Multiculturalism?

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jesusmademe said:
Ok. What part of other cultures should I learn.
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I would suggest trying to change the way you feel about immigrants before you go full steam ahead in learning about their cultures. A couple of suggestions to consider when you cross paths with someone who is different from you:
  1. Look into their eyes and remember they are a precious child of God, just like you are.
  2. When you hear their language and you don’t understand it, learn to listen to it as if it was a melody, a song of sorts. Just be an observer. It really is a beautiful thing that we are made with the capacity to communicate in such different, yet similar ways.
These are baby steps; dipping your toe into the pool of diversity.
If you can do those two things, and walk away feeling warm inside about the diversity being a gift, then you won’t have to ask how to learn about other cultures. It will all fall into place and come naturally to you.
 
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Getting out of your comfort zone is hard, but usually beneficial. Do you think those early monks and priests heading out of civilized Christendom into places like Germany and the Slavic countries in the Early Medieval period were daunted by the strangeness of the customs and language? Didn’t St. Paul berate his fellow Christians for the way they treated gentile converts?
 
So, I live in a country that has never really been homogeneous and, here, nobody really goes out of their way to learn about other cultures. There is some baseline understanding when it comes to social norms and, everything else, you just learn from chance encounters with people from other cultures. If there is some misunderstanding or you accidentally say something offensive, you just say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know” and the other person is usually fine about it.

Also, your point about immigration is valid: a country has no business trying to save the rest of the world if it cannot take care of its own people.
 
Hebrew scriptures are filled with multiculturalism. “The widow, the orphen and the stranger in the land” is almost a refrain, repeated throughout the Law and the Prophets as people we need to care for. “Remember you were once strangers too” is a reference to the Exodus, when Jews were strangers in Egypt; to the return to Canaan, when the conflict of cultures became a war; to the time when the Jews were exiled to Babylon, far from their home.

It was not all conflict. Read the book of Ruth. There a moabite woman comes to live in Israel. She is not spurned. She becomes the great grandmother of King David. Every refugee could be approached with the hope that greeted Ruth. They may be someone who will contribute greatly to your culture.
 
jesusmademe said:
But look guys…I want official statements from the Church.
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Here’s a good one from the Bible:
Leviticus 19:33-34
When an alien resides with you in your land, do not mistreat such a one. You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the Lord, am your God.
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Have you seen mass televised from the Vatican? How about the Papal audience where the Pope addresses the audience in several languages.

You’ll see lay people and clergy from all over the world , of all races and ethnicities. The Earthly kingdom of God and multiculturalism at its finest.

It’s not what the Church says. It’s what it does and it does what Jesus says it should. To go and make disciples of all nations.

This action speaks eloquently than any document of what the Church thinks of multiculturalism. Ideal multiculturalism consists of people of all cultures gathering together to honor Jesus as King.
 
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No, alien and stranger are not exactly synonyms. Alien means foreign-born resident (foreigner), immigrant, migrant, not a native or citizen. Aliens are likely to be strangers. Not all strangers are aliens.

Edited to add: I see that some Bible translations, e.g., King James Version, use stranger rather than alien in this passage.
 
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An alien is something belonging to a foreign nation. That is the traditional use of the word before it became associated with extraterrestrials.
 
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I think you’re making this too hard.

Rather than devising a course of study for yourself, just get to know your neighbors and co workers.

People aren’t cultures.
People are just people
 
jesusmademe said:
Multiculturalism seems to force us to learn about all kinds of different cultures.
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It should be a choice. Nobody should be forced to learn about other cultures. I Might not know or want to know anything about someone’s culture but it doesn’t mean I have Ill will towards them or fear them. When I’m around them I’ll treat them with the same respect I’d treat anyone. So I’m not interested in the food or religion or customs or whatever of another culture. There are plenty of people who aren’t interested in my religion or food or customs. I don’t care or force them to learn anything. Who cares. It’s their choice.
 
Thanks.
I work in health care and a lot of my co workers are Haitian immigrants, and a lot are Indians and I find myself learning about their culture just from day to day interactions and stuff, stories they tell me about their homelands, that sort of thing.

And… like everybody else they have their good days and bad days and get grumpy or sick or good things happen or whatever is on the human condition happens to us all regardless of ethnicity.
 
Hej mina svenska vänner! As a Swedish-American, I understand the value of diversity. But Sweden has brought in so many immigrants in recent years that the native culture of Sweden has eroded to the point that many Swedes don’t even recognize their own country anymore. Don’t get me wrong, multiculturalism has its benefits, such as opening our minds to different cultures and ways of thinking (to an extent). But if there are so many foreigners in a society that the native population becomes a minority, the native traditions and culture of that country can die out.
 
That’s just not right. Imagine certain Asian or African countries allowing that. They wouldn’t allow and neither should Sweden or anyone else. It’s cultural and national suicide.
 
Zach said:
It’s cultural and national suicide.
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That is a fantastically dramatic statement. How do you figure that?

The US has historically been open to immigration (compared to many other countries) and that never was the cause of decline, let alone suicide! (The current decline is due to cultural trends like unbridled greed, lust, and self-absorption, nothing to do with immigration.)
 
I wasn’t talking about the US. I was responding to the post above me about Sweden. The poster said “but Sweden has brought in so many immigrants in recent years that the native culture of Sweden has eroded to the point that many Swedes don’t even recognize their own country anymore.” For natives whose ancestors go back thousands of years I’ll repeat what I said: that’s just not right.
 
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