Cultural Respect

The world is a huge place with billions of people from thousands of cultures. We just recently passed the 7 billion people mark on the planet. This means that there are people from various different walks of life, each with their own particular worldview. A worldview is a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world. I’m a firm believer that just as no two people are alike, so no two worldviews are alike. Yes, people who grow up in the same family, neighborhood, suburb, city, state, or country may have aspects of their worldview which are the same, but when it comes down to the nature of an opinion, it is something formed in the end, whether through influence of others or not, solely by an individual.

With the uniqueness of every single individual on the face of the planet, we must learn to respect others and where they come from. Part of this fact means that we must come to terms with the fact that others have been influenced in ways different to ourselves. Giving respect to others means that we have a feeling of deep admiration for them or their character which is elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements. Inherent to respect means that we must forget about our nature and our character and focus on the other. In my time spent in other cultures, I have seen those who live with cultural respect oozing from their lives. They look to other cultures and are amazed by the new and glorious things which they can learn from them. Sadly, I have seen the opposite as well. I have seen individuals go across cultures and always use their worldview and culture as the benchmark for grading the other culture. What are the downfalls of such a perspective? Such a perspective leads individuals to refuse to learn from others. It causes humanity to be inward focused and be concerned with the self rather than with the community. There is so much to be learned from other people and their cultures. Our experience with them allows us to acquire knowledge about them and who they are. As Christians we believe that God created us in his image. I believe that being thus created means that in others we have a chance to see a glimpse of God. When we fail to reach out to them, we fail to reach out to the God imaged in them.