{"id":2682,"date":"2019-07-26T11:46:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T09:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w3.sonofcarey.com\/?p=2682"},"modified":"2019-07-24T11:48:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T09:48:32","slug":"multiculturalism-part-2-what-is-the-source-of-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/?p=2682","title":{"rendered":"Multiculturalism, Part 2: What Is the Source of Culture?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do not learn the way of the nations\u2026 For the customs of the peoples are delusion.
Jeremiah 10:2-3<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In Jeremiah 10:2 the people of God are commanded not to\nlearn the way of the Gentiles. Today, we call the way of life and customs that\nJeremiah spoke about, culture. Who is the mother of culture? Where does it find\nits origin? God told Judah through Jeremiah the answer to this question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The culture of the nations is connected to their religion. They\ntake their knowledge from religious observance of stars (10:2). They dedicate\ntheir art to idols (10:3-4). They fear dead idols (10:5). They have been taught\nby idols (10:8). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul connected his childhood culture with the religion of\nJudaism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it;
Galatians 1:13<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What questions does a religion ask? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Who is the final authority to\ndetermine good and bad in life? <\/li>
  2. What is the great goal of life? <\/li>
  3. Where did the world come from? <\/li>
  4. How do we deal with guilt, fear,\nshame, and death? <\/li>
  5. How can we know that something is\ntrue? <\/li>
  6. What is beautiful? <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Doesn\u2019t a culture try to answer every one of these questions? In fact\nwhen a group of people gather themselves they inevitably form traditions bent\non dealing with just these difficulties. As an example, how might the culture\nof African Traditional Religion (ATR) answer these questions? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Who is the final authority?\n\u201cAncestors, swikembwu, midzimu, and the taboos that they have passed down to us\nover the centuries. Some day I will become one of them just like my\nforefathers.\u201d <\/li>
    2. What is the great goal of life? \u201cTo\nmaintain the traditions that we were given in the society in which we were\nborn.\u201d <\/li>
    3. Where did the world come from? \u201cIt\nis unknown and unnecessary. No man needs to know origins in order to continue\nin the path that his family has always led.\u201d <\/li>
    4. How do we deal with guilt, fear,\nshame, and death? \u201cBy staying in the paths of ancient tradition, we can\noverlook the impressions that come to our hearts.\u201d <\/li>
    5. How can we know that something is\ntrue? \u201cThe only truth is that which received from the ancestors. So we do not\ntrust science or history because the numerous spirits and the terrible powers\nof witchcraft can change any given situation.\u201d <\/li>
    6. What is beautiful? \u201cBeauty is the\nsame as appetite. There are no affections to be raised because there is no\nreality beyond this world and the very similar spiritual \u2018world\u2019 where the\nmidzimu live.\u201d <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cAfter all, elders (male or female) are tradition\u2019s custodians. Even when only one speaks, his or hers is a vicarious voice; a voice uttered on behalf of the family or clan and its heritage. For this reason the voice of an older person vibrates with an aura of infallibility and finality. To defy it is to incur the wrath of not one but many; all<\/em>, in fact, including the furious dead.\u201d<\/p>

      Choolwe Mbetwa, Why Africa Is Poor<\/em>, 38-39<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

      What Mbetwa put into print is known by a great number of people living\nin the rural areas: There is a strong connection between traditions (culture)\nand authority and the ancestors. Authority and ancestors are religious\ncategories while the ongoing, earthly traditions are the cultural. Culture is\nan incarnation of a religion. Culture is the clothes that religion makes for\nits believers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Do not learn the way of the nations\u2026 For the customs of the peoples are delusion.Jeremiah 10:2-3 In Jeremiah 10:2 the people of God are commanded not to learn the way of the Gentiles. Today, we call the way of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[472,358],"class_list":["post-2682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-multiculturalism","tag-jeremiah","tag-multiculturalism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QrZa-Hg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2683,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions\/2683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sonofcarey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}