Back to School

Having a bit of unexpected flex-time, I decide to join Doug Johns in auditing a class having to with implications of the Gospel for Indian society and culture. Doug is a Presbyterian minister from Canada and a long-time friend.
I am a tad late getting to the classroom. The windowless doors are always closed as classes begin. So I had to crack it open to be sure I was in the right place. Yes! The professor nods for me to come in. I do so and try to slip into the nearest tablet arm.
But—this is India. Doug Johns is in the front row and he stands to his feet. (Most of us do it that way—what a silly phrase!) The students rise. I motion them to sit down. No way. Two jump up to find a better chair for me. They cart it over and motion for me to sit there. I do so. Only then do they all sit down again.
Within a few minutes in comes another pastor—Tim, from California, and his “sparkly-braces” 14 year old daughter, Sheridan. They had been delayed—someone wanted to greet them along the way. Again we all stand. Two students rush to the empty classroom nearby and cart in two chairs for the guests. In a moment or two, all settles down again to the lecture.
I later asked Doug why he had jumped to his feet as soon as he saw me peering in from the hallway. “O—I just noticed what happened when the professor came in and copied the protocol!” I must say Doug is a study in quick learning.
Now the lecture is resuming.
He is asking what pastors and churches are supposed to do.
Win people to Jesus, they reply.
What about the culture at large? Not our focus.
Professor Samuel points out that the culture affects the individual believer so deeply that that cannot be our only focus. He illustrates his point by asking about what Christians put in Christian magazines when advertising for a husband or wife. All the students know the answer.
“Mr. and Mr. X seek a wife with traits X, Y, and Z for their son, 24. Applicants must have a good appearance, age 19-24, who (among other things) is a firm Christian and high caste.” (The same for ads seeking husbands.)
Is this scriptural, he asks.
No. But the point is made. Individuals may be converted to Christ but they are still shaped by the culture—in this case a caste-based culture. So we must study the culture if we are to serve the Gospel faithfully.
Another example shows that even good intentions can often hinder the Gospel if the culture is not critically examined.
Some Christians seek to reach out in Jesus’ name to a rural village. What do you need, they ask the villagers, who caucus and agree that they could use a better road and a well. The women have to walk several miles each day to get water. So they show Christian charity and improve the road and bore a well.
A few months after completing the project they return to see how things are going. Families of low caste living on the edge of the village are still walking miles each day for water. How can this be? The village leaders explain. We cannot drink water from a well that is used by those low caste people who clean latrines and haul away garbage.
Despite good intentions, these Christians had not done a critical analysis of the culture. They had not talked to the low caste members of the village at all. But they were supposedly following Jesus, who put the rights of the poor and oppressed at the heart of true faith. But the church in this case unwittingly favored those in power who oppress the poor.
Another example.
Well-intentioned missionaries from Britain came to India many years ago and built schools and hospitals, thinking that it would trickle down to all the people. But for the most part it served the upper castes, making things worse. Today Indian Christians own vast amounts of land and thus are wealthy enough to do much for the downtrodden. But the churches look like the culture—class separated from class.
An example of how land value can soar here. This college was built on land that was then a mango orchard. They purchased about 20 acres in 1986 at a cost of $5000 USD per acre. Now an acre here costs $500,000, a 100-fold increase in 23 years.
And just as in the USA, pastors can build big churches with palatial buildings and obscene salaries while the poor grow ever more desperate.
Professor Samuel bears down on his final point to justify this course in Church and Culture.
Social structure needs to be part of our concern along with individual conversion lest the world keep us in its mold to the discredit of Christ. The mission of Jesus and of the Apostles required a commitment to transform the culture not just save the individual. There can be no discrimination of rich and poor, educated and unlettered, male and female, elite and commoner. The epistle of James alone makes that point indelibly clear. “God chose the poor of this world…to possess the Kingdom he promised to those who love him. But you dishonor the poor, while the rich drag you off to court and speak evil of that good name which has been given to you.” James 2:5-7 “You must never treat people by their outward appearance, saying to the wealthy ‘You take the best seat here’ while telling the poor man to sit on the floor by my feet.’” James 2:1-4 Such discrimination is evil. Yet we allow it in our assemblies even today.
These future leaders are not going to find it easy to stand against centuries of caste that curses their nation. The great Ghandi knew caste was evil but in the end even he refused to stand against it, for he deemed it necessary to keep India, India.
To its credit, when this college starts a school in various towns in these hills where the Hindu gods reign supreme, it presents a different application form from other schools. Applications ask for the name, address, income level and religion of the family enrolling their child. But they have struck out the box that asks for “caste.” Some parents write it in themselves since caste is crucial here. Such a form is rejected and returned to the parents. The Christian school wants to be blind to caste distinctions that dominate the Indian mindset.
Parents often ask if their child will have to sit next to a low caste child. They do not like this. “We do not consider caste in this school. We follow the Christian God who loves all equally and does not allow such distinctions.”
Since the Christian schools are excellent in comparison to the competition, even Hindu families accept the policy that does not guarantee their child a privileged position.
So they are going through what the USA experienced when our schools were integrated some fifty years ago.
“Save souls; transform society.” A worthy lesson for church leaders here in India.
It’s good to sit and listen to a fine lecture and to meditate on how Christians in America need to model the Kingdom of God in which there is neither religious or secular, make nor female, privileged nor poor, for all are one in the Lord.