McJalapeños and cultural sensitivity
McJalapeños anyone? This is a little package from a McDonald’s Restaurant in Mexico. Did you know that in Mexico there are about 2 McDonald’s for every million people? Of course, here in Canada there are 35. And in the USA, about 43 per million. Does this make Mexico deprived, or blessed?
I’ve been reading lately about how we package the Gospel for different cultures. It’s an interesting and complex topic. Of course, everyone’s favourite villian is the missionary who is more concerned about importing his/her culture than the Gospel. (Having studied missions history, I think missionaries have generally been a lot more culturally sensitive than the popular stereotype gives them credit for, but that’s another story). The important thing, of course, is not what kind of cultural clothes the Gospel wears, but that the essentials of the Truth are clear. It just so happens that those truths are the clearest to us when we hear them in our own language, related to things we understand. But it could be that we can get too obsessed with the culture – to the point where we obscure the Truth itself.
You can never just speak the same words in another language and hope they make sense – you have to understand what people are really thinking when they hear those words. That’s why we’re excited that our language school incorporates cultural training along with language training. Hopefully the mix of new relationships and culture and language will get us started on the right road.
Neither can you just throw in a few local illustrations and say the same thing. Adding a little package of jalapeños did not make this McDonald’s really Mexican, let’s face it. Sometimes you have to start at a different place, take a different path, as you explain the truth.
Can or should a missionary ignore his/her own culture? Is that dishonest? Does it make them something they’re not?
In the early days of the Church, it seems that the Gospel really got wings when people discovered that they didn’t have to be Jewish to follow Jesus. At the same time, they drew from the rich culture of the Jewish people. A lot of that culture was simply from God – the culture from the law of Moses, the temple, the feasts. Today we would miss out if we set aside the rich traditions of thousands of years of godly women and men – the prayers, the songs, the symbols.
Surely it’s a living thing – something that should naturally grow as we learn about each other and seek the Lord together. But those individual decisions are never easy. They remind us to rely on the Lord for His wisdom. In the end, I hope those we worship with will have a real, living, relevant relationship with the Lord, full of the wisdom and creativity of today’s believers, and yesterday’s.
May our faith be alive, and may we not end up thinking a package of salsa makes us culturally sensitive. Comments, anyone?
25 June 2006 @ 1:50 pm
It seems that one stage that people go through when they move to the mission field (in our humble experience with groups, teams, and short-term and long-term missions), people go through a stage where they actually reject their own culture. I don’t know why, but it kind of becomes an embarrassment to them… maybe this is part of taking on the new culture where they are. Then, things kind of swing back to the other side and they start to get irritated by their new culture and long for their own. Finally, they seem to find a middle ground, taking the best and worst of the both cultures. I know that living in Nicaragua has changed me for the rest of my life… now I am in Mexico, and I look forward to seeing how God will use this culture to change me and make me more like him as well.
In sharing the gospel, you are right, you cannot just speak the language to share it. You must learn to think as they think and understand where they are coming from. They filter through their cultural lenses just as we do. We must pray for wisdom in how to reach them and we also must be carfeul not to try to bring an “American Jesus” to them… this may be our biggest struggle of all! Lord, help us to know the real You!
26 June 2006 @ 8:10 am
You’re absolutely right – of course, some people never really do find that middle ground. They either go home or get bitter.
I think the biggest controversy comes in those little decisions – how to actually share the Gospel in another culture. You don’t want to share a culture instead of Christ. Then again, if we really think we can totally understand the subtleties of another culture, we’re fooling ourselves. You’re right – “our biggest struggle of all”! I guess that’s where we need the wisdom of the One who sees the hearts of all.