He goes on to say that United States Constitution actually forbids the bestowing of honorific titles of nobility. (the photo above is from his blog post)
As a non-American, and as an Australian observer of the USA, I find this incredibly ironic.
The country that in theory rejects such a concept of 'giving honour' is probably the one country which more than ever seeks Doctoral Degrees. And I remember being shocked many years ago to learn that the USA had a cap and gown graduation for completing high school....and even completing kindergarten! (that practice has spread now to Australia and even Africa!!!)
And yet, I can agree that Western society has so praised humility that they cannot bear to think that honour can be a good thing.
Although I think the reality is more likely we can't see that what we say we value (humility) in theory, is not what we actually often seek after in practice.
We still want to get first place in the athletics day race,
We still want to have a parent say 'I'm proud of you'
We still award trophies for winners of competitions all over the Western world
Every sport participant still dreams at some time of maybe being part of their Olympic team and winning a gold medal
One of the most commonly used Aussie phrases is still 'Good on ya mate'
We still aspire to be 'employee of the year' in our workplace and congratulate and praise those who are
Whatever field of expertise we are in we still strive to be the best, win the award, get the promotion etc etc
I think we are actually just blind to how honour really functions in our world.
We have kidded ourselves with fine platitudes that we don't seek honour. The only difference between an Aussie and (dare I say it) and a IS fighter is what we think is honourable. Westerners think humility is honourable (generally), IS fighters think to die for what they believe is the cause of their prophet is honourable. Westerners think its honourable to die for a cause too.....just think how many Western doctors and medical staff went to help fight the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa with the risk that they could die?
And as I have written before, the whole concept of 'rights', which the West has taken to the extreme, has its roots in the fact that we believe people deserve dignity and honour.
Are Westerners allergic to honour? No I don't think so. But I do think they are allergic to the idea of honour even though they practice it every day.
Maybe part of the problem is that our terminology, particularly as Christians, has avoided the word 'honour' as such, and so we have kidded ourselves that because we don't use the word, we don't emphasise it.
However, we use the word praise, proud, respect and glory without a blink - all similar words.
This is where the word collections below are useful - of synonyms, metaphors and associations (in general and in Scripture). (sourced also from honorshame.com)
Education and Psychology experts tell us children will not develop properly without praise.
We have no worries at all to say 'I'm proud to be Aussie' or "I'm proud to be British" or "I'm proud to be American"
We have no problem saying that kids ought to show respect, in fact I had a gentleman tell me a couple of years back that the problem in Australia is that there is a lack of respect!
And we have no problem as Christians to read our scriptures full of the word 'glory' without stopping to consider the significance of the word. It has almost become an abstract concept as a hackneyed word. It is a good sounding religious word to throw into a conversation so other Christians will accept us as 'mature' or 'reformed' or 'evangelical' or whatever (here comes that irony again! - we want the honour of being part of the 'in group' by using the word 'glory', all the while espousing the importance of humility and saying we don't seek honour!) - we so easily forget that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked and will tell us white is black and black is white .
We have also become adept at glossing over words or phrases in our Bibles which take greater concentration or which don't easily sit with our presumptions about life and godliness. So when we read something like - [you] 'do not seek the glory that comes from the one alone who is God' (John 5:44) we don't stop to properly think about what it means.
We look at social media shaming and wonder where it came from?.....the reality is that every human being on the planet responds to the dynamics of honour and shame. And the sooner Westerners wake up to the fact, the better. After all we cannot biblically address an issue we don't think we have!
As Christians let's lead the way....
to quote again from the honorshame.com blog post..
"Christians can, and must, seek glory - but not just any glory, the right kind of glory.
Christians pursue the honor that comes from being shamed; the victory that comes from being last; the power that comes from weakness; the status that comes from humility; the authority that comes from serving. God does not dismiss honor (or glory) as immature or naive, but calls people to true and eternal glory found in Christ."
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