In Response to Culture (and Ruth Hubbard)

In Ruth Hubbard’s blog (http://ruthhubbard.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/what-do-you-do-with-culture), she raised the question “how do we respond to culture?” Ruth highlighted five common responses to culture that I quote below:
 CONDEMN–When we do battle against culture as if it is an evil to be vanquished.

 CRITIQUE–When we judge the value of culture as good or bad.

 COPY–When we mimic culture as if it’s better than what we could come up with ourselves.

 CONSUME–When we simply ingest culture without filters.

 CULTIVATE–When we take what is good in culture and keep it good.

 CREATE–When we create culture.

Being a lover of culture, philosophy, sociology, etc., I began pondering this question once again. I have come to the conclusion that to respond to culture carries the risk of engaging in a power struggle to prove one’s worldview/perspective/creation is better than another.  I am not suggesting that all cultural responses are equal or even beneficial. While living in Vietnam, I learned that it is cultural to not formerly name a child until they registered for school. In lieu of a name, the parent would refer to the child as “elephant dung” or some other equally offensive phrase. I also learned it was considered rude for me to call a child beautiful or openly admire a child. My American “let’s promote good self-esteem” self had difficulty comprehending such ideas, that is until I learned that this was a religious/superstitious response to an alarmingly high infant mortality rate. This parenting response was actually seen as protecting their children from jealous gods who would kill their children. The intention was pure, but perhaps it is fair to conclude it is not necessary and possibly even psychologically damaging.

 I believe their is yet another alternative -- being a reflecting pool of The Creator.  I am convinced we are co-creators of culture by becoming the authentic self we were created to be. Thomas Merton wrote:

         “The forms and individual characters of living
                    and growing things,
         of inanimate beings, of animals and flowers and all nature,
         constitute their holiness in the sight of God.   . . .

         The leaf has its own texture and its own pattern of veins
                 and its own holy shape,
         and the bass and trout hiding in the deep pools of the river
         are canonized by their beauty and their strength.      . . .

         The great, gashed, half-naked mountain is another
                of God’s saints.
         There is no other like him.
         He alone is his own character;
         nothing else in the world ever did or ever will imitate God
               in quite the same way.

          That is his sanctity.

           But what about you? What about me?”

May we find the courage to silence the voices that tempt us to be something other than who we were created to be. May we strip away the façades and smoke screens that tarnish our ability to accurately reflect The Creator. Maybe then the world will see God and the Kingdom Christ set out to create.