From a netfriend:

Certainly God’s people include those of every race and culture, and God meets them where they are. I would support first generation migrants in this country worshipping in their own cultures and ways.

Nevertheless, one of the greatest “leg ups” we can give people into this country and into this world, is to give them the ability to speak the universal language of this country and to a great extent of the world. Without that ability, such people are at distinct disadvantage.

Of course, once you teach people to speak English they have the ability to interact with people of other cultures and that’s when the exchange takes place. It is also where family tensions arise because children discover there is a bigger world out there than their parents might wish them to know.

I would challenge this point: “Our cultural differences can be seen as part of God’s gift to us.” Culture is a man-made thing. It is usually a prescription for who will be in power, and who will not.

Many cultures are very patriarchal. In some ways, patriarchal and matriarchal cultures served people well when information was passed down from the past. But the scientific age has meant that much information comes to us from the future, so the power balance shifts from the old to the young. Some of the protestations about cultural loss come from those who have been in power and are being asked to share it. In places like Africa, one of the chief obstacles to the distribution of condoms and dissemination of sex education, in order to halt the spread of HIV, comes from tribal chiefs. Their culture is about their power and their power is based on the past. So myths like, “you can be cured of AIDS if you have sex with a virgin”, abound, while proper sex education is suppressed. I don’t believe this cultural power is “God’s gift” to them or us. Nor do I exempt Western cultures from this analysis. It is also a man-made thing and has constantly been in a state of change.

A universal language makes it possible for people to interact and from that vantage point, step outside their culture and see it from outside. Perhaps from that vantage point they will weld together a new joint culture. I don’t think this is just a dream or vision. It is simply a description of what has been going on since the dawn of time.

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