This is a problem. I can't really solve it, sorry. Much, much wiser people than I have fallen into it. It's a fairly common situation in the US. I am as guilty of it as any, although we all experience it in slightly different ways.
Cultural elitism.
Remember (and I'm sure you do) the song 'God Bless America'? This song has been attacked by non-Christians, and I think they have a point. When we sing this song (as most churches do every year around the 4th of July), we are asking God to bless our country, and no other.
I'm not saying we shouldn't pray for blessings on our country, but we shouldn't do so to the exclusion of all others. I much prefer the less common 'This Is Our Song'. It is careful to point out that, yes, we have a beautiful country, and so do a lot of other people. Besides, Finlandia is a much prettier tune.
The problem of cultural chauvinism is especially prevalent in the development world, where I would like to spend the bulk of my career, so I've been giving it a bit of thought lately. I've always known that it existed, even within the different groups of the US. I have several good examples from my first working trip overseas, in Mongolia; not from the Mongolians, but from being the only Yankee on the American team. Also, the only member of a liturgical church. At times, I felt more accepted by the locals because they expected and embraced the differences.
That trip was the first time I witnessed the tying of the gospel to cultural norms. During our devotions on the 4th of July, we sang 'God Bless America' with a room full of Mongolians. I'm not kidding. It was considered an essential part of their English lessons. Even then, something about that grated on me.
The problem is that when we correlate universal truths, like the gospel or scientific advancements, with our societal understanding of them, rejection of any part of our culture results in rejection of the truths. We have irrevocably connected the baby to the bathwater, and both may get thrown out.
There's another side to cultural elitism. When we see people living more primatively, poorer, or with less education, we assume them to know, well, nothing. Rather than seeing them as people who have lived in their milieu for centuries or millenia, who may understand the environment and resources available to them better than any cursory survey, we consider them to be fully ignorant. Denying any gifts from their history, we forge ahead with our plans. This may be worse in the long run. As Bryant Myers writes in Walking With the Poor, the poor know how to live as poor. They've been doing it for a while.
One of the only solutions I've seen, and the only one I consider viable, is listening. To listen to people, rather than act on our understanding, is a rather humbling experience. As Americans, especially, we have trouble letting control out of our hands. If we don't, though, we may ruin a unique opportunity to serve.
You'll notice, perhaps, that I didn't bring political discussions to bear on this topic. I could, believe me. I'll choose not to in the interests of interesting more people and scaring away fewer. Nothing shuts some people down as much as the word politics . . .
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I'm one of those, or I used to be, who might be turned off by a discussion of politics. But I recently posted an essay that discusses, among other things, the importance of politics, even though I know little about the practice. And it seems to me essential in a political endeavor, as in any conversation, to try to speak with the other side on their own terms, rather than imposing yours. I think this is part of what you're talking about. As long as we're supremely convinced our perspective is the right, or natural, or superior one, we won't make much progress working with others, nor will they with us.
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