Studying intercultural communication, its difficulties and
rewards, I learned that culture determines all things; cultures have one right
way of doing things. Culture shock can be disorienting, or distressing, because
everything you thought you knew is different here.
Imagine,
then, a situation where you seem not to belong to your natal culture. Finding
that the one right way of doing things is foreign to you. Permanently uneasy,
sometimes distressed, feeling yourself in an exposed, possibly even unique
position of adjustment. Tell me this is not still the position of many
gay and transgendered individuals and I must point to the suicide and mental
health statistics that shame our governments, religions, and indeed cultures.
How did
Jesus deal with intercultural communication? The Samaritan woman at the well in
Sychar spoke from one culture, Jesus from another. She is sexually different:
she has had five husbands, but now lives with another man. She speaks of the
still water in the ground; Jesus speaks of the living water becoming a spring
of eternal life. This communication leads her to become an apostle to her city,
carrying the word that God is a spirit. Worship is not of culture, but of
spirit and truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment