In our Western, individualistic culture, we take high priority on the well-being of the individual. Let’s call this the “me culture”. Well of course we do! Taking care of yourself is an essential part in nurturing the soul! When you are at peace with yourself, chances are, you are likely to spread that to others. However, like anything else, self-care has an extreme in the form of the vice, arrogance also known as pride. This is one of the things that I continue to struggle to keep in check (more on my struggles later). As Pastor Morgan Stevens, the head pastor of my church at my church at Mosaic Church Austin said one Sunday:
“Pride is the sin you never see coming”.
Compare pride to the other deadly sins:
Greed can be interpreted as the love of money. We need it to survive as a universal tool representing monetary worth. It is not the be all, end all. Wrath we can feel building up and then releasing unjust anger. Envy is wanting to horde what is not yours. Lust can be detouring by diverting our eyes and imaginations. Gluttony comes with consuming to extremes. Sloth can be avoided by staying productive. Pride however, sneaks up on us when we at least expect it. Living in this “me culture” one can imagine how easy it is to call into this spiral of inadequacy by comparing oneself to an internet celebrity which then can turn to inward selfishness chasing that high peak at all cost. Especially for men, we have this need to feel competent, self-reliant, and desired. Therefore when any of those are perceived as threatened, we often deflect of blame instead of owning the responsibility. All to say, I read a lot of books in 2022, and those readings helped me reflect on what I had learned in Japan years ago: I’m actually not as important as I think.
One of these books was A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in Cataclysm of 1914-1918, a biography by Joseph Loconte (2015). As a long time admirer of Tolkien’s fiction and Lewis’ theology, I was naturally excited to dig into this read. One of my biggest takeaways relevant towards my revelation was when Lovonte talked about how Professor Tolkien’s experiences fighting in The Great War (World War I) and experiencing World War II informed The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Loconte talks about how each character had a part to play in the greater narrative of defeating Sauron and the forces of Mordor, no matter how small it may have seemed in the moment. Think about it: because two halflings (is that racist?) aka hobbits, Merry and Pippin, inspired the Ents to fight, Isengard, Sauron’s stronghold in the west, was taken out of the war. And Because Isengard fell, Rohan survived and was then able to aid Gondor in the Battle of Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King. Furthermore, Loconte claims that actions of the hobbits reflects what Tolkien saw: the actions of everyday men (and women) helping the Allies eventually achieve victory on the Eastern front. Countless soldiers died in achieving that goal. In The Lord of the Rings, countless men died by the orks, fellbeasts, and war hardened trolls in fulfilling their vows to protect their homes from evil. So for the story of my life, I am not long lost king of a great nation, nor does the defeat of evil in the world rest on me completing my quest. I am just the average soldier at Minas Tirith doing my part. What a relief!
Edit: And how could I forget about one of the best characters in the trilogy: Samwise Gamgee. Who, according to Loconte, represents the best of the soldiers Tolkien served with; a person who becomes a true friend through hardship, a friend who’s selfless loyalty I can truly appreciate now as an adult.
I take comfort knowing that God has a plan much bigger plan than I could ever imagine. My part in turn is to fulfill my vows I had publicly sworn to my high king at Wakayama Beach in 2018 with my adult baptism. But what are my vows exactly?
The next book I will be discussing will be from American social psychologist Dr. Jonathan Haidt: The Righteous Mind (2012). Haidt explores his ideas that human beings are both selfish and at the same time, group minded creatures. Or as he put it in The Righteous Mind, “we [human beings] are 90% chimp [the selfish] and 10% bee [the group conscious]”. What he means by this is that not all all the decisions we make are solely for individual gain. Haidt claims that we as a species could not have possibly survived the harsh and brutal evolutionary process if we only made decisions only thinking about ourselves. Why? Because we needed (and still do) need communities in order to survive.
The lone wolf is a myth. Even they are pack animals.
Rather, we partially do what we do is partially because we feel connected to other people through common group identity. If that is true, then the idea that all of humanity being united under neutral values and diverse cultures is never going to happen. As a matter of fact, Dr. Haidt says counter to our current cultural aspirations, group diversity is a detriment rather than an asset. How can any organization at the same time celebrate how different people are from one another and simultaneously try to unite that same group of people under a common goal? A new culture must be captivated. One of my vows is recognize my role in the group.
As Dr. Haidt had observed, people will look upon another person more favorably with something is simple as having the same birthday, or as strong as common ethnic and/or religion. In his words the United States of America is a W.I.E.R.D. society: Western Industrialized Educated Rich and Democratic which and others set us and others like us apart from other nations across time and space. In our W.I.E.R.D. society, we exhibit this group behavior at the ballot boxes where it is technically our individual right to partake, but Dr. Haidt claimed that people also consider how their vote could affect the group(s) they align with. Upon reflection, I realized that my kinship with people who share my values is far stronger than any other identity that I have. This realization took me back to my time living in Japan, a “we culture”. When I was a member of the group Black Creatives Japan, I was in contact with some very interesting people. However, I had discovered that even though most of us had the common identity of American expats, I often found myself disagreeing with many members on a number of occasions including interpreting world events as well as social priorities. On the other hand, despite being one of the only black Americans in the congregation, I had much more common ground with my fellow Christians. There at Lifehouse Osaka, we often agreed upon what is good, beautiful and true and how we are to present ourselves in public as members of this group. I was also given a series of roles to play in service to my group and they absolutely made a difference. To my knowledge, and as far as Christianity in Japan goes, only established Catholic churches get property tax exemptions. Therefore my monthly tithes (10% of my income) helped keep Lifehouse’s doors open. My presence on security team helped members and non-members alike feel safe. I was then told years after I had left that socially I was the glue keeping certain groups together. So I must use my gifts to protect the group.
So coming back to the United States, I am still feeling my way back into defined roles, ones that I plan to execute to the best of my ability. Dr. Haidt also introduced me to the Moral Foundations Theory made of these six:
- care/harm
- fairness/cheating
- loyalty/betrayal
- authority/ subversion
- sanctity/ degradation
- liberty/ oppression
Dr. Haidt claimed that most liberals (left-wing) people are strong in the care and liberty foundations while conservatives (right-wing) people touch on all six foundations, but tend to be weaker on the care and liberty foundations. This once again proves that both sides need each other for a healthy society, but again, another discussion for another time. I suppose given Dr. Haidt’s descriptions of the foundations and their implications, it seems that I align more with the conservatives, specifically the loyalty foundation. Remembering my church experiences in Japan highlighted how much Japanese culture emphasizes these four moral foundations: care, loyalty, authority, and sanctity. Japanese people are generally very polite towards their own and foreigners alike. The language is structured around respect for superiors, and even as a cultural practice, they exalt their Shinto-Buddhist hybrid cultural institutions. And personally, the loyalty foundation reminded me of how much the church relied on members like me to function. So being here in the United States, Mosaic Church does not rely on my contributions to stay open. However, this church has been good to me ever since it reopened its doors. This church allowed me to meet my best friends in this town. This church has also been supporting causes that I strongly agree with. So here I am: I am just the average soldier at Minas Tirith just doing my part. I still don’t know all the details of the big plan, but merely fulfilling my vows fill me with both contentment and expectancy.
All of this to say, I know as an individual I absolutely matter. I was already known and loved by God in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139: 15-16). The other side extreme of this “me culture” in the West is the “we culture” I had experienced in Japan. While member participation is a strength in Japan, one of its weaknesses and is often times a huge hurdle for (protestant) Christians in the “we culture” to talk directly with God. They say that they feel that they are “bothering God with their small problems”. The extreme of the “we culture” is personal neglect in the form of Karoshi (過労死) or death by overwork. Literally working yourself to death for the sake of the group, in this case, the corporation. That would be a rare case in a WIERD culture. As a matter of fact, we would more likely rob or own work places, fabricate time off, or leave work essential work unfinished. Back to WEIRD Christian culture, we know that we can always approach God with a clean heart and tell Him our troubles. At the same time, because we chiefly think on an individual level, average church participation is very low as well as inconsistent. The answer of course lies in the Good Book where we our individual responsibilities to God are primarily highlighted in the four canonical Gospels, while, our group responsibilities are constantly shown in the epistles of St. Paul and the Old Testament. I hope that this blog post comes in good timing. Now that I am in the eye of the storm in my professional life, I am looking to be more consistent in my blog posting (boy that sounds familiar, hey?), but this time, it is for real. Now we are talking about how developing healthy habits are essential to my defeating my most powerful cardinal vice: lust.
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