What Living in an Honor/Shame Culture Taught Me About the Gospel: Dr. Brad Vaughn

Brad Vaughn is a theologian in residence with Global Training Network and marketing manager for William Carey Publishing. He lived and worked in East Asia for almost two decades, teaching theology and missiology for Chinese pastors. He serves on the Asian/Asian-American Theology steering committee of the Evangelical Theological Society and is the author of Saving God's Face, One Gospel for All Nations, Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes, Seeking God's Face, and The Cross in Context. You can find his articles and resources at savinggodsface.com.
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[@LloydsofRochester]

Jackson, as a Third Culture Kid, I can say l you are a Third Culture Person and you are struggling with reverse culture shock.
There was actually a professor from SUNY Geneseo (now deceased) who went to one of my foreign boarding school's American get-togethers and did a presentation on the topic. It was enlightening and it helped us all immensely! I would love to have a conversation with you.
(I have learned to make it known that I am not American by culture. It's sort of helps, because it confuses them, and at least it gives others an understanding that their way of seeing the world is not the only one. I actually started borrowing/using certain cultural phrases in order to deal with certain difficult people. Don't know if it's right or it's wrong, but that's what I've done.)
In fact, a lot of my classmates would. The ones that are relatively geographically close to me I see occasionally, otherwise we communicate online. None of us have ever completely made the transition.
It's why we tolerate a lot of differences amongst each other and are careful not to burn any bridges because we're like a small family. It's not the only group that I'm part of that does the same thing. It's another foreign location where my dad worked and we lived for a while.

[@brittanybradley5389]

This was a really interesting conversation, I love hearing about ways of thinking about our faith that don't come from a primarily western paradigm.

[@Christopher_Lind]

It’s ironic that it sounds like most of the heat came from people who have no skin in the game, but it’s not uncommon it the current culture. Mad respect for your gentle and loving response to the whole situation Brad. “Jesus won’t cancel me.” Amen brother.

[@labsquadmedia176]

58:30 reminded me of Joseph Hellerman's "When the Church was a Family"

[@biddiemutter3481]

I am so sorry that someone's thoughtlessness has caused so much harm, and the lack of consideration for others is sad particularly from the church. What we say and do have consequences.

[@labsquadmedia176]

Dr. Sprinkle's comments at 59:30 and on remind me of the similar issue with Muslim's who come to faith. Often times churches are not prepared to become the new family and intense community that this person experienced. American radical individualism (as opposed to the integrated individualism of the gospel) has good things to learn from deeply connected communities or from the global church that understands this dynamic of a new belonging.
In "When the Church was a Family" (Hellerman), recounts a story from the 2/3rd century church in which a young actor becomes a believer and must quit his job since it was associated with pagan idolatry and sexual immorality. The new believer suggested that he might be able to teach acting instead. The bishop of his local church appeals to another community for advice and they agree that since acting is itself sinful for the young man to do, he cannot help others into corruption. The other bishop agrees that if the young man's church can't afford to support him, their church will chip in so that he can live free of temptation to return to acting because of poverty and hunger.

[@joemisek]

I'm scrolling back on social media to see some of what happened a few months ago... my goodness. When rigid ideology meets reality.

[@AcousticUplift]

BV has positioned himself as a victim here with what seems to be a lack of self-awareness. Whilst it's sad to hear that safety of Chinese Christians has been compromised, there is a cultural insensitivity, and frankly lack of humility on his part, that has engendered the whole controversy that led to these issues. Men of the majority culture (in the western context) need to be better at listening and understanding why there would be issues with the kind of comments he made about Haddis' book, for example. I listen to this and I'm floored by how tone deaf much (not all) of this conversation is. It's not enough to merely dismiss critics as over-reacting and portray them as a mob. It's not always that simplistic. I don't have the impression BV is taking the time to understand the nuance. Preston fosters great conversations but I notice a real blind spot when it comes to the experience of Afrodescendants. Put bluntly, we don't need more paternalistic Caucasians, esp. men, and esp. in the church, telling us what to think, particularly when there's not enough self-reflection going on. (I felt similarly when watching his friend, Josh Butler but from a gender lens). There's no amount of cross-cultural missions that can override that. In fact, without the necessary empathy and humility, it's just another form of colonialism.