One of the strong points of western culture is our ability to impart the various aspects of our own culture to others. It seems to be a trend that has gone on for about 500 years, that western thought and culture has made its way eastward and Southward.

The one thing that has probably been the catalyst in this is the invention of the moveable type printing press by Gothenburg. The first thing that he printed was the Bible, and that, of course, got things off to a good start. It made possible an explosion of ideas that gave birth to the renaissance and the reformation.

Old ideas were questioned and new ideas birthed, and given an audience via the printing press. Ideas led to exploration, and that led again to colonialism.

The reformation, of course, was given a boost when Martin Luther's 95 theses which he had nailed to the door of the church in Wittenburg, were copied down and mass produced with the printing press. But the real thrust was the fact that the Bible had also been printed for ordinary people to read. Other works by the reformers, and people like Count Zinzendorf were also made readily available, and this ultimately led to the Protestant missionary movement, beginning with the Moravians and gathering momentum with William Cary and Adoniram Judson.

The Roman Catholic church, meanwhile, responded to the reformation by having what is called the 'counter reformation', which again, was fuelled by the press, and ideas gained through the renaissance, and this spawned the Catholic missionary movement, spearheaded by the Jesuits and other orders.

All of these forces, the printing medium, colonialism, and the Catholic and Protestant missionary movements happened in the west, and were the mode by which ideas tended to travel eastward and Southward

Now, we stand at the end of 500 years of eastward expansion of western ideas. A lot of good has been accomplished. The gospel has spread throughout the world, so that now, there are more Christians in the east and South than in the west. There are, of course wide gaps where the gospel has yet to reach, especially in what is called the 10/40 window, where there are multitudes who have not heard of salvation in Jesus.

Of course, technology is good in that it can be put to good purposes. It certainly is nice to be online with the rest of the world. A lot of high-tech media is, of course, instrumental in getting the gospel out to far off places. And of course, medical technology has saved many lives, and the quality of life has risen considerably in many places where before, the infant mortality rate was phenomenal. But even here, there are still horrendous gaps.

Another legacy that can be viewed in a positive light is the straightforward, proactive mind set of the west, the mindset that led to a lot of the innovation that made techno-giants of many western nations. Subsequently, the combination of that and eastern pragmatism made high-tech industrial giants of several far-eastern nations such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea. But to a greater or lesser extant, depending on the country, the proactive straightforward style can be said to be the distinguishing mark of the west, or western influence. Thomas Friedman, in his book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, describes the difference between that and the typical Asian mindset:

The rhythm of life in the Arab world was always different. Men in Arab societies always tended to bend more; life there always moved in ambiguous semicircles, never right angles. The religious symbols of the west are the cross and the Jewish star - both of which are full of sharp, angled turns. The symbol of the Muslim east is the crescent moon - a wide, soft, ambiguous arc. In Arab society there was always some way to cushion failure with rhetoric and enable the worst of enemies to sit down and have coffee together, maybe even send each other bouquets.

My landlord in Beirut, Fast Eddy Ghanoum, was forever shouting at me from his balcony in his baritone voice: 'Thomaaaaaas, come have coffee.' I always thought of this invitation as a mating call, beckoning me to Eddy's diwan for some sort of Arabesque negotiating encounter. It always meant that Eddy wanted something from me: more rent, a new lease, a phoney receipt for the tax man, in one case, an autographed picture of Ronald Reagan - but always something. And always, over coffee, we would work out some compromise.

When he was a young boy, my friend Fouad Ajami used to be sent out by his landlord father in Beirut to collect rent. 'Before I would go,' Fauad once told me, 'my father would always say to me, 'Whatever you do, don't have coffee or tea with anyone. You are going to collect the rent. If you have coffee or tea you won't come back with the rent.'' Islamic society always threw a web over men that restrained them, but the European Zionists came out of a different culture and faith and they were not shackled by any webs. That was how they made a state. The Sephardim, the Arab Jews, never could have built Israel. They would have had coffee with the Palestinians instead.

Many centuries of living in Europe and taking part in the development of the western mind-set had it's effect on European Jewish culture, so that, as Thomas Friedman noted, the difference is even discernible between the European Jews and the Middle Eastern Jews. Thus, modern Israel became what ancient Israel never was, a western country.

This same mindset has often marked the westerner living or travelling in the east as the 'ugly American', or 'mad Englishman' (or is it 'mad dogs…'?), who won't sit for a cup of coffee with anyone. Seeing the world in straight lines and sharp angles is one of the positive traits of western culture in many ways, but it also has its dark side, especially where it gives westerners a feeling of cultural superiority.

We see it in the movies: There's the movie about the American woman who got stranded in Burma during the student riots. I didn't see the movie myself, but a Thai friend who saw it, while she sympathised with rebels' cause, also commented on how it was typical of an American movie, in which the American shows up on the scene and solves everyone's problems the 'superior' American way.

The 'superior' American or European way did bring Christianity to the east, as well as built Israel into a modern nation. Proactive pragmatism has it's place, but so does willingness to stop and 'drink coffee', and failure to gauge the time and place for it has caused people of the west to miss many an opportunity, as well as cast them in a bad light.

Other darker expressions of western culture have also come via the Hollywood film and TV industry which have not only left a bad taste in the minds of some, but have also been a corrupting influence in the rest of the world. The lust for exotic sexual gratification on the part of westerners coming as tourists or on military assignments has also helped to spur the sex trade in places like Bangkok.

This has created a contradiction in many people's minds. Christianity, to the average Asian mind, is European or American. To them, all westerners by default, are Christians. The missionaries teach on how to live righteously, but the tourists and others exhibit completely contrary lifestyles to what is professed by the Christian message.

The source of the Christian message (as they see it), is also the source of filth and violence via the Hollywood film industry, and sex thirsty western tourists. The same countries that send pornography all over the world either print 'in God we trust' on their currency, or sing 'God Save the Queen'.

Some might insist this is unfair judgement, which it may be, but that's the message that comes across to the uninformed masses of Asians and Africans. They have no way to perceive otherwise.

Just the fact that Christianity is perceived as a European religion is unfortunate enough. To many, receiving the gospel message is seen as a betrayal of their own culture. Accepting the religion of their former colonisers is judged a denial of their own national heritage.

But why is Christianity seen as being western?

Let's answer that question with another question: Why do churchgoers in the far east insist on arranging pews so that everyone is seated facing the same direction towards a pulpit, from which a professional clergyman preaches a 20 to 40 minute sermon as the main feature of the worship service? Why the steeple and cross? Why the choir robes? ... or the western style hymns and choruses? ... or the pictures of naked baby angles? That's not the way the early apostles had church. Why, then, do Asians insist on such an un-Asian form of worship?

Because western missionaries were their teachers. In many places, western missionaries are still their teachers.

That, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. Anyone who is gifted as a teacher, and has sufficiently experienced the Truth, should by all means teach, even if he or she is a westerner, and even if he or she is living in the east, or the South (and the same goes for easterners and Southerners living in the west). There's still plenty of room - indeed, an urgent need - for western missionaries, especially ones that know the benefits of a timely cup of coffee.

The problem is not in our teaching, but in our thinking that we're the only ones with anything to teach. That's an attitude that has been deeply bred by 500 years of being the leader.

European/American culture isn't a bad thing, especially in a church in Europe or America. It's also been the vehicle by means of which the gospel has spread throughout the world. Christians world-wide have been generally blessed by things learned from European/American culture. But I think that if we humble ourselves and open our eyes, we will notice that the church world-wide, and even in our own countries are lopsidedly European. They have learned from us; we should also learn a few things from them.

In the next chapter, we'll look at some passages in Scripture that show us that the Body of Christ won't be complete without input from every culture. Each culture has something to teach the rest of us.

'But,' some say, 'the kingdom of God is its own culture. We must teach the Bible with no cultural perspective at all - just say it as it is!'

That sounds good, but all people who say that are still speaking from their own cultural perspective.

Yes, I generalized. I said 'all' because all of us, no matter what we say, are saying it from a cultural perspective. It's impossible not to say anything from one cultural perspective or another.

When I say 'culture', I don't mean the fine arts or the higher points of etiquette or protocol, but rather, I mean what a cultural anthropologist means when he uses the word 'culture'. By that definition, a head-hunter from Papua New Guinea is just as 'cultured' as professor of English literature at Oxford, simply by virtue of the fact that the head-hunter acts and thinks like a member of whatever tribe he is, and the professor acts and thinks like an Englishman. Culture is what makes an Indian act like an Indian, an Arab like an Arab, a Nigerian like a Nigerian, an Irishman like an Irishman, and an Liverpuddlian like a Liverpuddlian. Any input your parents had on you that reflected their way of thinking, their values or what they thought was important for you to know, was an impartation of their culture. Even the way they told you was both a reflection of their culture and an impartation of that culture to you.

Everyone is a part of a culture, and that culture will determine what you say and how you say it. How a person of one culture will 'say it as it is' will differ from how one from different culture will 'say it as it is'.

You readily notice cultural idiosyncrasies of people from other backgrounds, but those you notice the least are those of your own culture - just as everyone from other parts appears to speak English (or whatever language you speak) with an 'accent', but those from your own home town don't. When Jimmy Carter was the president of United States, people in the American South commented that he was the first president they had that didn't 'tawk with an aeksent'. In reality, the accent you don't notice is your own, but to others, you still speak with an accent. It's the same way with culture. In fact, accent is another aspect of culture. You are a part of a culture, and to those from other ethnic backgrounds, that fact is obvious. Once you begin to immerse yourself in another culture, you may discover more.