PERSONAL CULTURE AND WORLDVIEW 1
Personal Culture and Worldview Assignment
Tavara Richard
School of Behavioral Sciences, Liberty University
PERSONAL CULTURE AND WORLDVIEW 2
In this paper on personal culture and worldview, I will define or discuss culture and how
its different aspects influence our everyday lives, as in how we see ourselves and others. Our
foundation of who we are starts at an early age as we emulate the people most like us, which
usually starts with our parents. I will also examine how faith and culture relate and how different
present-day issues affect my worldview.
Defining Culture
“The sum total of the attainments and activities of any specific period, race, or people;
civilization: the culture of the ancient Greeks,” is how The New International Webster’s
Dictionary Thesaurus & Atlas (2006) defines culture. And, whereas McKelvie and Pappas (2021)
define culture as the “characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people,
encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music, and arts.” Although it is
mentioned in Chatraw and Prior (2019, p. 23) that culture is “notoriously” hard to define, they
look at culture as being or having three dimensions in which most Christians are unaware of
when they are gung-ho about interacting with “it” but genuinely do not know what “it” is. The
first dimension includes “formal ideas and worldviews that are directly articulated and passed on
to others, the second includes precognitive assumptions which are passed on and inherited,
thirdly through the social and physical dimensions of life” (Chatraw & Prior, 2019, p. 23).
Chatraw and Prior (2019) also note four other definitions of culture in chapter one from Ken
Meyers, Terry Eagleton, Clifford Geertz, and Kevin Vanhoozer. Although each has its own
wording, all four are similar in describing culture as multifaceted, shared, and encompassed of
worldviews. Suppose I was to define my culture as described in the overview instructions. In that
case, I am a Black or African American, English-speaking heterosexual female born and raised in
the United States, and my denomination is Baptist. Although I already know who I am, to see it
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in writing (and these are not all the defining words I can use to identify my culture), I am like,
wow!
Faith and Culture
Culture was defined in the previous section of this paper. Now let us look at faith. So
what is faith? Faith is “belief without evidence. Confidence, trust, belief in God, the Bible, etc., a
specific religion” (The New International Webster’s Dictionary Thesaurus & Atlas, 2006).
Hebrews11:1 identifies faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen” (New King James Version, 2013).
I attended a private Christian school for nine years, from kindergarten to
seventh grade, and now I attend a Christian-based university. So, religion was and still is a very
significant part of my life. I learned from an early age to believe and trust in God and that prayer
was our connection to God. As an adult trusting and having faith in God has gotten me through
many trials and heartaches, and I would not be where I am today without Him. I may even
question and become angry with God. However, I serve an understanding God. Furthermore, as
long as I have faith as a grain of mustard seed, all is not lost. Another way I know that God is
good, my faith is strong, and that prayer works is because I am back in school. I received my
bachelor’s degree 23 years ago, and I struggled. So, I prayed and asked God to guide me because
I was thinking about school again. He guided me through my online search to the end because I
had given up before. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven,”
Ecclesiastes 3:1. And “the L is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. ORD
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the L ” Lamentations ORD
3:25-26 (New King James Version, 2013). God knew I was not ready when I did not follow
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through on my prior attempts to start school. I am now here through His grace, mercy, and
perfect timing.
Contemporary Issues
Suppose you want to know what contemporary issues are simply. In that case, they are
any modern-day trend, event, idea, or topic involving a subject that is relevant to people and
affects them somehow (“What are contemporary issues,” 2021). Chapters four through twelve in
Chatraw and Prior’s (2019) book discuss a variety of the top unsolved Cultural Engagement
issues in our current lives. Some can be useful and unifying, and others conflict-ridden. I will
explore three of the fifteen contemporary issues that I found relevant.
The first issue I chose to discuss is sexuality, chapter four of the book. The chapter
consists of seven essays, each with its own stance on sexuality. I will address a few of them.
Todd Wilson talks about the binary aspects of sexuality: there are only two genders, male and
female, as stated in Genesis 1:27, “God created man in His own image; in the image of God, He
created him; male and female He created them” (New King James Version, 2013). Robert
Gagnon's (2019) essay spoke on the need for the male-female relationship regarding marriage. I
passionately believe in the male-female relationship, in sex, and in marriage. I am not perfect by
any means, sin is a sin, but a same-sex relationship is a sin I will not commit. The last two essays
in chapter four speak on gender dysphoria, which is “the distressed condition of someone who
feels that their body’s biological sex does not match their true gender” (Chatraw & Prior, 2019,
p. 90). Matthew Mason (2019) looks at it from a theological perspective. And Mark Yarhouse
and Julia Sadusky (2019) examine the issue from a psychological standpoint. I do feel that God
does not make mistakes, but I also know that people suffer from congenital disabilities and
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psychological disorders. However, if we ask God to walk with us, we can overcome anything
that is not His will.
The next worldview issue I want to discuss is abortion. It scares me now to think that
women may again start resorting to drastic unsafe measures to discard an unwanted pregnancy
due to the reversal of Roe vs. Wade. Yes, I believe in God, but I feel that women have the right to
decide what to do with their bodies. Who are we to judge? We will all answer to God one day. I
also see the point Karen Swallow Prior (2019) makes about using the word/term murder to
describe women thinking of getting an abortion and the word/term murdered if they have had an
abortion. It is harsh. However, Kenneth Magnuson (2019) agrees with Prior (2019) that abortion
is wrong, but it still needs to be seen as harsh but addressed with compassion.
Immigration is another issue I want to address. We should not treat people like cattle,
sheep, etc. This is precisely how I felt when my governor herded two plane loads of migrants
when he flew them from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard to keep them out of Florida to prove a
point. I understand that the laws that are in place concerning immigration are not enforced as
they should, which is something Joshua D. Chatraw (2019) pointed out in his essay. Yes, we
should be wary of who comes into the country to protect our citizens, but the inhumane treatment
of God’s people is unacceptable. “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not
mistreat him,” Leviticus 19:33 (New King James Version, 2013). Y. Liz Dong and Ben Lowe’s
(2019) essay reminds us that most of us are foreigners/sojourners to the United States in one
form or another. “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly
entertained angels,” Hebrew 13:2 (New King James Version, 2013).
Conclusion
There are so many issues in the world that we as people can become culturally engaged
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in. Becoming culturally engaged creates an environment of meaningful interactions among
others as well as strengthening a sense of self. We are a land of a richly diverse mix of people in
which God commands us to love them as we love ourselves, that no one is better than the other.
However, of course, that does not always happen. As in the three contemporary issues I
discussed, we continue to judge one another because of our different beliefs. I enjoyed reading
our textbook. It highlighted most, if not all, the contemporary issues that are going on in today’s
society. We as a society may be affected by only a few of the issues personally, so I learned a lot
reading about the different issues and views each essay presented.
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References
Chatraw, J. D., & Pryor, K. S. (2019). Cultural engagement: A crash course in contemporary
issues. Steve Laube Agency and McGregor Literary Inc.
McKelvie, C., & Pappas, S. (2021). What is culture? Live Science.
https://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.html#section-
western-culture
New King James Version Gift & Award Bible, (2103). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
The New International Webster’s Dictionary Thesaurus & Atlas. (2006). Naples, FL: Trident
Reference Publishing.
What are contemporary issues? (2021 May 10). Reference. https://www.reference.com/world-
view/contemporary-issues-b4aa8e48930f1bcf
