|
|
Christian Indie Radio
GetChristianMusic
Solid Walnut Music
|
|
|
|
|
|
Devotionals
|
|
Cartoons
Culture
Family
Games
Health
Homeschooling
Humor
Inspiration
Kids
Men
Ministry
Parenting
Poetry
Teens
Women
|
|
Statement of Faith
Contact Us
|
|
|
|
Christianity and Culture:Transnational Culture Wars: Where Should the Blame Lie?
by Shea Oakley (Shea's bio)
Send this page to a friend
Two new international polls show an interesting dichotomy in the attitude of people from other nations towards America. Recently one polling company asked citizens of countries around the world what is their view of the United States. The results were compared with findings from a similar poll taken a few years ago. When compared, the results show that in many of these nations America's popularity rating has taken a dive. While this was, as one would expect, most evident in the Islamic world, European nations including Britain and much closer to home, Canada, were also among those who are now more critical of the U.S. Reasons given ranged from anger at perceived arrogance in our foreign policy to dislike for the “Last Superpower's” environmentally harmful obsession with materialism . But another, perhaps more profound, cause of antipathy towards America is the way our popular culture, with its seemingly ever increasing depravity, is slowly taking over the Planet. This last reason given brings us to the dichotomy.
Meanwhile another organization that reports on television statistics worldwide recently came out with a fairly mind-boggling bit of information. It seems that the most watched television program on Earth today is the California-set “blondes in bathing suits drama”, Baywatch. Every week well over a Billion human beings stop what they are doing to tune into this shining example of American culture at the beginning of the 21st Century.
Is this why, in many parts of the globe, American woman are strongly advised never to travel alone for fear of sexual assault? Before we cluck our tongues about how backward, male-dominated foreign cultures produce sexual predators we might do well to look at that Baywatch statistic again and ponder what a show like this tells the World about our woman.
It must be remembered that many civilizations outside of the Western world, ranging from small tribes to those nations which hold to Islam have very conservative views of sex. The kind of sexual adventurism which now goes on in America with hardly a blush would bring harsh punishment, even death, if it was discovered in one of these sexually conservative cultures. We may certainly disagree with the extremes some men in other parts of the World have gone to protect the chastity of their woman; female circumcision being a primary, and particularly horrific example. We may even look at these cultures as hopelessly chauvinistic. But the fact remains that woman are not openly objectified as sexual playthings there, while they most certainly are here.
So a program like Baywatch comes along and is beamed via satellite into the homes of about a fifth of the world's population, including the TV equipped homes of many in the places mentioned above. This creates, mostly in the minds of the men, a strong tension. The forbidden fruit is there for the viewing. It attracts them with the old lie that free sex is liberating, rather than destructive. They are tempted. America looks like its one big orgy and a part of them wants in on that. This explains why foreign men often are “inappropriate” with visiting Western woman. They watch shows like Baywatch and see woman in outfits that would never, ever be allowed to see the light of day in their countries and then they look at visiting American tourists who are often dressed not much more conservatively than that (Some nations, it must be remembered, consider the showing of more than a minimal amount of skin to be lewd). Soon word gets passed around: “All American woman are prostitutes.”
But here lies the dichotomy. Around the world many people are saying that America is a terrible moral influence on their non-Western cultures. But at the same time over a billion of them wouldn't dare miss an episode of Pamela Sue Anderson cavorting in a bikini. Who is to blame, Pamela or Ahmed? The answer is both and Christians throughout the World should not be surprised. Apart from Christ both the makers and the consumers of sexually immoral media are heading for destruction. It is wise to realize that no culture, whether they be obviously open like ours or tightly closed like theirs is guiltless. This is because, in the history of humankind, no culture has ever been completely free from sexual or any other kind of sin.
Copyright 2002, Shea Oakley. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
|
About Shea Oakley: Shea has been an Evangelical believer for 12 years. He is a member of the Nazarene church and serves on his church's ministries board. Shea has a B.A. in English literature from Nyack College, a college of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Nyack, New York. He also has earned about 41 credits towards a Masters of Professional Studies in Ministry at Alliance Theological Seminary, also in Nyack. Shea currently resides in his home state of New Jersey in the town of West Milford. He is single. Shea has written for two college student newspapers, a college magazine, Poet Magazine (one poem published), Airliners Magazine and his Church's newsletter, From The Vine to the Branches.
You can e-mail Shea at: |
Send this page to a friend: