Culture Shock

When I moved to North Carolina, I was expecting some level of culture shock thanks to warnings from some of my friends who had moved across the country for undergrad. When I arrived here, I was actually suprised to that I was not experiencing much culture shock. What I have come to realize is that the culture of the South is subtlely different than the West coast. Instead of the immediate culture shock that I experienced on Europe Semester when I entered Germany or France and could not speak the language and was overwhelmed by the different history, the culture shock that I am experiencing in this place has hit me piece by piece.

I am learning that my presuppositions from Nevada and California are radically different than the presuppositions that come from growing up in the South. The minor differences caught my attention first.

The South still lives is a semi-Constantinian world, where Christianity can be assumed of almost all of the population. The reality may not hold true to that assumption, but I think it is still made. At any rate, I have seen clearly the differences in a couple of situations. On the bus awhile ago, a man started preaching to the riders. He was telling us that he can disprove any religious book with that same book, and he can disprove the Bible with the rest of the Bible. We dismissed him as crazy and didn't worry much about what he was saying, but that didn't stop him from preaching to us anyway. His message: 1) Song of Solomon says that all women should be lesbians but the books of law command that homosexuality is evil, and 2) Genesis says that they were naked and not ashamed, but the New Testament says to wear clothes, so really shouldn't we all be walking the streets without clothes on? Aside from the fact that Christians read the whole story of scripture and assume that it all fits together into one coherent picture, the very subject of his discourse revealed a difference from back home. At my church in Carson, we have a gentleman who has attended for several years. Any member of the church can tell you the he has lost his mental faculties, and he preaches to us often. The difference is that on the West Coast, he and others like him preach about crop circles and aliens and, for the gentleman in my church, Area 51 and UFO's (it comes with the territory when you live in Nevada).

The second situation was when I went to Wal-Mart with a friend who had to buy flannel sheets. As we walked past the book section, I was astounded to see a large selection of Christian books. The Purpose Driven Life was the focus of a large display in the center aisle. There was a whole row devoted to different types of Bibles and below them a row of different styles of Bible covers. Instead of the magazines and romance novels that you see in a Wal-Mart at home, I felt like I was standing in a Christian bookstore.

Another relatively small difference is the complete lack of education about Mormonism. In a seminar last week, I was privileged to hear one of the theology and ethics professors speak about Designer Babies and Designer families, and a student asked a question about Mormon practices. He wanted to know how her research would interact with the Fundamentalist Mormon practices of the enclaves in Utah and Arizona. In those communities, Fundamentalist Mormons practice polygamy and give birth to many children, sometimes making sure than not a year goes by without a child being born in the family. The professors response was that she wasn't sure it even happened. I can say with certainty that it does. Polygamous Mormon marriages show up in the news from time to time, and Christians have to be educated about Mormonism. I knew that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was a rarity in the east because they had been forced west by legalized persecution; however, I also know that they are focusing on evangelizing the South because my cousin was sent to Georgia for his mission. I suppose the lack of Mormons out here had never crossed my mind, but I am beginning to understand that it actually presents a challenge for evangelism in the West, Southwest and Mountain regions that will not be addressed here. Even the professors do not know much about the Mormon Church.

The last minor difference that I have noticed actually involves Gospel music, and it will serve as a transition to a post for tomorrow that will explain some of the major differences. I have worn my gospel choir shirt for several years at home and at Westmont, and no one thinks a thing about it. Participation in a gospel choir does not mark your stance on any major issue. I underestimated the effect that my shirt would have when I wore it to school here one day though. As I left the Divinity School, two Black (and yes, that is what they want to be called here. Apparently the South doesn't feel the need to be as politically correct as California.) students caught me and asked if I was part of a Gospel Choir. I told them that I had been and continued on my way. As I walked through one of the predominantly Black neighborhoods, students began cheering for me out of school bus windows. I did not understand that participation in a gospel choir is support of the Black community here, as opposed to the racism of another segment of the population.