Cross culture experience
On the 4th of November 2016, I invited a friend who was from a different culture (Muslim) than mine to come and spend a short while at our home. Fortunately, the invited guest tagged his female friend along, and we spent about two hours engaging in various activities including discussions and prayers. I asked my guests to fill out an appendix and compared their cultural values with mine. The visit was a perfect opportunity for us to make new friends since we had only met twice at school. This report will explain into details all the events that took place during my new friends’ visit.
After having a series of discussions about various issues that mostly affected both the Christian and Muslim youths, I had many impressions of my friend;s cultural practices. I realized that both Christian and Muslim values are the same despite the fact that Christians are split into numerous Christian unions. The things that are considered morally upright in my culture are also considered the same by my friend;s culture. The things that seemed immoral according to my culture were also the same in my friends’ cultures. Thus, it is clear that religious values are not compromised regardless of whichever faith one believes.
Cross cultural issues examples
However, we all discovered that our cultural practices seemed a little different despite that the similarities outshined the differences. As I dug into my friend’s culture, I realized that their tradition allowed a man to marry more than one wife while my culture limited a man to only one wife. This was a complex scenario since Christian values also state that polygamy is a sin before the highest and mighty. I got an impression that the men from the Muslim community were unaware of the Christian values and required detailed explanations about the biblical teachings on marital issues. I also noted that my friends had a cultural name for their God (Allah) and it was different from the name we had for Him (Yehovah) in our culture. However, we both served a similar God except that our cultures had gifted Him with two different names.
I got to learn a lot of important things about how Muslim and Christian practices shape our perspectives. It was surprising to find out that Muslims engage in the practice of polygamy. People mixed religious values with their cultural values to fit their lifestyles without knowing that some of these practices contradict the religious teachings. From the Perspectives on the World Christian Movements, I managed to relate numerous biblical teachings to this meeting. First, I established that Muslim and Christian values are all the same, but people choose to alter them to suit their personal objectives. Secondly, after praying for each other; I realized that we all mentioned Christ and Allah in our prayers meaning that we all believed in the existence of God and His son. Christian history is designed and written in immeasurable God’s power, and we as humans cannot change the plans that God has for us. Our striking perspectives and determinations as Christians illuminate the unchanging God;s promises thus making us the vessels and servants of the Lord. We are therefore obligated to fulfill God;s wishes here on earth and lead righteous lives for us to inherit the kingdom of God. As Christians, we should frequently pray as it strengthens our faith in the Lord and is the best way to converse with God.
