Over the next few blog posts I would like to highlight a few of the occurrences of shame issues I have recently come across in relation to COVID-19, and what we might learn from each of them, and what it might mean for Christians and the gospel in the 21st Century.
The first is a non-Western example in relation to the problems of COVID-19 management which require the changing of cultural practices.
Here are some examples:
a A writer from Syria - said that people are still kissing on the cheeks all over the place as its a cultural practice. To not greet appropriately in honour-shame cultures is one of the worst things you can do, as it is seen as denying people the most fundamental level of honour.
Similarly even in Botswana Dr Makwinja, a Developmental Psychologist quoted in the official Governement COVID Bulletin Issue 92 about implementing new behaviour-change COVID-19 guidelines and protocols in society, has said:
‘to follow the new culture is complicated….a Setswana culture dictates that people greet each other by shaking hands as a sign of respect and honor…it will be difficult to change'
a But Batswana are being strongly encouraged, and being led by example of their leaders, that everyone must make the needed changes. By the leaders doing the new style of greeting, the practice of greeting is still valued but the new style is ‘endorsed’ as ‘honourable’ by the ‘elders’, thus the people feel ‘free’ to make the changes without thinking they are dishonouring the culture and the ancestors who gave them their culture.
The issue of the shame - ‘stigma’ of COVID-19 has been recognised as significant here in Botswana, with part of the COVID education and awareness messaging from the beginning including posters such as these below:
a I have heard several references to the issue of funerals in South Africa - people feel the need to properly honour family members and don’t want to be the ones who ‘fail’ to attend and do the proper honouring. There are also believed to be dire consequences from passed family members when they become ancestors, if proper burial/funeral honouring has not taken place.
a Australia had problems early on in the current Victoria outbreak, in the Broadmeadows area where cultural gatherings (of people from immigrant communities) were the source of a ‘cluster’ of cases…and the comment was made in a media interview by a family member at one of the gatherings that others just don’t understand the cultural need to have families come together for such gatherings.
To not do what is required culturally is seen as dishonouring your culture and thus those within your culture. As we have talked before about on this blog, such cultural dishonouring is the most shameful and sinful thing a person can do.
Honour and Shame concepts cannot be ignored, and any behaviour modifications will need to be reframed not in Western ‘law’ language and demands, but described and requested in new honour-code terms. If you term it in ‘law’ terms that seem unrelated to cultural honour language then the cultural honour practices will continue in the ‘honour’ category of life, while ‘trying’ to fulfill other demands which will be deemed as secondary. But if the new requests are put in the ‘honour’ box, then ‘honour’ takes on a new context. If new requests are then disseminated through cultural leaders who now show that to do what is culturally honourable and honouring the ‘elders’, has changed and is what they are now demanding, then there is more hope of the general person’s behaviour changing. Then there is less mental conflict (cognitive dissonance) between what ethnic culture demands and what the Government laws are demanding.
As Christians we should be eager and willing to put aside earthly cultural practices and not feel ‘bound’ to them. Our priority is not whether our behaviour is honouring cultural elders, ancestors or ‘culture’ in general, but whether it honours God and how he says we are to act toward him and toward others. It’s never easy to ‘go against the grain’ or ‘swim against the tide’ of culture or peer pressure, but we need to make our decisions from a different standpoint and seek God’s approval above human approval.
In Part 2 I will take a look at what shame had to do with an Aussie Emergency Care doctor testing positive for COVID-19.
