However, this wonderful couple also told me that they had tried to explain these concerns to another American who could just not see it. They could not fathom that there would be anything in the States that would be more dangerous than living in Africa. I believe that this reveals a cultural short-sightedness that we cannot help but have, and that we need to work to eliminate.

Manifestations of Cultural Short-Sightedness

When we were in France we learned that the French have a very different perspective of the separation of Church and State than we do in America. I was speaking one day with a friend about evangelism and he told me that Christians as a general rule are not allowed to go out in groups do to street witnessing. He said that no one is really supposed to talk about religious things in public, or wear religious symbols. He told me that he thought this was a good idea because it helped to avoid religious disagreements and even violence. Looking at his life from the outside, I did not see much effort put into evangelism at all and instead I saw hostility towards those of other religions. Not all French people are like this, I know several who are extremely evangelistic, those who have taught me what boldness for Christ really looks like. However, for this man, his culture had affected the way that he saw his role as a Christian in society. As an outsider, with different cultural baggage, I saw a deficiency in his worldview that he could not see at all.

In Cameroon, one day I went to the hospital with a friend and saw two men arguing. I asked my friend if we should intervene as it seemed on the edge of physical violence. He looked at me perplexed. To him this was the sight of two men having a normal disagreement. Over time this friend has come to see that shouting and shoving is not the way that the Lord would have us deal with conflict. But he needed an outside perspective.

I personally have been confronted in numerous areas as I have encountered new cultures. In France I was at first shocked to see how small everything was: cars, grocery carts, people. But I learned in France the people have a value for moderation. In what they eat and drink, in how they travel, they see excess as unnecessary and undesirable. I have found this to be an area in which I am lacking. Both the French and the Cameroonian church has put me to shame in their kindness and hospitality. On the first day we went to church in Albertville, France we had two offers for people to meet with us weekly to help us learn French. A Cameroonian family invited us to live in their house (I have four children!) without a moment’s hesitation. I have found that my American bred brain values privacy and individuality to a sinful fault. But without input from those outside these weaknesses, I was blind to it. I was just acting in a normal way.

The Need for Cultural Humility

In each culture I have found truth and aspects to be admired. But as good as our cultures can be, “culture” is created by humans, and like humans, it is fallen. And every culture I have ever encountered has been riddled with sinful attitudes and behaviors. But like a fish in water, or like the air that we breath, we do not think about our own culture. Just the other day at the grocery store a woman asked my kids if they were going home to paint eggs. My children just looked at her in bewilderment. What in the world is this woman talking about? We have never painted eggs with them, as that is not something people do in Cameroon. But for this woman, it was a very natural questions and pretty much any other American child would have known exactly what she was talking about. In the same way, culture is not something that we think about, it is just something that we do.