Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
I have two problems with this. First, if this culture is lax on copying, then the leaders shouldn't be leading Westerners. Neither Nee nor Lee is fit to lead outside their culture. They can't have it both ways, to be an Oriental in cultural mannerisms, then to have some universal, one-size-fits-all spirituality that is good for all people at all times. You know, the ministry of the age. That's where we got cultural-based ideas like "covering drunken Noah" that ignored the plain NT counsel.
The NT is not an honor-based culture - it's a law-based culture. (Yes, it's a NT Law - see James' "royal law" in 2:8). The same rules go for everyone. If Peter had been skimming funds, when they sold properties in the early chapters of Acts, and laid the proceeds at his feet, and suddenly you hear of a ski-resort on Mount Herman, being run by Peter's nephews (!!), don't you think the gospel would be ruined? There is no MOTA-who-gets-a-free-pass in the NT.
Second, WL made a big fuss when others (from S. America) came to his conferences and took his materials, then passing it off as theirs. Where was the cultural laxity then? Suddenly, "they" took from "him". It was his work. How often did we hear Lee say, "I came up with this - I did"? Where was the culture then? No, it was a convenient dodge when one's hand got caught in the cookie jar.
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Exactly. The rational, guilt/innocence culture we think of as "Western" has its roots in the Christian worldview. Certain elements of eastern honor/shame cultures clash irreconcilably with Christian thought, with consequences many of us have experienced personally. Although it focuses more on understanding how we came to post-modernism in the West, I have found
Glenn Sunshine's Why You Think the Way You Do to be helpful in sifting through some of the legacy of my upbringing in the Recovery. That, and the Nabeel Qureshi book I mentioned in my previous post.