Botswana and 'The Culture Test'

The above graph is of results recently released from 'TheCultureTest.com'

I am a great believer in the value of research and statistical data.  Yes stats can be twisted and in some ways limited, but they can also be very revealing and very helpful and very corrective and instructive.  That is because they can expose truth that has remained hidden.  Satan wants us to believe lies and for truth to remain hidden - he wants lives to remain in bondage, confused and without hope.  God wants people to know the truth about themselves, truth that can set them free.

John MacArthur once made this statement when commenting on 2 Corinthians 10:4,5 in a sermon...

" So what is spiritual war, it is the smashing of ideas that have become the fortifications in which people live, which become their prisons and end up their tomb."  

Mis-placed Shame is such a fortification in our part of the world and for many folks around the globe in one way or another.

A few years ago, God began opening our eyes to the falseness of an idea that has permeated Missiology and Anthropology for decades - the idea that Africa is a 'fear' culture.  We have become more and more convinced from our own observation and research that this was simply not true.  The full truth of Jesus Christ and all that He longs to do to transform hearts and lives was being kept outside the African's reach because they were mis-labeled.  TheCultureTest.com results so far have confirmed this.

When the results came out, TheCultureTest.com made a few comments, 2 of which were:

1. Africa is the least 'guilt'

2. Asia and Africa only differ by 1 % on the 'fear' scale.

TheCultureTest.com also states that the the test was developed primarily for ministry rather than research purposes...However, the results are still relevant for observing trends for Missiological purposes.

I would like to make a few other observations and comments related to how Africa has been in the past (mis)labelled a 'fear' culture, while Asia and the Islamic world were labelled 'shame' and the West was labelled 'guilt'.

Observations from TheCultureTest.com results

1. It is plainly obvious from these results, that Africa is predominantly 'shame' and not predominantly fear at all.  What we have been observing in our research is right on the mark!

2. But credit where credit is due - Africa is the area of the world where 'fear' factors rate the highest - just....and Africa is the only category where fear is higher (slightly) than guilt.  So it is easy to see why early observers and analysts from 'guilt' backgrounds gave Africa the 'fear' label.

3. According to these results, Africa rates higher on the 'shame' factor than does Asia which is has been categorised 'shame'

4. Apart from the '**' category of non-Anglos living in 'Western' community such as Native-American and Asian-Australian, the shame proportion only differs up to a maximum of 8% across all Non-Anglos (from 53% Latin and Asia to 61% Islamic - with Africa at 58%).....and is by far the major factor in all non-Anglo contexts.

5. Interestingly there is almost a complete flip between guilt and shame percentages between the Anglo-West and non-Anglos....ie guilt percentages are in the 20s for the Anglos and (except for Latins), the shame percentages are in the 20s for non-Anglos.

Comments

1. In relation to point 5 above, with an almost complete flip - to help Westerners better understand the gospel impact problems among non-Anglos, an Anglo has to think about what impact the gospel would have if the gospel was only every spoken of in 'shame' terms and never in guilt terms.  Westerners would find the gospel having little connection, conviction. relevance or heart meaning.  

Such is the situation among 'shame' thinkers when the gospel is only spoken of in 'guilt' terms.

2. In relation to point 4 above, if all non-Anglos are predominantly 'shame' oriented, and the majority of Christian/Theological Education, Literature, Evangelism and Discipleship methods and programs are coming from a guilt-emphasis 'West', then we have a very out-of-balance situation. 

There needs to be much more effort put into the above categories to ensure they are enabling folks to understand the relevance of the truth of Scripture to their honor/shame oriented lives. If 'our' Missiological methods and content is primarily guilt-based then Africa is actually the place where they will be having the least impact.  

I would suggest that possibly a reason that the gospel has had more impact in Africa than the Islamic world is that the 'fear' factor was identified and effort was made to address it.

3. TheCultureTest.com also made the comment that Latinos are the most 'balanced' between all three factors of guilt-shame-fear (although the shame factor is still by far the predominant factor) - ie they are hardest to figure out. 

From the graph you will also see that the ** category of non-Anglos living in a Western Country have the most balanced figures if one is just looking at guilt and shame.  Interestingly, so far as we have done the test here with urban-educated-Christians the fear factor drops to 'Western levels' and the guilt and shame factors get closer together (although so far shame is still higher). 

In fact, the guilt factor increases significantly and the fear factor decreases significantly but the shame factor doesn't reduce much at all....so it seems that Gospel teaching is doing an ok job in bringing in the truth of sin's guilt factor and an ok job in showing the victory that Jesus brings over fear, but as would be expected from our research so far, there has been very little change on the dominant shame factor.

 4. It is easy to make the mistake of assuming that if a culture is 'predominantly' one factor or another, that is how people there will function.  

It is true it will be how they function most of the time, but it won't be necessarily all the time.  

We could say (approximately) that if a Westerner comes out on the test as 75% 'guilt' he/she is likely to function on that basis 75% of the time - and that is by far the majority of the time.  

However, if as in the '**' category and with our urban-educated-Christians the guilt and shame % are nearing equal, we have to remember that this can become not only confusing but also frustrating. Especially as the 'guilt' proportion grows closer to the Westerner proportion, the Westerner can be deceived into thinking that shame doesn't play a part, when in reality it can emerge just as easily as the guilt. 

This just goes to show that all three factors - fear, shame and guilt - need to be biblically addressed and framed continually throughout the process of evangelism and discipleship, while keeping in mind how they function on a daily life level within the cultural context being reached.

FINAL NOTE: 

With the folk in Botswana we have done the test with so far, the cultural way of thinking and acting is about 10% higher on the shame factor than the average for Africa (which puts it even higher than the average for Islamic regions) and 8% lower on the guilt factor than the CultureTest general Africa figure. So far we have found that the fear% is about double the guilt %. 

AND Interestingly with the Aussies who have forwarded us their results the average guilt % for Aussies is 77% as opposed to the USA 73% and Europe's 67% - Aussies so far are coming up as an average of around 18% for Shame which is also the lowest of any region overall.......  so it seems Aussies are at one extreme and Botswana is at the other.