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| Wednesday, January 31, 2007 |
| What should society do for “uncivilized cultures” like the Sawi?” |
Who sets the standard of a culture being civilized or uncivilized? We don’t have the right to decide whether a culture is civilized or not, because it’s their culture and they could be living the most (comfortable) life for them. But there are some things that the “civilized cultures” can do for the “uncivilized cultures” like the Sawi. One of the things we can help them with is hygiene and health. Since they don’t take care of hygiene and keep them self not clean, it becomes very easy for them to get diseases. Helping them to keep them clean can prevent many death that come from diseases. And we could provide them medicines and doctors for diseases. Another important thing we could do for them is education and language. Since many of the “uncivilized cultures” don’t have written language, creating written language for them could be a helpful tool for them to communicate within themselves and with other cultures. We also could introduce them some of the “civilized cultures” to them. But one thing we have to be careful of is that we don’t try to make profit out of them with excuses that we are helping them, like the ones who sold axes with children. I think both of the cultures can contribute and help in some ways. |
posted by lucy @ 10:02 PM  |
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| Tuesday, January 30, 2007 |
| What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures? |
We confront many different cultures as the world becomes more universal. Being able to work well together with different cultures can be a huge advantage in a universal community like this. Many things can be learned from different cultures. We will find new ways of thinking and ideas that we never thought of by interacting with other cultures. Therefore it becomes important for us to be able to confront well with other cultures.
In order to confront well with other cultures without collisions, we need understanding, respect, patience, and opened mind. First thing you need when you confront with different cultures is respect. We have to remember that different doesn’t mean worse or better. If there is respect between two different cultures, both cultures will find the good things from the other culture. Without respect, you wouldn’t see better ideas and thoughts the other cultures have. You also need to be open-minded when you confront with other cultures. Being open-minded doesn’t mean throwing your own culture and adopting everything from the other culture. When you are both open-minded and have pride and faith in your own culture, you will be able to adopt the good things from the other culture and still keep your own culture. (I’m afraid that the Sawi has lost some of the originality of their own cultures.) Understanding and patient will be needed in the process of getting to know about the other culture. Since the cultures are different, it might sometimes be hard to understand the way the other cultures do things. But we need to have patience and try to understand them because the cultures are all from different backgrounds.
With these in mind, we will be able to confront well with other culture and be the leader of this universal community. |
| posted by lucy @ 3:31 PM |
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| What does God expect us to do for other cultures and faiths? |
One of the most important things in Christianity is mission. In Acts1:8, Jesus tells us of the great commission to go to the ends of the earth and tell people about Him. Christians have the obligation to prepare for the coming of the Christ by spreading God’s faith and love. One great way to tell other cultures and faiths of God is by showing love. By us showing the unconditional love of God to them, they will see that there is something different and special about Christianity. Elisabeth Elliot is a missionary who showed this unconditional love to the people in Ecuador. While her mission in the savage place, she had to experience losing her husband by Auca warriors in Ecuador. She still went back to the same people who killed her own husband with loving and forgiving heart. When the people of Ecuador saw the love that seems impossible in her, they opened and accepted their heart to Jesus. Elisabeth didn’t give up or hold grudge on them even when they killed her own husband; instead she went back to them with love and forgiveness to bring gospel to them. But one thing we have to be careful of is that we don’t offend their cultures by insisting only our way of believing God. Offending them will automatically shut their heart and it will be hard for them to accept anything we say. For that to not happen, we have to truly love them and understand them. By then, we would be able to open their heart to Jesus.
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| posted by lucy @ 3:30 PM |
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| How do the Sawi relate to faith? How did Don Richardson relate to faith? |
"Faith is one of the world's great evils." Richard Dawkins
Treachery, headhunting, cannibalism, waness… some of the most evil things that could happen on earth have come from the faith of the Sawi tribe. Because they had faith on their ancestors and their tribe’s tradition, they did ceremonies such as yagon, which you give the skull of the person you killed to the person you like. The tribes also thought it is a must to take revenge on those who have killed your family or tribe member. The Sawi keep their faith to their own tribe and their ancestors through this. They follow their faith and do the evil things without a bit of guilt. Faith could drive people to do evil things without any guilt but also can make people to do good things. Looking at Don Richardson, he is one of the best examples who showed us of following his faith of God. He risked his life to share his faith. He knew of the bad conditions and the dangers he will face, but his faith was stronger than any of that. Only his faith of God allowed him to accept all the bad conditions with love. Don Richardson’s faith was stronger than the faith of the Sawi and their evil traditions. Therefore he could change the people of Sawi into Christians. |
| posted by lucy @ 3:29 PM |
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| How do I relate to faith? |
Another definition of faith from the Webster Dictionary is- confidence or trust in a person or thing. To me, faith is the truth. I say this because faith is so powerful that it turns all the lies into truth. As I think of faith, I think of how stupid I feel when I realize that all the things I believe and put faith on are not truth. It is like believing your boyfriend/girlfriend’s sweet lies, telling you how much they love you, and find out later that it was never true. When you are in the moment of putting your faith on them, your boyfriend/girlfriend really truly loves you and no one and nothing can tell you if his/her words are not true, even if it’s not true. But as you find out that the “truths” are not true, it becomes very hard to have faith on anything. (Probably that is why older people have hard time trusting people than little naïve kids, because they have experienced more lies.) Now, I am more careful of putting my faith on anyone or anything. For example, when I meet new people, I keep distance and don’t believe what they say before I really get to know them through their actions. Being careful with your own faith, I think it is the best way to keep you from getting hurt or bad mistakes. But once you decide to put faith on someone or something, you have to stick with the faith you have. |
| posted by lucy @ 3:27 PM |
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| Monday, January 29, 2007 |
| FAITH&theWORLD: How does faith relate to the world in which we live? |
Faith is a belief that is not based on proof. The Webster Dictionary
“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” Hebrews 11:1
Faith is a belief that that is not yet seen or proven. Though, the history of the world changes depend on this abstract thing called faith. America is an example of the history change caused by faith. The pilgrims left their home, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, to an unknown, dangerous place for their faith of believing their God. If it weren’t the pilgrims, America wouldn’t have been the same as now. America is called the country of Christianity. For America to become like it is now, the influence of pilgrims are huge. Not only faith of Christianity, but faith of the Muslims is changing the world’s history as well. The war that is going on now between Muslim countries and U.S. and some European countries is called the religious war. It is between the people who believe in Allah (the god of Islam) and those who are against the belief Muslims have. Faith is also so strong that faith of one person can change the world. Adolf Hitler had faith that all Jewish people should be exterminated from this world and it was close to happen. Millions of Jewish people from all over Europe were killed. People in the world leave their home and cause wars for what they believe that is not even proven. We, humans always want reasons and proofs for everything; but when we look at faith in this world, it is ironic to see how powerful faith is.
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| posted by lucy @ 4:14 PM |
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| About Me |
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Name: lucy
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About Me: health freak. tea-lover. in love with chocolate. verhemently abhore pigeons. engaged with Channing Tatum.
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