Do Missonaries Destroy Culutre?

Religion is part of a culture but it does not define a culture. Other factors such as, geographical location, how people interact with each other, and language(written and spoken) make up a culture. When one is converted over to Christianity one must abandon those beliefs that conflict with Bible and what God says. You cannot say that missionaries destroy the culture as a whole because factors such as I listed above, except maybe human interaction(cannibalism betrayal etc.), can still remain intact because they do not conflict with the Christian religion. Parts of the culture ARE and MUST be destroyed IF one accepts Christianity. Primitive cultures have the right to reject Christianity, be hostile against missionaries and retain all elements of their culture. Yes, there are cases in which missionaries have vehemently forced people to follow Christianity. People also use God and the Bible as a reason to justify their actions of evil. Do not judge God by what you see in people who claim to be Christian, if you want to know who God is read the Bible or pray. First of all most people who say they are Christian are in fact not, they just think they are. I'm not saying I'm a very good Christian in fact I consider my faith to quite small to others I know. The point I'm trying to get across is that men distort the message of Christ because they are sinful. To truly understand Christianity you need to look past the Christians on this earth and look to God for understanding. Christians try and point people towards God and in doing so parts of a culture CAN be destroyed. If a person is converted to Christianity elements of their culture WILL be destroyed.

How does Faith relate to the world in which we live?
Faith relates to people in many different ways. Faiths were created by different cultures by people with different ideas of the way one should live his/her life and an explanation of how, what, or who created the universe. For some, faith is something for someone to believe for the sake of believing in something, they are lost and want to have purpose in life, they want to believe in a metaphysical being or a set of ideals that guide them through life. They sift the world's many religions and find one that fits them the best. These kinds of people are the “Seekers of Truth” and sleep better at night knowing that they believe in something. Another group of people the “Seekers of Pleasure” say that they don't have faith or believe in anything, the world exists because it always has and when you die you die. They look upon others with faith as weaklings that need a crutch to lean because they can't get through life by themselves. These “Seekers of Pleasure” live life for themselves and chase after the next high. The third group the “Seekers of Nothing” have a very small amount of faith that only consists of the belief of a metaphysical being that created and manages the world. However, they do not seek after that being nor acknowledge that that particular metaphysical being belongs to one of the faiths of the world, they create their own set of ideals to live their life by. These are the three main ways faith relates to people in the world. There are “Seekers of Truth”, “Seekers of Pleasure”, and “Seekers of Nothing”.

First Entry

What factors of your native culture have informed your religious world view? Explain the impact of these factors

I find that my native culture is American however I am a third culture kid so my religious world view may be more broad than that of a "native" American. I have gone to church my whole life and gone to school in private Christians schools my whole life. I believe in a less legalistic Christian life party due to my high level of inconsistency with following rules and guidelines, and doing homework. I was never considered "close minded" or "sheltered" despite the strong Christian influence. This is partly because I lived in America and was exposed to many different cultures and religious world views. This helped me to understand many different world views and upon moving to Korea I had no problem understanding the culture but I tend not to accept it most of the time. This is mostly how I am with Christianity I believe that is the one true and only religion and understand what it is but I have lots of trouble with acceptance.