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Christopher Lirette

CUL 2200 – Introduction to Cultural Studies

Professor Craig Jones

24 June 2021

Assignment 6-3: Anthropology and World Religions Response Paper

Between 2005-2006 I worked briefly at Nayeb’s Mediterranean Restaurant. While

working at Nayeb’s I interacted with more Muslims than I had in my entire life. The moment I

started working there I thought of it as a spiritual battleground. The Muslims were a misguided

people who need Jesus, I thought. Perhaps the Lord put me here to spread the gospel. During my

year or so at that job my thoughts began to alter. Especially when I heard the Muslim cook

Ahmed, who was goading me into an argument, say, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” as he hit the top of

the door with his hands and walked into the kitchen.

For most of my life, up and to and including that point, I thought of religions as

competing systems of truth and “lost” people. I was inwardly dogmatic about this belief as well,

but that moment with Ahmed shook something loose in me. Not that I believe Islam to be an

equal path to God, but an understanding crept in that there was still so much that I did not know

about the heart of individuals and how God creeps into and through other cultures. Eventually I

began to see that Islam had similar issues to Christianity with people who were normal people

with differing devotions to their faith. As I have grown older, I have become less dogmatic, more

confident in the Holy Spirit’s work apart from me, and more understanding of people.

Funny enough I think the glass shattering moment that really opened me up to different

viewpoints as communicating truth was when I became a youth director in small town

predominantly white Texas. My pastor was a Democrat and a man that I held in high regard and
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esteem. When I found out that he was a Democrat, I could just not comprehend that affiliation.

Abortion, to me, was the only political issue worth consideration. But there was no doubting the

spiritual fruit I saw in my pastor. Conversely, the GOP chair of the small town went to our

church and was small-minded and had an axe to grind.

Couple all of this change with the 2012 election, where I saw Ron Paul booed after

quoting Scripture to defend a non-interventionist foreign policy on stage in South Carolina for

the GOP primary and I was totally thrown through a loop. Since that election, my ideas about

faith and politics were challenged in strong ways. But all of this, including more recent history

since 2016, has been progressively opening up my heart and mind to other viewpoints in a way

that I would have shut down in the past.

All that to say that my perspective has already been in a state of flux for a while now.

This class and this week’s reading have exposed me to ways of thinking that I have not

considered before and have continued the process of changing my perspective. Duane Elmers

talks about the process I went through at Nayebs when he says getting to know 2-3 local people

can breakdown prejudices, generate positivity with them, provide friends, and help to understand

things from their perspective (Elmers 135). While the focus of our coursework has been on

different ethnicities or cultures from a different country, I believe the wisdom is appropriate for

anybody who thinks differently from us.

In regards to the specific question of how Elmers, Howell, Paris, and Geertz have

changed my perspectives regarding religion? I have to say I have never thought about religion

from the perspective they shared and am challenged by it. In the end though I agree with them.

None of these authors are saying that a specific religion is true or that a Christian has to accept it

as true. The general jist of all of the readings is to understand why people believe what they
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believe. “Anthropology analyzes religion as a cultural system and offers holistic interpretations

of how people incorporate religion into their lives… Anthropological analysis reveals how the

image of God, present in every human being, drives people everywhere to seek God” (Howell

209). In short, openness/understanding does not mean that one is affirming or adopting said

belief. Instead, this process is part of loving our neighbor and can assist the Christian in loving

their neighbors better.

Geertz’s questions help to flesh out this line of thinking about openness and

understanding with questions like: what is religion looking at (Geertz 2), what is religion looking

for (Geertz 2), what is religion (Geertz 4), or what do we talk about when we talk about religion

(Geertz 5). To that end the authors have helped to change my perspective regarding religions. I

have thought about religion's impact on culture but never the inverse. Or, how religion and

culture commingle and create something new. In a way it’s like salt. Sodium in and of itself is a

highly reactive metal. Chorine is a highly poisonous and corrosive. When they come together the

two parts become something entirely new: salt. Ultimately it cannot hurt my faith to understand a

different religion or culture’s perspective, it can only help me understand and communicate the

gospel more clearly within their contexts.

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Works Cited

Elmer, Duane. Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility.

InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL. 2006. Kindle Edition.

Howell, Brian M and Jenell Paris. Introducing Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective,

2nd Edition. Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, MI. 2019. Kindle Edition.

Geertz, Clifford. “Shifting Aims, Moving Targets: On the Anthropology of Religion.” The

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 11, no. 1, Mar. 2005, pp. 1–15.