Cleansing Bad Culture

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Bad Cultural Example of Hindu “Sati” (Wife Burning)

Erik Prince relates some history of the British East India Company and how Charles Napier (a governor of one of the trading colonies in India) put a stop to the evil cultural practice of wife burning. These Hindus would burn the widows of those whose husbands had passed away according to their Hindu culture. So Charles Napier ordered the troops under his command to build gallows around the funeral pyre (which was being prepared to burn a widow). He then told these Hindus that this wife burning tradition is murder and anyone who attempted to burn a woman alive would be hung on the gallows for the crime of murder. Thus he put a stop to this awful practice. See the video link “Stop Bad Culture of Wife Burning” for more details.

This is an example of how Christian moral values (established on biblical principles) was able to cleanse away “bad culture” of those pagans whose culture it was to burn women alive. This however has a wide application because whenever people get saved and submit to the lordship of Christ then they will begin to put away all bad culture that is against biblical mandate.

Muslim Amputation of Women’s Clitoris

The Muslim culture for example will amputate a woman’s clitoris and call this female circumcision. This is done before Muslim girls reach the age of puberty and it is thought that removing this organ will prevent a woman from having any feeling during sexual relations. This amputation is supposed to keep women chase or moral. However the amputation of body parts does not stop sin in the heart and is no more effective than amputating the hand of one who was caught stealing. Sin does not reside in the body parts but rather it is found within the soulical parts of humans. See the link “Three Parts of Man” for more details.

Those who are Christians do not amputate healthy human body parts (including the woman’s clitoris) because God created these organs for pleasure within the confines of marriage between a husband and his wife. Again, this is another example of bad culture where amputation is used to remove any ability for a woman to experience normal sexual pleasure within marriage.

Bad Culture of Borrowing Huge Money for a Wedding Feast

I often shared the example of how Filipino culture expects a newly married couple to host a huge wedding party. I was once riding on a public bus traveling from Manila to Baguio City in the Philippines. Along the way, the bus driver spotted a wedding taking place down in the valley and he immediately stopped the bus and everyone on board ran down to the wedding in order to help themselves to the free food. These people on the bus were all strangers and had no relations to the bride or the groom but they came only for the free food! I inquired about this tradition and was told that the newly married couple had borrowed huge amounts of money because they were expected to put on a feast for everyone with many butchered pigs and large amounts of cooked rice. In fact they were starting off their married life with huge debt and could not even afford to have the own home. But the cost of this wild wedding party could have purchased a small lot and built a home for this couple. The bible says that a man is to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. But they get around this scriptural command by moving into the home of the parents of the bride (instead of the parents of the groom). This is disorder because a man is to start is own home and not live under the roof of his parents or even (the parents of his bride). But if the biblical principles are taught, they will typically say, “This is our culture!” and thus disobey the principles of God’s word.

This has widespread application because there are a vast number of cultural practices that go against biblical principles. Even if these practices were observed for thousands of years – this still does not make them right (according to biblical mandate).

This is why the gospel can cleanse any culture if people are saved and begin to live according to biblical precedent and forsake the bad-culture of their forefathers.

Murdering Headhunters Honored with Special Tattoo

The image above is of a man from a privative tribe in India that practices headhunting and applies body tattoos to celebrate their kills. This is the exact same culture I observed in both Borneo and northern Luzon Philippines as practiced by privative people those places. These people have different cultures and different languages and are found in the different countries of India and Philippines and Borneo. But these tribes all have the celebrate the practice of murder which is honored among all three of these tribes located in three different countries. There are many other headhunting tribes located in other countries as well (besides just these three that I have mentioned here).

There are unlimited examples of bad culture in every country but this culture of celebrating murder is just one more example. In the Philippines among the Ifugao tribe in northern Luzon they still honor murder. They say you can leave something by the road for days and no one will steal it because theft was dishonorable in their culture. But the same people honor murder and in fact they had a culture that a young man could not get married until he has first taken a head as a trophy in battle. This is “head-hunting culture” and though head hunting is now banned by law, still they honor those who murder. They even apply a special tattoo to celebrate such an occasion by using soot from the bottom of a cooking pot that is injected into the skin with a thorn (which is used as an improvised tattoo needle). This practice was followed for thousands of years and until today there are tribal wars in certain regions of the Philippines where they still continue to kill one another in cycles of revenge killings.

I once preached in a privative remote place near Bontoc in northern Luzon and the Christians there were forced out of the village because they refused to participate in the killing. So we had to meet in a grass hut for our church service which was located in the valley below the main village (which does not welcome Christians). So the killing was still taking place when I visited in that region (although it was technically banned by law).

Once when I was in Borneo and visited an Ebon tribal “long-house” I also saw the same type of culture being practiced in that country. The native people still had human skulls in baskets hung from the ceiling of their lodges (even though the practice of headhunting was supposed to be outlawed in modern times). These people also had body tattoos like those of the Ifugao people in northern Luzon Island in the Philippines (even though this was in a different country and they had a different language).

Gang Initiation Celebrated by Tattoos

In modern times there are gangs which require new gang members to commit murder in order to qualify to join their gang. They may even kill some innocent bystander on the streets in a “drive-by” shooting just to qualify as “making-their-kill” for initiation into the gang. Often gangs will tattoo their crimes on their bodies to show how many victims they have killed etc. This gang culture is much like the tribal head hunting culture of primitive people who honored those among them who murdered others and also tattooed their exploits on their bodies.

The image above was taken at CEDOT the maximum security prison in El Salvador that houses over 40,000 gang prisoners. Before these prisoners were incarcerated, the murder rate in El Salvador was one of the highest on earth. After the government crackdown on the gangs, El Salvador now has one of the lowest murder rates on earth. In the image above, it is said that the “three-tear-drop” tattoos mean that the murderer has taken so many human lives that he has lost count of them all. Again, gang tattoos often signify the murder and crimes they have committed – marking their bodies with permanent ink in a proud show to all of what they have done! Click on the image above to see the related Utube documentary about imprisoned gangs in El Salvador.

Not Marring Their Bodies with Tattoos

Those who are “bible-believers” should not place tattoos on their bodies with permanent ink because the bible teaches that the human body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and is sacred for this reason. According to biblical principles people should not mar or defile their bodies with tattoos. Godless humans however constantly invent new “bad-culture” and also work to preserve the “bad-culture” which was created thousands of years ago. Whenever people depart from the moral precedents of God’s word then they become defiled and vile and wicked in what they do and practice. There is a lot of so-called “culture” that is bad and should be abolished because it does not conform to biblical standards of God’s word. God’s word teaches what is right and what is wrong and God expects people to conform their behavior to the precedent God has given in the bible.

Not Marring the Human Body

Leviticus 19:28 (NASB95)
28 ‘You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.

Pagan culture is inspired by Satan to cause humans to do things against the written word of God. According to pagan culture they would (not only tattoo their bodies) but would also practice scarification (cutting of their bodies to produce scars). Privative tribes in Africa will scar their bodies by cutting and then rub soot into the wound so it would heal with a permanent bulge.

In biblical times, the pagans would also cut themselves for the dead. This practice of scarification was related to marking their bodies with scars in a type of mourning ritual for the dead. (All such mutilation of the flesh of the human body is demonic and is forbidden by God’s commands).

Teaching God’s Word in Systematic Manner

The whole purpose of teaching the Word of God in systematic manner is so that people will know how to order their lives according to biblical precedent. It is the teaching of God’s word that can purify any culture by removing those things that are bad in their culture and retaining things that are good.

See the link “Biblical Topic Categories” for more details.