(Episode 4) With our individualist thought process, Americans seem prone to creating power structures where an individual is - or at least considers themselves to be - an absolute authority over a group. Any sense of accountability is often secondary to that sense of personal authority.
This American individualism applies to all walks of life - religious, civil, and family.
But much of the world - especially Asia and the Middle East - instead think about the group before thinking about individual rights. And I'm learning that's also true of the cultures into which the Bible was written and lived. As such, the Bible speaks to and teaches group ideals - where the group and its relationships are the focus, not the individual.
This has some intriguing consequences for my belief structures.
