cutural thoughts

“In every generation there are a few souls, call them lucky or cursed, who are simply born not belonging, who come into the world without strong affiliation to family or location or nation or race. Those who value stability, who fear transience, uncertainty, change, have erected a powerful system of stigmas and taboos against rootlessness so that we mostly conform, we hide our secret identities beneath false skins of those identities which bear the belongers’ seal of approval. But the truth leaks out in our dreams; alone in our beds—because we are alone at night, even if we do not sleep by ourselves—we soar, we fly, we flee.” -Salman Rushdie

This quote from Salman Rushdie affirms thoughts that many Adult Third Culture Kids have. And in many ways it also speaks to those who have wandered the world looking for peace, hope and love and then find themselves in a local church -- since I am a Cumberland Presbyterian Pastor I will refer to them --- the traveling soul enters -- looking for home and find the stigma's and taboos of the local church --

The traveler already knows that his/her lifestory places them out of the group, that their past means they will never quite belong, they will commit social errors, but yet we yearn for acceptance ... and it is whispered and affirmed -- we will only accept you when you conform (not to Scripture but..) to our story -- yours is not valid here. and the traveler who is seeking God and the abundant challenging life Christ offers - looks at the drab fearful existence of the rooted and they flee.

We should notice how our local church has a vested interest in maintaining its established culture .... and then questions if that interest excludes those with a different background?

what do I mean by third culture

In the sub-title of this blog I describe myself as a "third-culture pastor" and that expression may need some explanation. As to the word "pastor" -- if I have to explain that you will not enjoy this blog very much as the conceptual discussions may often use words out of your experience.

It is the "third-culture" concept that may need explanation... this phrase is shorted in that I am actually an "Adult Third Culture Kid." TCK's are children who spend a good portion of their developmental years in countries other than their passport country. There are great gifts in being a global nomad -- adaptibility, acceptance, and a global neighborhood. Also ATCK's are an educated group. Whereas less than 20% of American's receive college degree's - 81% of ATCK's have BA's and 50% of those have advanced degree's. These things are wonderful, travel is great (25 nations for this one -- 15 school before graduation), and contacts all around the world.

On the other hand, we tend to have difficulty in forming deep relationships, (always ready to say goodbye) -- we never fit in - ever. We are always ready to leave. We tend to take more than 4 years at college since exploration of cultures and nations take precedent. And .... this is life long.

A third culture pastor will see things slightly differently -- may not be as close to others as they would like, and would be, naturally, kingdom oriented.

Screaming into the Wind title....

Often those who refer to themselves as either "Christian's" or "conservatives" do little more than complain about the direction of the nation and then they accept a fatalistic view of things ... they complain and do nothing else citing the futility of their efforts. If those who self identify in these groups would be as passionate and long suffering as the left -- we would have a more dynamic dialogue and a healthier nation and church.

The ancient Hebrews understood that people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge. We are often too lazy to learn and as a result we are being destroyed. When Bible studies at a church draw significantly less people than a worship service - we are admitting that we prefer destruction since we are unwilling to seek knowledge.

This applies outside of the church as well. The ancient definition of the Greek word "idiot" is that of a person uninvolved (and ignorant) of government. Too many people are prideful in their willful ignorance of the world and the culture and as a result they blissfully dismiss their ability to change the world through participation and knowledge.

This leads me to the title of this blog -- and its purpose. Here we will examine culture through Biblical reflection (I am a pastor after all) and we will advocate civil action and influence. Though we may not be able to produce great change -- I would rather go down screaming into the wind with teeth bared than winde down and fade away.

We will step out and speak up regardless of the cost -- and though the forces arrayed against us appear as powerful as a storm -- this one will stand and be heard -- screaming into the wind.

What now?

The post-modern era has finally dominated culture and is on the wane, the question being what now? Consistancy is abandoned and "truth" is determined by the power of the one speaking or their influence. Which is ironic since post-moderns (hereinafter PM) often rail against power.

We are seeing ideological values diminish and in fact pass into the shadows. When "christians" twist the plain meaning of scripture to fit the latest sociological fad they are committing the same gross error as those who corrupted the text to fit the fad of slavery in the US. When politicians make policy statements and then routinely ignore the statement, judges ignore the constitution, contacts are considered mere paper --- when this happens it is as if each one is doing what is right in thier own eyes.

The next few years will be interesting to say the least -- should be ample fodder for blogging.