AVM Webinar: Cultural imperialism and the new believer

Anand A. will address cross-cultural workers‘ blind spots in the context of people following Jesus from within their Hindu backgrounds.

It’s easy to point out where others have engaged in cultural imperialism. Pointing fingers at how mass media often exalts Western expressions, how foreign aid often has hidden social agendas, how greedy corporations manipulate social expectation through advertising, etc. Cross-cultural workers from the West see themselves as messengers of the Good News and ambassadors of God’s Kingdom; however, the question remains to what extent they ask in both large and small ways whether they might also be inadvertently instigating cultural imperialism.

Taking the perspective of the new believer or seeker, it is necessary to ask whether the message—and the desired transformation it entails—is unnecessarily complicated, difficult, or foreign, thereby helping to discern how one may be contributing to cultural imperialism.

Although the case study draws upon a 30-year long movement to Christ (a locally led process in which people begin following Jesus and form new faith communities within their own social networks) among Hindus in a geographical area marked by persecution, the principles discovered through both suffering and success are also applicable to many Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, and other communities characterized by a strong communal identity.