Direction of Book

I just want to share what my intentions are for my book. I also spell out the logical basis for goal #1. The order in which the goals are listed are not listed in order of importance. I use some notation from propositional logic.

Goals for book

1. Positive entry point for understanding need to value cultural diversity
2. Adequate defense for objections to exclusive heterosexuality
3. Provide model for what it looks like to embrace cultures on a mass scale
4. Gain principles for embracing cultural diversity mass scale in other contexts besides men and women

[Christian] Why should I value other cultures?

Definition

• Loving other cultures ≡ (loving neighbor culture as their own culture ↔ having paradoxical, loving relationships w/ other cultures )
• Meaning: Loving other cultures means you are loving other cultures as you love your own culture. Loving other cultures also means that you have a paradoxical, loving relationship with the other culture. There is a paradox because you are one with the other cultures but not actually a part of the other culture. Additionally, loving other cultures as your own culture means you will have paradoxically loving relationships w/ other cultures. This will be proven at a later time.

Proposition 1

• Cultures reflect God ∧ cultures loved → (Godly attributes are affirmed ≡ God is glorified)
• Meaning: If cultures reflect God and cultures are loved then God is glorified.
• Note: When we love/affirm/praise cultures we glorify the Godly attributes of a culture and thus glorify God

Proposition 2

• (God should be glorified in every way ∧ Proposition 1) → Cultures should be loved
• Meaning: If God should be glorified in every way and Proposition 1 is true then cultures should be loved

Note

• Embracing your own culture is joining in a collective worship of God. Loving other cultures is an even greater collective worship of God

Book Chapters: Individualistic and Collectivist interpretation of Golden Rule

Ok, so I'm starting to write the book. There is no particular order to my writing of chapters. I'm posting the tentative outline and two very crude "chapters" which correspond to sections 4 and 5 in the outline. I want honest feedback of all sorts (grammatical, theological, logical,etc). I would also like for you to consider what assumptions appear to be made in these chapters so I can see those more clearly. Please respond to this post with assumptions that you see and any sort of feedback. You can email me personally if you wish. Please tell other people about this if you think it would benefit them. I really would like this book to be a community effort. You can obtain PDFs of the outline and the two chapters in the following links:

Outline, version 0.0.1
Loving Neighbor - Individualistic, version 0.0.1
Loving Neighbor - Collectivist, version 0.0.1

The prevalence of homoculturality

We know that heterosexuality is largely dominant across geography, culture and time. We also know that heterosexuality is a form of heteroculturality. Consequently many may conclude that most people are heterocultural in general. This would be far from the truth. In general, homoculturality is dominant across geography, culture and time. It is nearly universal to stick to one's own, "birds of a feather flock together". Genuine value of cultural neighbors has never been a strong point for humanity. Where do we see homoculturality? Whenever we avoid cross-cultural relationships. Whenever we fear those of other cultures. Whenever we have a carelesss attitude towards other cultures. If we are honest with ourselves we find that we do this quite often. We are guilty of homoculturality.

Homoculturality is prevalent among various cultural contexts. There is only one large exception with heterosexuality. Heterosexuals have great insights and understandings in regard to embracing other cultures. The lessons learned from living heterosexual can be applied to other cultural contexts. Heterosexuality should only be the beginning of learning to love our cultural neighbors. We live in a world that is getting smaller and the need to be heterocultual is greater than ever. Heterosexuality can be our hope, inspiration and guide for living heteroculturally in a multicultural world.

Homoculturality is sin

Homoculturality is sin. Homoculturality denies the goodness of God present in all cultures. It is a failure to acknowledge the various ways people collectively glorify different attributes of God's character. To not have a love of other cultures is to not love a part of God's character. Not loving parts of God's character is denial of the full goodness of God. Homoculturality is not just dishonoring of cultures but is dishonoring God. I, you and everyone else is guilty of homoculturality is some area and we have dishonored the God of all creation. We must repent of our sin against God and man. We must seek to have our hearts changed by the power of Christ to learn to love God and thus the cultures of man.

Homocultural

Homocultural (adjective) - that which is marked by homoculturality

Homocultural (noun) - a person that is marked by homoculturality

Homoculturality

Homoculturality - the desire for deep intimate relationships only with those of one's own culture

Reality of cultural diversity between the sexes

There are those who may doubt that there is cultural diversity between men and women. But consider the many experiences of heterosexual men and women who pursue romantic relationships with one another. They come to realize differences between their partner; differences not due to differing personalities. They realize that they have conflict and misunderstanding due to the fact that they belong to two different genders. The man will say, "I don't understand why women [insert appropriate frustration]!" Similarly the woman will say, "Why do men [insert appropriate frustration]?!" When the man confers with his fellow brethren about misunderstanding his female counterpart he finds agreement. The woman will likewise find consensus with her girl friends. Both the man and the woman have discovered the reality of cultural diversity between men and women. This is exactly how we recognize different cultures. Group A interacts with group B. There comes a point where they seem to have conflict or misunderstanding not due to personality differences. Members of group A confer with each other to make sure it's not just individual bias and group B does the same. Upon internal consensus that the other group is "peculiar" in some way, it is known there there exists a cultural difference between the groups.

Let's also consider those beneficial moments when we sit down with the opposite sex to be "educated" on how to relate to them. They will tell us how similar actions are interpreted differently. They will say how communication works differently. They will tell us the importance of the things that they do. They will tell us about the difficulty of understanding our own sex. They are teaching us how to engage in a cross-cultural environment. The types of things that they bring up are the types of things that come up in any cross-cultural interaction. Indeed they are teaching us how to understand the other culture.

What we learn from the opposite sex must be taken to heart. We must be teachable and take a learning posture. Not only do you gain an edge over the competition but you also learn to engage in cross-cultural relationships. The principles you learn from the other sex can help equip you to engage in other kinds of deep, intimate, cross-cultural relationships. They are doing more than teaching you how to win over the opposite sex; they are teaching you how to live heteroculturally!