The next stepis to lead the church in a Bible study relatedto the question under consideration. For ex-ample, the leaders can use the occasions ofweddings and funerals to teach Christianbeliefs about marriage and death. This is acritical step, for if the people do not clearlyunderstand the biblical teachings, they willbe unable to deal with their cultural ways.The third step is for the congregation toevaluate critically their own past customs inthe light of their new biblical understand-ings, and to make decisions regarding theiruse. They will keep many of their old ways,because these do not distort the gospel.They will reject other ways as unchristian.They will reinterpret other ways to conveythe Christian message. For example, theywill give Christian words to their native lyr-ics. They will develop new symbols andrituals to communicate the gospel in waysthey understand. And out of the processthey will create beliefs and practices that areboth biblical and contextually appropriate.

Conversion and UnforeseenSide EffectsSince cultural traits are linked together intolarger wholes, changes in one or more of themoften lead to unforeseen changes in other ar-eas of the culture. For example, in one part ofAfrica, when the people became Christians,their villages also became dirty. The reason for

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Study Questions1. What integrates beliefs, values, and feelings within a given culture?

2. Distinguish the errors of ethnocentrism and what Hiebert calls “premature judgments.”

3. How is it possible to become what Hiebert calls “global people?”

4. Of what use for cross-cultural communication is identifying beliefs, feelings and values?

this was that they were now not afraid of evilspirits which they believed hid in refuse. Sothey no longer had to clean it up.

Many cultural traits serve important func-tions in the lives of the people. If we removethese without providing a substitute, the con-sequences can be tragic. In some places hus-bands with more than one wife had to giveup all but one when they became Christian.But no arrangements were made for thewives who were put way. Many of themended up in prostitution or slavery.

What implications does an understandingof culture and cultural differences have for uswhen we minister in another culture? Weneed to recognize that the effective communi-cation of the gospel is central to our task.There is little point going ten thousand milesto give our lives if we cannot bridge the finalfive feet. Inter-cultural communication is acomplex process. If we do not understand it,

we will be unable to communicate the gospelto the people.

As we learn to effectively communicatethe gospel interculturally, however, we mustnever overlook the fact that God is at workthrough his Spirit in the hearts of the people,preparing them for the Good News. Withoutthis, true conversion and Christian maturityis impossible. God uses the imperfect meansof human beings to make his message knownto us and through us, to others. And evenwhen we are unskilled in transmitting themessage, he often uses it to transform thelives of people. This is not to justify our ne-glect of understanding intercultural commu-nication, but to say that, in the end, the com-munication of the gospel depends on thework of God in the hearts of people whom hehas prepared. Christian communication mustalways be accompanied by prayer and obedi-ence to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.