The Cracked Acorn: Culture

If you watch the Middle East evening news, you will see a footprint of how many ways have important names and places in these countries been mispronounced.

Having spent some time in Iran, I know that the capital’s name, Tehran, is never pronounced the way Americans say it. Language is vital to a nation and its people’s pride. If we are to get to their hearts, we will have to spend more time cultivating their language.

We expect everyone to speak English, and that has become the norm. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to converse in another language? Enough said on this!

About the time of WWI, two farmers were talking across the fence. One asked if the other one knew that the war was over. The reply was, “No, I didn’t know they were fighting!” This does not happen anymore; we get a daily world update on everything if you have a TV, radio, or iPhone.

The schools do their best to make students aware that the world has become bigger. Distant countries have become our next-door neighbors. We rely on foreign nations for oil and all kinds of goods, personal and otherwise. There was a time when if you wanted to see and try to speak to someone from beyond our shores, you had to board a ship or plane; not anymore. We are blessed to have those who have come here and become citizens.

You may not be interested in other countries’ cultures, but Eastern culture is already in our hymn books.

From SACRED SELECTION -“HAND IN HAND WITH JESUS”. This song mentions a custom among good friends. ONCE FROM MY POOR SINSICK SOUL CHRIST DID EVERY BURDEN ROLL, NOW I WALK REDEEMED AND WHOLE, HAND IN HAND WITH JESUS, HAND IN HAND WE WALK EACH DAY, HAND IN HAND ALONG THE WAY, WALKING THUS I WILL NOT STRAY, HAND IN HAND WITH JESUS.

This custom among good friends in the Middle East will never make it here. We frown on this “hand in hand” stuff. It is only found among close members of our personal family. I have yet to see members of the church walk “hand in hand; we do show our affections in other ways that are just as wonderful.

In Jewish history, they tried not to write or speak the name of God, to them it was YHVH (Exodus 3:14-15). This was the Unutterable Name of the Distinctive Name of God. Other names were used, and when scribes wrote them in the text, they were very careful that these names were not taken in vain. It was about 1100 A.D. that Christians began pronouncing and giving God the name of Jehovah. This seemed to fit well into the hymns that were being composed. No matter how it is pronounced, GOD is GOD, and this will never change.