Learning to Honor Culture
Our family went to see Queen of Katwe last night. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.The story is beautiful, honest, inspiring, and true. Take a look at the trailer ...[embed]https://youtu.be/z4l3-_yub5A[/embed]One of the things I love most about the film is that it honors culture. Not only does it depict the beauty of the land, but the heroes of the story are Africans.
Harriet Naku is a fierce mom who displays raw and determined love for her children. She fights for them, provides for them, and ultimately releases them so that they can grow and become who God created them to be.
Robert Katende climbed out of the slums of Kampala, Uganda attending university with his degree in engineering. Out of college he began working for a Christian ministry, Sports Outreach teaching soccer and chess to kids in the slums. He refuses a position as an engineer choosing to stay in ministry and invest in children who faced the same tragedies he had face. He is still working with Sports Outreach.
Phiona Mutesi lost her father to HIV/AIDS when she was only 3 and dropped out of school when she was only 6 years old because her mother could no longer pay school fees. She followed her brother to Sports Outreach where Robert Katende was teaching kids to play chess. It was there that she was introduced to the game that would change her life.
This is rare. Most of the time, the heroes of stories that make it to film are white westerners who identify a need and come in to save the day. This is changing, and its for the better. We are learning to honor culture.Although there are plenty of books on the subject, this is one of my favorites:
With RiverCross, we are working hard to grow a ministry that honors culture. This week we are laying the groundwork for a project that embodies this value.Kathy Buchanan and Marshal Younger are coming to town to dream about an audio drama, like Adventures in Odyssey. But instead of Whit being the fount of wisdom, an African woman will be the one to shine light and show beauty. Instead of Eugene, Connie, and all the rest, the children will be street kids, and orphans, children impacted by war... And while we won't shy away from the brutal realities, we will address the realities through a lens of hope.Learning to honor culture. I'm not going to pretend that we're doing this perfectly, but we're trying.So have you seen Queen of Katwe? What did you think? And what do you think the Bible has to do say about honoring culture? And how are you learning to honor culture?