Not Weird, Different. (P3)

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Honor and Shame

Before talking about honor and shame, probably one the the largest topics when discussing Arab culture, I think it is necessary to give a little more context about world cultures. If we just jump into talking about honor and shame without thinking of the cultural contexts (including our own), it is all too easy to judge their views as wrong.

Essentially all the ideas I'm going to talk about are taken from a book called "Honor and Shame" by Donald Muller.

When looking at world cultures, there are three main catagories of contrasting ideas that seem to drive culture. These are: guilt and innocence (Western), honor and shame (Middle Eastern and Asian), and fear and trust (African and tribal). There are probably others, but these three contrasting ideas seem to emerge clearly in cultures today.

First, let's look at our own idea of guilt and innocence. For westerners, justice (innocence) is paramount. If you have proof that you're right, if you can show evidence in court that demonstrates logically your argument, then you will win. Even if 100 people give testimony against you, so long as you can prove your innocence through facts, you will be justified in the end. The 100 liars will be ignored and the one who has the truth will prevail.

This idea carries through to our view of God and sin. We can often picture our position with God as a person in a courtroom. We have sinned - we are guilty, and condemned to death because of the wrongs we have done. We have all have broken the law that God laid out, and there is nothing that we can do about it.

So for us, justice and law are paramount. Now let's talk more about the culture of honor and shame (usually associated with Arab and Asian societies). For these cultures, one of the most important things is preserving honor - saving face. What people perceive is more important than what might actually be true. As long as people see you in a good light and think that you are honorable, you are in a good position.

For instance, let's say that you commit some sort of sin - like you stole something. Now as westerners we might think that the best thing to do in this situation is to confess that we stole something and own up to our mistakes. But in Arab culture, the best thing you can do is simply lie to preserve your family's honor. If you're lying to protect your honor, it's not considered wrong. In fact, the worst thing you could do is confess openly that you've sinned because it shames your family.

In terms of sin, Muslims believe that if no one see or no one knows you've sinned, it's not wrong. So long as no one finds out, it's actually not sin. This doesn't seem like it make sense, but we need to think about it in terms of an honor/shame culture. Honor and shame require a community to see - it requires people. If there are no people around to see your sin, then it's not shameful - it's not wrong.

Now that we have a little more of a grasp on our different cultures, let's see how they might play out in a situation. For instance, in World War 2 the Japanese (an honor driven society) often committed suicide instead of surrendering. To them, it was better to die honorably than to live in shame. We probably think that to be a little strange - why commit suicide for honor? How is honor worth dying for?

But let's try to put the situation into something more like our context. Let's take a Christian in Germany during World War 2. Our Christian, instead of killing Jews, stands up against the Nazis and is killed. To us, this makes perfect sense to us. People should stand up for what's right - they should be willing to die for what's right. To an Arab, this probably wouldn't make sense. If everyone in your society is doing something - if the honorable thing to do is fight for your country - then you should fight as well.

It's important to realize that this isn't a matter of right and wrong. It's not that our culture that values justice is "better" than a culture that values honor - they are just different. It's not as if Christianity was only built for one culture, it should be universally applicable - we just may not know quite how to apply it. God addresses all our needs - from our need for justice and fulfillment of the law to our need for honor and community.