As I look from afar off in Africa, on this Australia Day….
What's going on?
Today is Australia Day! My birth country's national 'day'.
It's meant to be a day that brings every Australian together in unity and celebration in what some would call 'national pride', but some seem to want it to be a day of national 'shame'.
When I was a child I used to think that Aussies were pretty 'low-key' when it came to patriotism. In contrast I looked at America and thought it was quite 'over the top' in its national patriotism. Australia Day back then was a national holiday to give out Australia Day awards and citizenships, but not much else happened except maybe an excuse for another extended family picnic. Cheaply imported 'Aussie' paraphernalia seems to have changed all that.
HOWEVER, This year as I hang a simple Aussie flag in our home far away from Aussie shores, there are so many reasons I am thankful for being born an Aussie. I also watch scenes on Youtube from Aussie news broadcasters that show how some want to turn a happy national day into an angry day with a different name.
What's going on?
What can or should be done about it?
I am not going to try to give an answer on which day of the year should be Australia Day, or any other of the obvious controversial issues. Because I think this is something more than that.
Sometimes standing back and looking from a distance, can help.
Living cross-culturally for the last 23 years as also helped me learn to look at life and culture with fresh eyes….and pay attention to elements of cultural life that once upon a time I didn't even notice, or know I should look for.
We also need to look below the surface and dig to root level if we want to address and solve root issues. Some might think these aren't root issues but just a lot of minority 'noise'. But root issues start at lower levels of a plant first and creep up to the top fruit level. We need to recognise the first signs of problems appearing in the fruit and address the problems early at the root…otherwise it will get so bad the only result is that the whole tree rots and falls or is taken down. And often the 'root' issues are actually 'soil' issues…as any gardener will tell us.
Here are two 'soil' issues I am seeing underneath the 'Australia Day Fruit'
1. Identity
Identity issues I have addressed many times on this blog. However, when our core human identity is not in Christ our Redeemer, and more deeply not even in God our Creator, we try to find it elsewhere.
The first substitute is likely to be national identity and earthly citizenship. And because we no longer rest in our heavenly sourced identity and citizenship, we begin to rely on our earthly identity and citizenship.
But in God's scheme of things, while our earthly ethnicity and nationality is God-given, it is not meant to be the zenith of our identity as explained by American honour-shame scholar (and past Asian missionary) Brad Vaugn here on his recent blog post.
There will be some from every ethnicity in heaven, but that is not because of the ultimate greatness of those ethnicities. It simply shows that ethnicity in no way excludes anyone from gaining a new and higher honour and identity in a new kingdom and citizenship - in Christ and His eternal holy Kingdom of glory. We no longer need to join an earthly nation (Israel) to be God's people, but we come into Christ, in whose Holy Spirit all ethnicities that were once separate, are now joined.
We go from all being many nations under differing honour-code ethics which divide us, to all being under one Christ-directed set of holy honour code ethics that unite us.
However, when we forget, ignore, deny, or are just plain blind, to God's Kingdom identity,
we have no secure assurance of any identity….and so
we will try to find a substitute, and then fight for it.
Many Australians have found their substitute identity in a mis-placed inferior earthly national identity and felt blindly 'safe' that it was a sufficient substitute for Kingdom Citizenship and they don't really need God in the 'lucky country'.
But along comes a problem…
When you settle for finding your deep human identity in a lower level substitute, suddenly you discover there are others at the same lower level as you also trying to find their human identity in the earthly ethnicity or nationality. Now there is no higher unifying identity for all.
And what does this lead to?
Still a yearning for identity but one that leads to tribalism and fighting for supremacy of your tribe - whether that's your gender or your ethnicity or your sporting team, or gang, or profession, or whatever..
Meanwhile the soul of man knows there is something more is needed than just national earthly identity, in order to fulfill the deep longings of the heart.
And so we go looking for something to make us feel that deeper, elusive sense of honour.
So what is the Aussie likely to do?….they go looking for what is a cultural honour-code pillar... fighting for the 'underdog' - ie the oppressed, the less fortunate or the vulnerable, shamed or neglected. If your world has moved to what is now tribalism and you want to do a culturally honourable thing and fight for the 'oppressed', what will you do?
You will find who you think is the 'oppressed' group and you fight for it …and you will think you are doing the most honourable important thing on the planet!
So you find your ultimate honour in trying to be a 'hero' in 'helping' the 'oppressed' group be 'heard', by increasing their voice to those who you think are not listening and oppressing the 'underdog'.
Without God in your life,
you fight for the ones you perceive or believe are the shamed ones,
and try to shame the ones
who are your opponents and who you believe are the oppressors.
The fact that it will never satisfy, the fact that it will only further divide and not unify, the fact that it is a shameful lie of the devil to keep you away from the true identity and honour available in God through Christ... you are blind to it all. You don't realise that in a misplaced honour-code that is no longer God's honour code, you will mis-take what is truly honour and what is truly shame, you will mistake what will truly unify and what will truly divide.
And to add to the subtlety of the devils lies, helping the oppressed is what we are called to do as Christians, but we have to make sure our definitions and interpretations of 'oppressed' are God's, and the way we do it is His way. We have to make sure also (even as Christians) that our identity is not found in our 'works', but in Christ.
It's not that we as human beings don't have things to be ashamed for. Before God, in particular, we all do. Some of what we see in our world today, is no doubt the reality that deep in every heart is an awareness that we are all in a place of shame and we should be ashamed of something we have done wrong and an identity we should mourn.
We also want to alleviate our own sense of shame
by pointing out, blaming and shaming others.
We put others down to put ourselves 'up' in our own minds.
But when we leave God out, we have no answer to why we feel shame for anything at all, and we have no answer to how to deal with the shame or to know what it is we really should be mourning. We end up being sucked into lies and substitutes that never satisfy and only confuse, disappoint and divide.
All because we are trying to find our identity in the wrong 'soil' source.
2. Language Confusion
The next issue that seems to be exposed in this mess is what I would call 'language confusion'. Australia only has one official national language - English.
But in cross-cultural missions we often talk about communicating in a person's 'heart language'. A language is more than particular tones and sounds used to identify items and actions etc in communication, and which differ from culture to culture. Those are rooted in the Genesis 11 tower of Babel. We know such language differences need translation to enable the different language speakers to 'hear' each other.
We could call that the 'what' of language.
But language is more than 'what'.
It is also 'how' and 'why'.
It's how we express what we mean and why we express it that way.
For example we talk about 'love languages' where different people who might all speak English could express their idea of love in different ways but still using English words. Such languages can also end up in mis-understanding and require 'translation'. There is a need to learn to understand the lens of how the other person 'sees' (and feels) love.
But there is another heart language issue that is so evident across our multi-cultural world. And its creating mis-understanding, stress, pain and conflict in a multitude of settings.
Its the issue of the different heart languages of guilt-innocence and shame-honour. It's the languages of how we look at right and wrong, good and evil. It's the languages of the conscience, of motivation, of persuasion, of significance, of goals, of crime and punishment, of advocacy, of righteousness and sin.
Australia has a cultural conflict - not just about Pro-Palestinians protesting on the streets, but in regard to ideology (beliefs) and theology (God) and thus also anthropology (humanity) and eschatology (future). It's not just about different ethnic cultures either, but also about generational cultures. Evangelist and Author Sam Chan has said how that younger generations in Australia have to be reached from the perspective that they think in 'shame-honour' terms rather than 'guilt-innocence' terms. This is a generation who has been raised not only in the soil of a God-denying society (without even an awareness of Creator or Redeemer rooted identity), but also in a social-media honour-shame fuelled world.
And in the process these two differing cultural focuses (worldviews) are talking in different languages about how to progress through these conflicts. They are speaking past each other. Neither are truly hearing the other, and thus both think the other one is blind, stupid, reckless and evil.
Now, don't get me wrong,
what God says is evil is evil, and what God says is righteous is righteous.
There is no debate to be had about that.
However, the lenses by which a person sees how to understand and explain right and wrong can differ. This impacts how we interpret the world, ourselves and even the Bible. When that lens is functioning in a mis-placed way, the problem of differences and divisions only increases.
The lenses in Australia (and in the wider western world) have some people shouting through 'shame' terms, and others shouting in 'guilt' terms. And both think they are right and that the other side is 'out of touch with reality'.
Let me explain -
The 'guilt-innocence' side is championing truth-restoration and thus the exposing of lies. They accuse the other side of telling lies, breaking promises and refusing the truth.
The 'shame-honour' side is championing honour-restoration (or they might use the term respect), and thus shame-removal. They accuse the other side of shameful behaviour and refusing to show respect.
This was highlighted to me in stark reality today. I was catching up on Aussie news on this Australia Day on Youtube!….and the top news bulletin was talking all about truth, and the lies of broken promises. Just below it on Youtube was a news bulletin on a different Aussie TV channel about thousands marching in the streets to say it is not 'Australia Day' but 'Invasion Day'. That side's mantra is all about making the 'invaders' feel ashamed…so ashamed that they should change or cancel Australia Day being on January 26th.
So where to from here?
We have to start speaking the language of those we are trying to reach with the gospel.
Those who see life through honour-shame lenses primarily need to be spoken to in honour-shame terms.
Truth is important, but we don't speak in those terms first…we explain truth in terms of honour and shame. We say how that to speak truth is respectful, and lying is shameful. We have to translate our message into the language that is understood. If a leader lies, he is shameful. We don't just fight for truth, but we fight for the truth about honour and the honour of truth. We don't just fight against lies, but we expose the lies of mis-placed shame and the shame of lies.
We have to 'learn' a new language. We - including the church - have to expand our vocabulary, both our social vocabulary and biblical vocabulary.
Like learning a language when going cross-culturally, we have to listen to hear how people articulate their feelings, aspirations, goals and describe their actions and choices. When we use a different language, the listener doesn't 'hear'. They have to hear the gospel in their language. It has to be a language that speaks about identity, and belonging and honour and shame and acceptance, and what God affirms and rejects. It needs to acknowledge and not dismiss that their desires for identity and honour and acceptance and affirmation are valid, but where they seek it might be mis-placed.
The reality is that we all are sensitive to honour and shame but we articulate it in different ways. And Scripture talks more about shame than it does about guilt. So learning more 'shame' oriented language not only will help us communicate and share the gospel better with others, it will also give us a greater insight and experience of the God of the gospel.
