Mainstream History: Really Just a Lot of Nonmainstream Histories

          In Intercultural Communication in Contexts, authors Martin and Nakayama point out that “the development of cultural identity is influenced largely by history” (Martin & Nakayama, 2013, p. 139).  Indeed, someone who is truly invested in an aspect of their cultural identity is bound to check the history books as their first action.  For example, I knew a pair of twin women who had been adopted out of South Korea.  Towards the end of high school, they both took a greater interest in their heritage as Koreans—they were accepting it into their cultural identity.  One of the first things they began to study was the history of Korea.  The history of a culture is a huge foundation upon which its current behaviors and attitude are built.

          History, as an umbrella term, can only touch the tip of the iceberg that is culture.  To better dissect a culture, we must shift from History to Histories, understanding that the grand narrative we have formed is actually formed from several different perspectives and histories coming together (Martin & Nakayama, 2013).

          For example, consider the religious cultural identity that is Christianity.  Its history tells quite a story, from its humble beginnings as a sect of Judaism (indeed, once upon a time the “Christian History” was one of the many “Jewish Histories”) to the Crusades, to its role in modern politics.  But, Christian History is made up of several different histories, some of them mainstream and some of them not.  We have Catholic history and Protestant history, each denomination holding its own idea of the importance of various biblical stories.  Then, there’s also the history of gay Christians, or black Christians.  With influence all over the world, it is only natural that Christianity as a cultural identifier must incorporate thousands of histories.

In the mainstream history of Christianity, many Christians are hotly divided on the issue of same-sex marriage.  Many churches urge tolerance and acceptance, while many others vehemently oppose the idea, even going so far as to create a website with the URL “godhatesfags”.

          Recently, a new pope was chosen at the Vatican.  Pope Francis has proven to be far more liberal than his predecessor, to the point that some of his words confuse non-Catholics (and many Catholics).  In the words of Edward Morissey, “The gentle pastor of the Vatican has made Catholicism cool again”, and Francis’ ideas have the world intrigued (Morissey, 2013).  This is an interesting time in Christian history, because the current Pope is not actually saying anything outside of the Catholic doctrine, but rather saying it in very different ways than the world seems to be used to.  Pope Francis says that he is in no place to judge homosexuals, but in today’s political climate, opposition to same-sex marriage is easily riled into thinking that somehow the Pope has given a full blessing to the idea (Morissey, 2013).

          I personally believe that a lot of people discussing the issue today could stand to take a deep breath and think about the issue.  Many times, we pick and choose the pieces of history that most suit our worldview, completely ignoring something that could well be critically important.  A lot of doctrines within Christianity are blindly embraced without consideration of some of their core concepts.  I think that looking at the history of the Bible itself, and the growth of Christianity throughout its various histories can bring the issue to a proper equilibrium, and stop some of the turmoil.

References

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 

[Photograph].  Retrieved September 26, 2013, from:
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-7-catholic-sacraments-definition-history-quiz.html

Morissey, E. (2013).  “The media's mind-boggling failure to understand Pope Francis”.    Retrieved September 26, 2013 from:  http://theweek.com/article/index/250062/the-medias-mind-boggling-failure-to-understand-pope-francis