Ten years ago I read a study asking people to list their earliest memories of world news. The survey intrigued me, but I wanted to see for myself. So I asked about a hundred people to think back to early childhood and see what they first remembered as earthshattering news.
Try it yourself: make a list of your earliest memories of significant world events and try to recall where you were at the time. I wrote down:
- The assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was in school, first grade.
- The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I was about to eat dinner with my family.
- The landing on the moon. I was at home, watching it on TV with my grandfather.
My mother, and many of her friends, remembered the Depression, Pearl Harbor, and VE day. A younger generation I asked remembered the crash of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the Desert Storm war, and the horrors of 9/11.
The study I read then asked each respondent to choose one of following three words as the best way to connect with others at church: Behave, Believe, or Belong.
In my own informal study, 80% of my mother’s generation preferred, Behave; about 65% of my generation said, Believe; and all but one of the younger generation chose, Belong.
The people I polled lived in the greater Ann Arbor, Michigan area, were all middle class, and all had similar spiritual leanings. Not the most diverse group. But that’s the point.
The determining factor seems to be generational history, not locale, finances, or spirituality.
It’s Not Just News
I interviewed two brothers born in the mid-fifties. One was a social worker who lived a Spartan lifestyle (despite living in Ann Arbor), drove a beat-up Chevy Cavalier, and invested in government bonds. The other brother was a business tycoon; he saved nothing, drove a Maserati, and spent his earnings on multiple annual trips to China, India, Africa, and Europe.
Both attributed their money-habits to their parents who had lost their farm in the depression. One of them remembered the loss and saved every cent in sheltered investments to avoid a similar fate. The other remembered the deprivation and spent every cent for lost pleasures.
Both agreed that their poor childhood fifty years ago steered their spending habits today.
How Well Do We Know Ourselves?
If we don’t know our histories, what do we really know of ourselves? Most of the modern world was invented in the Middle Ages, and its ideas arose in the Enlightenment and Romantic eras:
- Our reliance on technology comes from the many inventions of medieval monks (yes!) who felt “work” was a gift of God, but “toil” was part of the curse;
- Romantic love as the basis of marriage was created by the culture of chivalrous knights;
- The market economy began around 1000 AD along with the rise of the feudal system.
All these ideas and practices—as well our legal systems, nation-states, and even fashion—seem second-nature to us, whereas in other cultures and times, they might seem abhorrent.
Why am I writing this article on this topic at this time? I don’t know! Not for sure. It probably has something to do with my history. But as I look at modern cultural creep, I realize that so many things I consider completely normal are “normal” only for us Westerners.
I don’t want to go back to arranged marriages (and my kids are glad of it), but I want—at the very least—to examine my life in the light of older times. I used to think cultural creep was mostly contemporary influences on our hearts and minds; now I wonder if these modern motivations are merely a leaf hanging onto the twigs, branches, trunks, and roots of our past.
The study I read said my mother’s generation worked hard to dig out of the depression and to sacrifice in WWII, so they chose, “Behave.” My generation saw the moon landing and great civil rights reforms—despite the assassinations—and they hoped in, “Believe.” The next generation felt the fruitless suffering of disasters, so they prioritized community and chose “Belong.”
Which simply says: Our future is largely shaped by our past.
Sam
Please share this by clicking below.
(And I’m curious, what were YOUR earliest memories of significant world events? And how did they affect you? You can comment below.)
Is Sunday School Destroying Our Kids?
I really enjoyed reading this: I’ve always found sociology, history and ideology fascinating to study in relation to society and culture today. When I left on missions, my director told me that I would need to understand MY culture and history like an outsider if I were to understand the culture I would be living in. He was so right! Part of the shock of culture shock is realizing that what’s normal for me, in this culture isn’t normal at all! (And vice versa) knowing yourself seems obvious, but it requires conscious reflection. Thanks for reminding me of that!
Kipling wrote a poem with one particular line that I LOVE:
“What should they know of England who only England know?”
Because we will never know our culture until we get out of it. I think today, the best way to “get out of it” is to read old books. Their culture wouldn’t have been “right” but we’re not in danger of drinking their Kool-Aid. And sometimes we can see ourselves through their eyes.
Sam
Sam, I have a standing sermon with the title “Behaving, Believing, Belonging.” It’s built on the passages about the greatest commandment. It seems to have built into it an outline that aligns with those three points of emphasis. The Pharisees and Herodians tried to trap Jesus with a trick question on behavior (proper interaction with government law). The Sadducees attempted a theological trap with a trick question on belief (marriage in the resurrection). Jesus responded with an emphasis on belonging rightly to God and to our neighbors (the cross-shaped key). My conclusion at the end of the message is that the right belonging moves us toward right believing and then right behaving.
Maybe not an exact fit with your message, but caught my attention as corollary.
Blessings,
Bob
That’s fantastic! I love it.
Honestly, though, I think all three lead to all three. When I believe (in God’s love for me and for you), it’s easier to belong and help you belong. Which leads us to believing and behaving, etc.
It’s a mess! A good mess.
Thanks for the post and your comments. Our beliefs surely effect our behavior and our beliefs are shaped by our culture – which as you note is always changing.
Always enjoyable reading your blog.
Three stand outs from my elementary years, all of which affected me in different, but profound ways: 2nd grade, our gym teacher rushed into the classroom crying, to tell our classroom teacher that JFK had been shot. Fourth Grade, our student council packed care boxes for U.S. soldiers fighting in Viet Nam. Sixth grade, “Twiggy” was getting headlines and introducing us to mini-skirts.
Oh my gosh. I forgot about Twiggy! Hilarious.
I am on the younger end of the demographic but am an “old soul” who struggles with Pharisaical tendencies. I would go back to the words you wrote here: “the best way to connect with others at church.” Synonyms of connection include attachment, association and bonding. These words are very close to “belong” but are far from “believe” and on a different planet from the word “behave.” Believing can be detached and solitary. Behaving can be used as heartless or soul-less manipulation to gain favor within a group. Belonging and therefore connection acknowledge our faith is a shared by our church community.
I love hearing how different people pick different words. I like your explanation, but (like I said to Bob above), for me, “Believing” (in God’s love for me and others, and in the “imago dei”), I can join a group without needing approval (I’ve got God’s) and I really can’t disdain the others … because God loves them.
But I see your point.
The question is: Are any of us “right” or is our very logic partly determined by our history?
Interesting. I’m going to let that marinate.
My age would put me in the Believe group, but my life-long journey has included all three designations at various times depending on what my circumstances were at the time and probably more importantly who was influencing me the most in any given season of my life.
I was struck most by your question and answer “Why am I writing this article on this topic at this time? I don’t know!” It’s my heart’s desire to not be influenced at all by societal or familial “norms” and instead have my relationship with the divine Triune defined by intimacy with Them. That means I’m questioning pretty much EVERYTHING I have believed. Maybe I’m not the only one??
I think we share that “divine curiosity”! And I for one am glad of it.
Speaking of arranged marriages isn’t that sort of what happens when people go to dating sites?