"... many Christians still allow cultural prejudices to shape their understanding of..."
I read this online today and it made me pause.
Which Christians? Those in Nigeria, New Zealand, Kosova, Cairo, Indiana, India...?
Cultural prejudices? Which ones? And what of personal prejudices?
When I first read the sentence, of which I've isolated only a fragment, I quickly thought of all the areas of application. I read it through my own lenses, my own life experiences. You will read the sentence through your lenses and will think your own thoughts, naturally.
Christians will do that. The wealthy will think they're not so wealthy; there are others with more. Poor students will mock the camel attempting to get through the eye of the needle, thinking they're sweet because they're impoverished, not recognizing their own prejudice.
How do we arrive at an objectivity that allows us to understand with a clarity untainted by prejudice?
How do we relate with people, read Scripture and respond appropriately without everything being skewed by undisclosed bias and unexplored personal paradigms?
I think we could fairly say, "... many people still allow cultural prejudices to shape their understanding of..."
and we'd all nod our head saying, "Yes. And...?"
The difference is that if we were talking about how we read and understand Scripture, well, our nationalistic, racial, cultural, gender, political, economic ... prejudices alter our understanding of the Gospel, God's identity, Jesus' mission, the Church, ..... pretty much everything really. Yet none of us live in the context in which Scripture was originally written, therefore ...
Do we even desire an objectivity that allows us to understand with a clarity untainted by prejudice?
I'm full of questions.
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I read this online today and it made me pause.
Which Christians? Those in Nigeria, New Zealand, Kosova, Cairo, Indiana, India...?
Cultural prejudices? Which ones? And what of personal prejudices?
When I first read the sentence, of which I've isolated only a fragment, I quickly thought of all the areas of application. I read it through my own lenses, my own life experiences. You will read the sentence through your lenses and will think your own thoughts, naturally.
Christians will do that. The wealthy will think they're not so wealthy; there are others with more. Poor students will mock the camel attempting to get through the eye of the needle, thinking they're sweet because they're impoverished, not recognizing their own prejudice.
How do we arrive at an objectivity that allows us to understand with a clarity untainted by prejudice?
How do we relate with people, read Scripture and respond appropriately without everything being skewed by undisclosed bias and unexplored personal paradigms?
I think we could fairly say, "... many people still allow cultural prejudices to shape their understanding of..."
and we'd all nod our head saying, "Yes. And...?"
The difference is that if we were talking about how we read and understand Scripture, well, our nationalistic, racial, cultural, gender, political, economic ... prejudices alter our understanding of the Gospel, God's identity, Jesus' mission, the Church, ..... pretty much everything really. Yet none of us live in the context in which Scripture was originally written, therefore ...
Do we even desire an objectivity that allows us to understand with a clarity untainted by prejudice?
I'm full of questions.
- Posted using BlogPress
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