Culture Shock Round 3: Grieving with Americans (and the Genius of Hamilton)

Photo by Mike Labrum on Unsplash

Six years ago I wrote a blog post about the culture shock involved in suddenly working overseas with primarily American teammates. Since that time, I have been generously and gently invited to understand and share in the joys and the griefs of my American friends and colleagues.

Last week the hit musical Hamilton became available for home viewing, and one of our dear friends here immediately subscribed to the relevant service and set up a watch party, to which we were invited. In keeping with responsible pandemic guidelines, it was a small group, composed of two Canadians (myself and my wife), and five Americans. Four of the five Americans I know well enough to have witnessed their conflicted feelings for their country.

They are not conflicted in their love for their country; they love their country (and their fellow Americans) enough to desire positive change. To have your heart merely swell with pride for your nation is not patriotism, but ego. To allow your heart to be pierced by the suffering within your country and to be moved to act upon it is the patriotism of the conflicted, as all true patriotism must be. These are my friends here, and I have learned a great deal from them.

What does all this have to do with Hamilton? I confess that prior to last week (and even in the first 30 minutes or so of viewing) I thought Hamilton to be overrated and a bit ridiculous. It has been criticized for its “woke” casting, for its glossing over of some historical wrongs of its protagonists, and for its targeting of the liberal elite with a feel-good message about an early America that still considered Black people to be “3/5" of a person and which identified Native Americans as “Indian Savages”.

Post George Floyd, it seems a bit twee.

Watching Hamilton with my American friends gave me new perspective. Of course, the music, choreography, and staging were all excellent, but it was hearing from friends about how the story reinterpreted the creation mythology* of the United States that helped me see some of the underlying genius.

* Here and elsewhere, I use myth not in the sense of “not true” but as an overarching narrative tradition.

As a Canadian, it has always been hard to wrap my mind around the myths of the Founding Fathers: the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and all these pieces which seemed to weave the very fabric of American identity. I’m sure I still don’t understand it correctly, and I will gratefully accept correction for anything I get wrong.

The casting for Hamilton was far from just a “politically correct” stunt. It was genius. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, et al, sit as gods in the American Pantheon. They are more myth than men at this point, known less for who they were than for what happened because of them. To cast them as historically accurately as possible would be to simply reiterate the mythology as it currently sits.

By casting People of Colour in many of these roles, Hamilton breaks the connection between whiteness and godhood. Hamilton both humanizes the gods and makes space for People of Colour, who have historically been excluded from this important piece of the American consciousness. This reinterprets the creation myth to apply to the America of today rather than that of 250 years ago. Today, the founders would not have to be universally of European descent, but could be anyone.

The genius of Hamilton is in reinterpreting a mythology that lies deep in the American psyche. In Hamilton, the myth is not debunked, it is rehabilitated. It is a course correction which allows Americans who have received this myth for generations to carry forward in a post-2020 world without jettisoning everything they believe in, but expanding the dream to include all those previously left in the cold.

It’s true that Hamilton is historically inaccurate in important ways, but the myth of the Founding Fathers always has been. In the end, the story of any nation is more important than the facts, because the facts are merely what has happened; the story is still being written.

Fear Not

Photo by Melanie Wasser on Unsplash

Last week the president of the U.S. suggested that Christians needed him to ‘guard their religion’. Raising the spectre of ‘left-wing’ alternatives, he presented himself as the only leader they could trust to defend them.

I’m not particularly interested in whether he’s right or wrong about any of that. My heart aches, though, for those who believe that their religion needs to be guarded. (I mean that sincerely, not in a barely-veiled, Mr. T, ‘pity the fool’ kind of way.)

There are people who believe their religion needs protecting (maybe you’re one?); these people are not idiots. They are reacting exactly as anyone else would when feeling threatened. If you look at the political and cultural landscape, the threat is not imaginary - there is a culture war happening. If you are one of those people feeling overwhelmed, I am sorry for the constant attack you must feel.

There is good news, though - dare I even say, Good News? Whether you lean to the left or to the right, you don’t have to fight those fights. If you, like me, identify as a Christian, the very heart of the good news gives us hope, joy, and an imagination for something better than any government can bring about or prevent.

Our faith does not need to be defended. As I write this, Christmas Eve is mere hours away. A baby in a manger in a backwoods province of the great Roman Empire; that is how an all-powerful God chose to enter the world.

In that time, Roman Emperors called themselves ‘Son of God’ and proclaimed the ‘Good News’ of their own reign. In that time, the people of God were subject to cruel rulers and an oppressive occupying force. And God saw fit to face that as a helpless child born to a family without wealth or status.

The Good News allowed the early Christians to face down an empire - and the empire blinked first. The Good News allowed these people to face the sword or the arena with peace and joy, believing with every atom of their being that no human could take away the life that God had given.

The Good News tells us today, as it told us then, that God’s people need no earthly rulers to defend their faith. Rather, the subversive, enemy-forgiving, fear-driving-out perfect love of this faith was something rulers needed desperately to be defended from themselves.

If people cannot be made to fear, they cannot be made to serve. If they cannot be made to serve, then those who would rule have lost their authority. And so, from that time, rulers have sought to restore fear to the people of God.

I recognise the pain people feel as they see their culture changing and shifting, perhaps from one they felt supported their faith and practises to one which scoffs at them. I also recognise the pain of those who see their brothers and sisters respond to this pain by embracing values which wound them deeply; I feel that pain myself.

At times like this, I wonder if we have forgotten that Good News is literally good news. That we need not be caught up in the endless cycle of action and reaction; that we are people of hope and not fear.

If the only religion you recognise, in yourself or in others, is one of fear, this Christmas I offer you Good News. There is hope. There is joy. There is beauty beyond anything we could have imagined. We don’t need to defend it and we don’t need to guard it; we need only drop everything and pursue it.

Terminology

Should Missionaries Talk Politics?

When I log into my social media accounts over half of what I see has to do with U.S. politics - and I'm a Canadian with mostly Canadian friends. Honestly, no one needs more political posts, so why even ask the question about whether missionaries should engage in political speech? I'm glad you asked!

Pope Francis, Doctor Who and Fanboy Theology

Everybody wants to be an iconoclast. There's just something so satisfying in tearing out the fixtures of the way you "used to think"; and that's not a bad thing. How do we behave, though, in someone else's house after renovating our own?

Is Hell the Fire at the Heart of Missions?

"It is not always wrong even to go, like Dante, to the brink of the lowest promontory and look down at hell. It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made." - G.K. Chesterton 

Hell. Imagery of fire and torture are so interwoven into the western consciousness that it is hard to tell the difference between fantasy and theology. For readers who don't draw that distinction on any subject :) please feel free to come along for the ride but I'm aware that I am dipping into a topic specific to faith-based mission work.

The World is Our Ballot Box

With the upcoming Canadian election my social media feeds have been saturated with political messages. However far apart they may be ideologically, there is one underlying tenet they all share: "Your vote will determine the future of our country." Though it is seemingly the sole point of unity in all of the rhetoric, and though I risk the ire of every side in saying so, I respectfully disagree.

Your vote, while arguably important, might just be one of the least significant things you can contribute to the future of your country.

The World is Our In-Box

When I start to talk about "Church" and "mission" I tend to ramble. More often than not, I end up sounding like a crazy person. What follows is a modest attempt to open a door to conversation about the nature of the church and her mission by way of a grossly oversimplified metaphor: the world is our in-box.

"Oops, We Did it Again": Zwingli, Luther and World Vision

"Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair." - G.K. Chesterton

In 1529, in the face of rising hostilities between Catholic and Protestant forces, the great reformers Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli sat down together at the behest of Phillip I of Hesse who wanted to unify the Protestant lands. What followed is a mistake we still don't seem to have learned from.

The "S" Word

"You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it." - G.K. Chesterton

Some of you do not share my faith, some of you do. To all of you, though, I want to say that I am deeply sorry. I am sorry for the times that the "S" word, sin, has been levelled at you like a weapon. I am sorry for the times it has been used to make you feel dirty or unworthy or small. I can't apologize on behalf of all who follow Jesus, but also know that as I write this I am pained by what has been done to you.

I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends

"Because our expression is imperfect we need friendship to fill up the imperfections." - G.K. Chesterton

Living in close community with a group of people and working toward a common goal can be a richly rewarding experience. Friendships forged here can be deep and lifelong. At the same time, we never know when we're going to have to say goodbye to yet another person, and that instability can make it tough to invest in new friendships.

I'm A Heartless Monster - Observations from Behind the Barbed Wire

"To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless." - G.K. Chesterton

...or at least it often feels like I am.

Living in the midst of poverty is tough in all kinds of unexpected ways. It is easy to be crushed by feelings of helplessness in the face of such overwhelming tragedy. If you manage to survive that initial onslaught, you may well find your heart hardening - if only to allow you to make it as far as the supermarket without breaking down completely.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

"The true way to overcome the evil in class distinctions is not to denounce them as revolutionists denounce them, but to ignore them as children ignore them." - G.K. Chesterton

I am a white male who is over six feet tall. When I wander around Southeast Asia, I stand out.

Depending on where you are, quite a variety of experiences await you when you show your white face in public. Here are a few:

"Drink is the enemy. Love thy enemy!" - A Missionary Position on Alcohol

"Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it, for this is rational drinking, and the way to death and hell. But drink because you do not need it, for this is irrational drinking, and the ancient health of the world." - G.K. Chesterton

We keep a spreadsheet with the names of our fellow missionaries. It has two columns, "Lushes" and "Prudes".

Occasionally we share this fact with friends here (generally those we've already determined are in the "Lushes" column). They usually laugh, then think for a moment and ask if we can share the spreadsheet with them.

Culture Shock Round 2: Working with Americans

“There is nothing the matter with Americans except their ideals. The real American is all right; it is the ideal American who is all wrong.” - G.K. Chesterton

In a previous post I explored what it is like to be plunged into a foreign culture. When working with a team, though, it sometimes feels like you are in two foreign countries at once! I would love to be gracious and say that all cultures are equally guilty of this but I simply cannot do so with a straight face.

Understanding Culture Shock

“A man is perfectly entitled to laugh at a thing because he happens to find it incomprehensible. What he has no right to do is to laugh at it as incomprehensible, and then criticise it as if he comprehended it.” - G.K. Chesterton

Although the term “culture shock” is fairly well known, it has a very different meaning within the context of longer term adaptation vs a quick vacation or short term work trip.

We've all heard the travel braggart who never gets culture shock... “I guess I've just travelled enough that nothing shocks me.” Ha! Pride cometh before the fall, as the saying goes. And what a fall it will be!

There's No Such Thing as a Missionary

"The devotee is entirely free to criticise; the fanatic can safely be a sceptic. Love is not blind; that is the last thing it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind." - G.K. Chesterton

Second post in and here I am undermining the whole concept of this blog.

Heaven Help Us, I'm a Missionary

"You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion." - G.K. Chesterton

 
It's not something we expected. It's not something we planned for. Oh, sure, we said that at some point we might like to live overseas. We even went so far as to say maybe it would be to do something good for humanity. But then it just sort of happened.
My name is Theo*, and I'm a missionary.