tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post5942679337730074885..comments2024-02-13T11:11:28.246+00:00Comments on Bishop Alan’s Blog: Communal Bath House mannersBishop Alan Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-45245626160146983062009-08-29T23:14:35.699+01:002009-08-29T23:14:35.699+01:00Thanks, Rosie, for putting some helpful boundaries...Thanks, Rosie, for putting some helpful boundaries around this cultural mixing thing... I agree there are things people get up to in another culture which would certainly be beyond the moral pale — keeping a servant as a slave, for example, as some foreign nationals allegedly do in London. Other behaviours, for example clothing and eating habits, are very likely to be more purely cultural. I was fascinated by the difference between Western and Muslim definitions of "prudish." <br /><br />In between are very grey areas — what do people in our culture make of other people smacking (or threatening) their children? Smacking is easy, because it involves physical violence, but how does one "objectively" define emotional pressure on the child, for example, without bringing in the culturally specific context?<br /><br />The relationship of morals to human rights is easier to describe in the abstract than to put into practice, especially when one human right fully expressed apparently conflicts with another. <br /><br />So human rights turn out disappointingly often to be very hard to universalize — and there's a whole school of philosophers out there who would say that fact alone makes them something less than morally objective. Clearly defined, they make good measuring sticks for behaviour, but surprisingly poor absolutes.<br /><br />I remember getting sucked into a particularly complex and odd family dispute involving two Asian families, in which it was Cultural sensitivity that showed the way, given the complexity and anger on both sides.<br /><br />So, I don't want to absolutize cultural sensitivity as a magic bullet, but without it it's hard to understand, let alone rebuke, morally bad behaviour.Bishop Alan Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-77326137024773816352009-08-29T15:28:19.752+01:002009-08-29T15:28:19.752+01:00I do see what you mean -but I'm not so happy ...I do see what you mean -but I'm not so happy with this post -it sounds too close to the arguments that are made against the very concept of universal human rights and in particular against a idea that there are some universal rights for women which are more profound than cultural norms. <br />As Zukowski shows in his book The ‘good conscience’ of Nazi Doctors, the apparent integrity of a person and their belief in the goodness of what they are doing, from the perspective of their value systems, is not a defence against the objective evil of their behaviour. <br />Cultural relativism gets you into all sorts of trouble -female genital mutilation for example has been tolerated in the West for far too long because we bought that argument.rosiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10368471097449672091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-88758224755622413202009-08-26T23:08:14.108+01:002009-08-26T23:08:14.108+01:00Perhaps it's the ways we do the basic human ac...Perhaps it's the ways we do the basic human activities — eating, sleeping, pairing, bathing — that articulate our cultural expectations most clearly. I;m still very much held by the Max Warren quote (though I've never seen it precisely sourced) "It takes a whole world to know Christ"Bishop Alan Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-89496484588455729262009-08-26T19:20:31.162+01:002009-08-26T19:20:31.162+01:00Came across a fascinating example of this at theol...Came across a fascinating example of this at theological college in the 1980s. Another ordinand had previosuly been in charge of a hostel in Birmignham while a post graduate. Many of the residents were Muslims and the hostel only had baths. My friend lobbied hard for showers to be installed but the Christian management committee couldn't see the need. Why the need for showers when you can have long hot baths? Why would you want to soak in dirty unclean water? Eventually the matter was resolved and the key issue was one of hospitality and recognition of the need of the other. It was a real missional and pastoral issue as two cultures and faiths encountered each other over a very basic, practical matter. Alongside the fact that showers are much more water and energy efficient and environment friendly, but that wasn't really seen as an issue then.Philip Ritchiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05912352719196616923noreply@blogger.com