By: Chef Niku
The other day, I was reading through a book about when people have different conscious “attitudes” from two different cultures. This one was about an American in Cambodia and how he learned to understand how the Cambodian mind and how the Cambodians were trying to understand the American mind. You can apply the same concept of conscious attitudes with the Japanese too.
Without a doubt, the Japanese have different views on what is “right” and “wrong” from their own perspective based on the worldview that they grew up in. For example, it is a custom and is culturally accepted to engage in public bathing (the genders are separated though) in a building called a sento. To most Westerners, their consciouses would tell them that something is horribly wrong with public bathing and would probably not engage in it. Whether this is inherently right or wrong is another topic entirely.
To many Westerners, more specifically Americans, wearing your shoes in the house is no problem at all and most of their consciouses would agree that it is alright to do so. However, to most Japanese people, wearing your shoes inside the house is seen as very disrespectful and is looked down upon. Instead, the Japanese people wear slippers inside the house to distinguish the difference between what is the “outside” (soto) and what is considered to be the “inside” (uchi). This is based on the idea of what is pure and clean (the inside of the house) compared to keeping what is unclean and dirty (everything outside of the house).
As you see from the two examples above, the Japanese and Western (American) conscious mindset is very different on some issues and customs. Each person is going by what their conscious tells them what is right or wrong. The Westerner may think public bathing is wrong and uncomfortable while the Japanese person would see that wearing your shoes in the house is a grievous crime. This is where we need to have more discerning eyes on what the other person believes to be morally “right” or “wrong”.
As a person who wants to share the Gospel, it is important that we calibrate or align our conscious with what God says is “right” and what is absolutely a sin to commit no matter the reason. We want to be sure to teach the people we are trying to reach about what God says is right and what is wrong and hope that they adjust their conscious according to what God says in His Word.
Other issues that are in the gray area (where God gives us freedom and choice) are ones that we as Christians should seek to understand and even follow even when we disagree or our own cultural upbringing tells us it is wrong to do so. Where something is a gray area, it is wise to think about the effect your action will have on those around you. If you want to be a good representative of Christ and honor your Japanese friends, as a Westerner, then please take off your shoes in their house and put on the slippers. This is where you will be showing honor and respect to the other person and be a better representative of Christ. Even though it is not a sin to wear shoes in the house (nowhere does the Bible say anything about that), God does want us to love Him first and then love our neighbor. Wearing your shoes in the house would be disrespecting and be unloving to your Japanese friends and therefore you would be dishonoring God by selfishly thinking of what you feel is right and fine to do without any thought about your friends.
What would be a way for you to show Christ’s love, regarding the ‘conscience’?