The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
Several years ago when I was in Afghanistan I noticed that families would spend all day preparing enormous amounts of food that cost them nearly a month's wages in order to entertain guests for an evening. All other commitments were canceled so that every female family member could give all she had to preparing for the visit. The hosts were stressed, exhausted, and clearly put out, so I asked, "Why don't you just do a pot luck, you know, where everyone brings a dish to share, so that..."
Before I even finished my thought I was interrupted by a chorus of gasps and protests from women so horrified that you might think I had recommended killing the guests in order to save energy and expense. As it turned out, in Persian cultures (and in many other cultures), it is an outrage to ask a guest to bring food. Such a despicable offense would bring great shame to any family who even contemplated making such a request.
In my travels to more than 25 countries on five continents, I've seen that it is not unusual to encounter wildly distinct values among different cultures.1 In many cases, like the situation above, these differences carry little, if any, serious moral significance, but in others, there are grave implications.
For example, in parts of Afghanistan when a woman or girl is raped, her male family members have the responsibility of killing her in order to gain back their family honor. They don't kill the man who committed the crime of rape, but rather they kill the woman who "allowed herself to be violated" by being "too provocative" for men to resist her (even in her full burqa!). Calling the police and going through the judicial system would bring great shame on the family; however, carrying out "justice" on one's own restores the family honor and demonstrates a commitment to righteousness.
Similarly, in many Arab nations, it is considered shameful to turn the other cheek and forgive when offended; rather, it is honorable to retaliate and to give one's enemies what they deserve. Among Arabs, some of the most offensive teachings of the Bible are that God humbled himself to become a man and that he died a death of humiliation, but they are generally quick to affirm and embrace God's judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Canaanites, and anyone who rejects God or His law. Interestingly, many of my Arab friends are disturbed to hear that God waited 400 years before judging the Canaanites; they appreciate His judgment but not His extended patience in giving them opportunities to repent.2
In parts of tribal Ethiopia, a boy begins his journey toward manhood when he kills an animal. As he slaughters larger, more powerful, and more intelligent animals, he earns greater and greater respect as a man. The ultimate act of bravery and strength is to take the life of another man, and if he kills enough powerful men he is sure to find himself in a position of leadership and authority among his people.
Many behaviors which are considered abhorrent and even worthy of imprisonment in the West are considered admirable and worthy of promotion in cultures that have not been influenced by Judeo-Christian values. And yet if you and I had been raised in these other cultures, we would likely embrace those values which are so disturbing to us as Americans today.
Though all people have an inborn knowledge of God's moral law,3 the proper expression of God's virtues gets muddled in a world marred by sin. Not only that, but when unrighteous behaviors are celebrated all around us and uprightness is condemned, we (often subconsciously) suppress the truth in favor of our preferred, culturally-informed feelings.4
How, then, can we possibly trust our own feelings and opinions alone to lead us into all goodness and truth? If our sensibilities are so influenced by culture, how can we have unwavering confidence in our individual assessments when it comes to right and wrong, good and bad? When God provides prescriptions or prohibitions through Scripture that don't fit with our postmodern notions of love, justice, goodness, or fairness, how can we possibly insist that we are the ones who have it right? When He acts in ways that don't meet our self-determined values, who are we, as people blighted by sin and blinded by our own cultural contexts, to determine that the God of the universe is deficient?
The prophet Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things".5 Worldwide travel is not necessary in order to see this. Those with small children need only consider the outcome of leaving them to their own machinations, unguided and undisciplined. The rest of us can simply look in the mirror and imagine our lives entirely deprived of the examples and insights of others.
We cannot trust our hearts alone, but we have an infinitely wise and loving Father who has not left us to our own devices. We can trust His God-breathed, authoritative, diverse-yet-unified, holy Scriptures, given to us through men of all walks of life over a period of 1500 years, to be the rock upon which we are to build our lives, even when they don't perfectly coincide with our own personal persuasions.6
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[1] For interesting insight on Western versus African values, read David E. Maranz,
African Friends and Money Matters: Observations from Africa, Second Edition (Dallas: SIL International, 2016).
[2] For more on God's judgment of the Canaanites, see "Did God Command Genocide?" at https://www.laurazpowell.org/2019/06/did-god-command-genocide.html
[3] Romans 2:14-16
[4] Romans 1:18
[5] Jeremiah 17:9
[6] 2 Timothy 3:16; Matthew 7:24-27; for evidence on the reliability of the Bible, see Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2017).
