This narrowness is often displayed by the fact that our textbooks are full of pictures of  young students dressed in the laquiz styles, engaged in the trendy recreations, and, of course, all the exact same age as the students the books are written for.  All of these accommodations give the students the impression that “everyone is just like me.” If we give them an education that reinforces their sense that indeed there is nothing beyond their current horizons, we can be sure they will spare the pains entailed in setting forth to see for themselves.  When we allow them to listen to “Jars of Clay” while doing their math homework, ask them to compare and contrast the two versions of Star Wars for their composition exercise and then give them the biography of Orel Hershiser for their reading, we are simply insuring that our students will be ill-equipped to deal with any mental challenges that do not come pre-packaged in a contemporary cultural context.

How can we train up children who will not be bound to their immediate cultures, but free to move among other cultures without being plagued by the usual “culture-shock?”  Even though education should not teach us to look down upon our own culture, it should give us the ability to step outside it and be free to critique it.  Children need to be given many opportunities to venture beyond their habitual mental ruts and taste of the broad world that is theirs to explore.  Without the fresh air and strong winds that such experience affords, they will never develop the mental strength required to grasp the complicated delights cosmopolitan culture offers.

Modern champions of “multi-culturalism” have attempted to prepare students to respect differing cultures by exposing them to various beliefs and practices found in other cultures.  By having students celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Kwanzaa, it is thought they will gain the ability to appreciate the richness of life that is available beyond our own immediate culture.  However, most of these efforts are fairly ineffective because mere exposure rarely produces true respect.  In order to pull a child out of his myopic devotion to the present and immediate, he needs to be shown that there are ideas from other times and peoples that speak to him of truths that are actually profound and exciting.  He will not find this in works that he is presented with simply as an exercise in cultural diversity; rather, he need to put his mind upon literature and artistic works that were created to address themes that have universal rather than simply time-bound significance.  Because it is possible to write in such a manner that one can address those questions that are universally and fundamentaly human, there can be such a thing as a “great book.”  A great book does not need to demand that one respect it because of some bogus literary affirmative action program; rather it brings its own persuasive powers.  A great book can stand of it own outside the claims of tribal respect.  In fact, great literature often debunks the respect for the tribe that multi-cultural pundits propound.

Books provide us with the quickest and cheapest means of escaping 2002.   Books not only force us to learn to see the world through the spectacles of another time, but they also take us to many other cultures that are often radically different from our own.  Every culture has its great literature with enduring worth and anyone who is well studied in the great literature of one will find making themselves at home in the literature of another all the easier.  Good literature should teach us to think beyond our immediate culture.  Indeed, to be truly Christian, it is essential that we learn to detach ourselves from the truth-claims that our immediate culture presses upon us.  Not being able to distinguish what is merely cultural from what is truly universally will be disastrous for our attempts to preach the gospel cross-culturally.  A Christian mind that is not practiced in the skills necessary to discern the difference between culture-bound Christianity and the fundamental truths of the faith is ill-suited to effectively share the gospel with those from other cultures.   As missionaries of Christ, we must be able to separate what is fundamental from what is simply cultural accessory.

The temptations to stick in the pop-cultural rut cannot be overcome without the aid of high-culture.  We do have a culture-shaped vacuum in our souls that will be filled with some aesthetic.  If we desire to raise up children who can move outside their culture, we will do well to raise them up on a literary diet that continually forces them to fill themselves with what is universal rather than narrowly contemporary. 


 

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