Letter from America

There is a certain on-going friendly rivalry between Canada and America. One instance of this is the continuing disagreement between the two countries over who won the last war they fought against each other in the 19th century. Americans are taught that they did. Canadians know they did.

Another instance of this friendly rivalry is a radio show in Canada called Asking Americans. In this show, a radio reporter travels down to America and asks Americans various spoof questions. These questions are designed to expose Americans as being woefully ignorant of what is going on in the world outside their national boundaries.

In one broadcast an eminent professor at a well-known university was asked what the Canadian government should do about the plague of polar bears running riot through Toronto. Toronto is the financial capital of Canada, is thousands miles south of polar-bear country, and hasn't seen a polar bear outside a zoo. But the American professor seriously answered the question, giving sage advice about how the Toronto civil government should not stand for these polar bears.

Canadians, of course, find this amusing. Americans make jokes at Canadians' expense too, as anyone who has seen South Park will be able to confirm.

But Asking Americans has a sombre point it. I've been asked before whether Britain is a democracy. At times there is an extraordinary insularity about America. Part of this is, no doubt, due to the overwhelming dominance of American popular culture. Coke is ubiquitous. MacDonalds is in Moscow. Part of it is due to the commercialisation of news programmes in America. World news is strictly limited to news about where the President is travelling. One newspaper I scanned listed under its world news section news about Texas, Michigan, and (whew) Geneva. The American version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire reputedly incorrectly calculated the national make up of the UK.

Of course, this sort of thing unnerves Europeans. They want to know that the finger on the button is a finger that could also find Geneva on a map, as it were.

Spiritual issue

But there is a spiritual issue at stake for us wherever we come from. The church has tended to make a very strong association between culture and the gospel. The British Empire almost viewed its generals as on a Christian mission; Gordon of Khartoum was just about thought of as a Christian martyr. If in some parts of America the Christian church is absolutely dominant religiously speaking, and if there is a strong association between the local culture and that church, and if very little is really known of culture outside of that community, then the door is open to a cocktail of confusion about the real nature of the Christian gospel. The Christian gospel is incarnate in culture, all things to all men that we might win some, but it must not become associated with a certain culture exclusively.

This can become the case. When a recent Christian concert appeared in New England, and it came to do a number about 'church', the immediate association between 'church' and the music played was the culture, not the Christianity, of the Bible belt. New Englanders, no doubt, were confused. Are they saying that to be a Bible believing Christian I need to like country and western music?

Somehow each generation needs to discover what is authentic to the Christian gospel, and what are the frills, the temporal and geographical associations with Christianity which are non-eternal and may be compromised. If we don't do that we may just export our culture, our values, our capitalism, instead of the Word of God.

Asking Americans

Spiritual issue

Josh Moody

Main Articles

Other articles