Conversation at Lunch
I had a conversation at lunch today with a couple of co-workers. They are both great guys. Anyway, I decided to push them out of their philosophical comfort zone a bit. One of the men commented on a TV show he saw about a certain cultural practice involving children which we all found quite repulsive. The country shall remain nameless. In fact, the conversation could refer to any number of practices and any number of countries. So I asked him, "Do you believe one culture is superior to another?"
This is of course a politically incorrect question. It is a given in our country that all cultures are equal, even when confronted with evidence to the contrary. So I made it a bit easier for him. I said, "OK, do you believe a certain set of cultural practices are superior to another set of cultural practices?" Perhaps a less blanket statement would prove more politically correct.
He still wavered. In a case like this our strongest tool is often a comparison of the way children are treated in various cultures. It seems that our society is willing to deny logic but God has still given us a sensitivity where children are concerned. So I honed in on this. "Do you mean to tell me that [this repulsive cultural practice] is the moral equivalent to me taking my children to the library on a Saturday morning?"
Of course not. But he caught the next point without me needing to lead him to it. He replied, "I guess it depends on the ruler you use." Exactly. It depends on the ruler you use to judge cultural practices, morality and even simple right and wrong.
I gave some more examples, as well as a short digression on whether multiculturalism and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are a suitable ruler with which to judge cultural practices. Of course when a person says, "it depends on the ruler you use" there are a lot of directions you can take the conversation. You can tear apart the commonly used rulers in our society. You can show how rulers shift. You can challenge the assertion that your opinion on a suitable ruler is better than my opinion on a ruler.
Indeed, the Christian has a ruler which is unchanging and has been applied successfully as the basis of many societies. It is the Bible. A society and a set of cultural practices which have a Biblical basis have a firm foundation against changing opinions, expediency, political influence and the desire to lower the bar to justify our own immorality. Even more, as Francis Schaeffer pointed out, with the Bible as the authoritative foundation, one man can stand up against oppression and immorality in high places.
Too bad our society thinks it preferable to build on the shifting foundation of quicksand.
P.S. - it should be noted that I do not blanket condemn or blanket commend any society. I always look for the good in other people, and I often find it in people from other cultures and backgrounds. The only thing is, I have a ruler by which I can define "good"!
This is of course a politically incorrect question. It is a given in our country that all cultures are equal, even when confronted with evidence to the contrary. So I made it a bit easier for him. I said, "OK, do you believe a certain set of cultural practices are superior to another set of cultural practices?" Perhaps a less blanket statement would prove more politically correct.
He still wavered. In a case like this our strongest tool is often a comparison of the way children are treated in various cultures. It seems that our society is willing to deny logic but God has still given us a sensitivity where children are concerned. So I honed in on this. "Do you mean to tell me that [this repulsive cultural practice] is the moral equivalent to me taking my children to the library on a Saturday morning?"
Of course not. But he caught the next point without me needing to lead him to it. He replied, "I guess it depends on the ruler you use." Exactly. It depends on the ruler you use to judge cultural practices, morality and even simple right and wrong.
I gave some more examples, as well as a short digression on whether multiculturalism and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are a suitable ruler with which to judge cultural practices. Of course when a person says, "it depends on the ruler you use" there are a lot of directions you can take the conversation. You can tear apart the commonly used rulers in our society. You can show how rulers shift. You can challenge the assertion that your opinion on a suitable ruler is better than my opinion on a ruler.
Indeed, the Christian has a ruler which is unchanging and has been applied successfully as the basis of many societies. It is the Bible. A society and a set of cultural practices which have a Biblical basis have a firm foundation against changing opinions, expediency, political influence and the desire to lower the bar to justify our own immorality. Even more, as Francis Schaeffer pointed out, with the Bible as the authoritative foundation, one man can stand up against oppression and immorality in high places.
Too bad our society thinks it preferable to build on the shifting foundation of quicksand.
P.S. - it should be noted that I do not blanket condemn or blanket commend any society. I always look for the good in other people, and I often find it in people from other cultures and backgrounds. The only thing is, I have a ruler by which I can define "good"!
posted by Shawn Abigail at 8:56 p.m.
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