I’ve heard people complain that missionaries have had negative influences on the cultures they have worked in. Why aren’t those same concerns voiced over the negative influence from MTV, Madonna, Oprah, and a thousand other pushers of the culture of self, sex, and ‘anything goes’? As I’ve traveled the world I’ve heard people speak of how helpless and angry they feel about the cultural influence from the West. I was in East Germany when Communist fell. Besides the freedom of movement and the lack of fear the first notable changes were the enormous LCD screens that appeared in subway stations: and on those screens, non-stop MTV. The pushers of another culture were making sure the next generation from the East understood what freedom was all about. It was akin to going warp speed from ‘Leave It To Beaver’ 1960’s morality to 1990 wide-screen Madonna shaking her groin in your face. It was shocking enough in the US, but inexcusable to promote such things in the East.

One thing these pushers of ‘me-culture’ don’t seem to care about is that while many may ride the wave of their cultural revolution there are others who see it as a slap in the face to their way of life. In eastern and especially Islamic cultures religious leaders will point to these things and say, “Didn’t we tell you? This is the culture of Satan. This is who they really are.” The way to promote better relationships in the world isn’t by shoving one’s opposing ideas front and center, but by respecting the views of the people and customs of other lands. The promoters of self don’t seem to care.

Just today in the LA Times online I read about another promoter of ‘anything goes’: American artist, Spencer Tunick, who travels the globe creating and photographing nude-action events. If you are comfortable with nudity or masses of nude people being psychologically pushed to embrace one other then you will have no problem with Tunick’s work. My point is that he is creating these events in main city centers to push his agenda. And he is now attempting to do an event in the Middle East, in Israel.

The section of the LA times online that is covering this story is called Babylon and Beyond: Observations from Iraq, Iran, Israel, the Arab world and beyond. They report, “Religious leaders are aghast … prostitution has suddenly become a form of art.”  Though Mr. Tunick and those who working with him have envisioned this as a Middle East ‘disarmament’, to many it will be more like a slap in the face from a naked man. Of course Mr. Tunick doesn’t care about that. He doesn’t care what the local culture is. He isn’t concerned about putting more fuel on the fire of animosity and cultural misunderstandings. He is only interested in one thing – just as Dov Litvinoff, a leader in the region, commented to Newscore, “A nude display of thousands of nudists does not promote the Dead Sea, it promotes the whim of someone who calls himself an artist.”

It is one thing for any artist to attempt to do such things in their own culture, but to push something that is contrary to another culture is beyond concern, beyond sensitivity, beyond art, and beyond excuse. If Mr. Tunick doesn’t believe this will be yet another reason for many Imams to call for the destruction of the decadent West, then he doesn’t understand how fragile and important cross-cultural relationships are.

photo by helgasma!   @flickr.com