Cultural Autobiography

Cultural Autobiography

Definition

I relate a lot with the definition of culture being “Culture: Socially transmitted ways of thinking, believing, feeling, and acting within a group. These patterns are transmitted from one generation to the next” (Gollnick & Chinn, 2017, p. 380). I chose this definition because I personally think that my religion is the biggest part of my culture. Being a Christian is what my life is based on. The part of the definition that says “within a group” just says to me how important a Christian community and a deep connection with your church family really is.

Visible Culture

I think that visual culture is just as important as invisible and core attributes. Not that your indivisible and core values are not important because they most definitely are but what people truly see your visible culture and that is how you create and show people Christ, is from your visible culture. Without visible culture you are not living out one of the purposes of your religion which is sharing the good news and the love of Christ with others. My purpose here is not to keep my relationship with God and what I am learning about him a secret. I am here to seek out people who seem lost in this great big world and bring them Jesus. There is no point of keeping this a secret because I want everyone to know God like I know him and even deeper. I do not want people to be lost in this world. I want them to turn to God and truly feel and know what it is like to live for him everyday.

Another part of visible culture I agree and relate to is dress. I know in a lot of different cultures there is a specific type of way to dress including turbans and dresses but that is not exactly what I would consider my culture to be based on. I think when it comes to dress in Christianity, it comes down to respecting your body and what the main purpose of your body here on earth is for. You are not here to show off to other people and follow all the newest fashion trends no matter how revealing they are. Don’t disrespect yourself in the things you wear and does what you wear represent Christ or yourself?

Invisible Culture

The idea of invisible culture comes from within. It comes from how you grow and learn within your religion. To truly have that deep sense of religion and true relationship with God, you have to have your own opinions and your own will to grow in relationship with God. No one can give you this invisible culture. Other people can influence your invisible culture but when it comes down to it you have to be the one who strives to believe and grow in that “behind the scenes” part of religion and no one can force you to do that.

I think getting to choose your own invisible culture is really amazing. Your invisible culture is something that, in my case being a Christian, you have total control over, which takes a lot of self control. The older you get no one is forcing you to read your Bible everyday or making you pray before meals. Once you become an adult religion is completely yours and that can make or break you. Not saying that you can’t turn back from going down the wrong path. But as I was growing up, my mom works in the children’s ministry and my dad is an elder so that is what we did on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, we went to church. We still do this now, but now it is my choice to go or not. This is really where the invisible idea of culture comes in because it is what my heart wants. My heart wants to go to church, surround myself with Godly people, and personally devote my life to following Christ and growing our relationship together.

Within invisible culture it also talks about skills. I think that when skills are invisible they are just being prepared to become visible in your culture. Everyone has different skills and they are going to use them in different ways. With being a Christian I think you prepare and learn from God and he reveals to you what your skills are and how he is encouraging you to use them. When your skills are invisible I can also see them as “behind the scenes'' skills, which are just as important. Showing your religion and talking about it to others isn’t always verbal it can be done with behind the scenes skills that please and serve God

Core Culture

In the core circle it talks about personal truths and personality. My religion strives for both of these traits immensely. My personal truths come from God. In my walk with God I try to rely on the personal truths that I come up with, I strive to rely on God’s truth about me and what he says is true about me. It is easy to get caught up in your own personal truths, which can be really negative sometimes when you really think about it. When you turn to God’s truths about you he is always trying to encourage you, knowing you can always do better because everyone sins and fails, but he is the only one who truly knows who you are. Since he is the only one who truly knows you, he is the one that can define you and show you the truths about you.

This goes hand in hand with personality or character traits. Your personality is definitely defined with your culture and your core values. Everyone struggles always wanting to follow your core values and we get off track sometimes. But without those values we would not have the drive to get back on track. I think that this is what drives your character. I strive everyday to live like Christ and what a value it is that, except that I fail every single day, multiple times a day. But striving for this goal even though I know I am going to fail sets up my character, which creates my personality. My personality comes from my values and how I want to live my life. I have a very loving personality. But I think I have these personality traits because God loved us first no matter the circumstances. I want to show people love because God shows me love every single day. Without God I think that showing people love would be a lot harder because I would not have his examples of how to truly love others. I love being able to see Christ working through me and another other with his love.

Deep Culture

I really love the idea of deep culture. I think that it is so important to know more than just the surface of culture, religion, and people in general. When you think about the people you know the best, you know that you understand and know more than just the surface level of their life and you know them on a deep level. It is the same thing within religion. When you know a culture more than just what the world shows you and you know that deeper level of connection with the culture or religion you can let it take you to a different place of understanding and appreciation.

Personally, I think understanding God on a deeper level is the most important thing in my life. Knowing my culture and religion on a deeper level is the point of my life then being able to share it with others, is why I am here on earth. So other people knowing my culture is important to me because it helps them understand who I truly am and telling them about God and my religion is why I am here on earth.

Learning about someone and their culture is an amazing experience. Whether you agree with their culture or beliefs or not knowing about the things they believe helps you understand them better and get to know them on a level that not everyone knows them on. I have only a select few people in my life who truly know me and the deep culture of my life and those are the people who are in my Christian community and have the same values as I do. Relationships like this let your guard down and let others truly see your culture on a deeper level and you need people like that in your life who truly know who you are to be your accountability partners in your culture and religion. When you create these deep relationships is when you truly start to grow. When you are in a community of people who think and understand religion the way you do you and learn and grow off one another. Having this deep culture in similar shows others how you should want to share that deep culture to let people see who you truly are and what your culture truly is not just what people assume about that basic level.

*I did write this for a school paper so there are a few things that are in here just to properly go along with the rubric for my grade.*