It’s Not Brain Surgery

Back in my first career as a YMCA youth director, I recruited and directed the local Y-Indian Guide program. In this way I was following in my dad’s footsteps, for he had done the same for three YMCAs where he worked. Not only was he the “Wandering Brave” or “Roaming Sachem” for those programs, he also included me as Little Brave to his Big Brave in two of the cities. Actually, I was in the program longer than most boys got to be since my dad was the director, and it was good for him to be a participating member as well as overall leader.

My Indian name was Running Deer and he was Walking Deer, and our “tribe” chose the Kickapoo name for our group of six or seven pairs of braves. The program’s slogan, which we repeated at each meeting, was to be “Pals forever with my dad/son.” I enjoyed the meetings and outings, much like a Scout troop, except our dads had to be present with us at each event. This program was certainly one of the reasons my dad and I had a close relationship right up to his passing in 2013.

So it was an honor for me to lead the program in the YMCAs where I worked. Of course, not everyone understood how the program worked. One dad, a brain surgeon signed up himself and his son after the tribes had already been formed. I checked the rosters, found a placement for them, and called his office to give him the news. The conversation went like this:

• Receptionist: “Hello, Dr. Mirabile’s office.”
• Me: “Hi, could I speak to Dr. Mirabile, please?”
• Receptionist: “I’m sorry, Dr. Mirabile is in surgery right now. Could I take a message?”
• Me: “(pause) Yes, could you tell him that Wandering Brave called and that I found a tribe for him.”
• Receptionist: “(pause) Would you repeat that please?”
• Me: “Tell him that Wandering Brave called and that I found a tribe for him.”
• Receptionist: “Are you one of the doctor’s patients?”

I also remember the day that I arrived at one school to give my recruitment talk to an assembly of grade school boys: as I pulled up to the school, Harry Chapin’s song, “Cat’s in the Cradle,” about a dad who was always too busy with work to spend time with his son, was playing on the radio, and as the final strains of the father lamenting that his boy had “grown up just like me” played, I had to stop and literally wipe away a tear before I could head into the school. I can tell you that my talk that day was the most fired-up one I ever gave, knowing the importance of helping dads and sons build life-long relationships. Later, we expanded to include dads and daughters in the Y-Indian Princess program.

So, how are these programs, that once impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of families each year, doing today? Well, they’re gone, relegated to the fond memories of the vast numbers of “Little Braves” who are now middle-aged adults and seniors. In its place is a program called “Adventure Guides,” which is much smaller and less visible than the original. Hopefully, it still build family bonds the way the program did when I was a Little Brave.

What happened to the program? It was shut down due to increasing complaints about it being culturally insensitive, demeaning, and even racist toward Native Americans. My first awareness of the issue came while I was still a Wandering Brave. I heard that a delegation of Indians had attended the national Indian Guide convention and presented their criticisms of the program. At the time, I was surprised, since to me the program honored the Indian by copying what we saw as positive traits such as strong father-son bonds and reverence for nature. After all, the program got its name – and start – when a real Indian guide from the Ojibwa tribe named Joe Friday commented to the white man he led on a fishing trip, “The Indian father raises his son. He teaches his son to hunt, to track, to fish, to walk softly and silently in the forest, to know the meaning and purpose of life and all that he must know, while the white man allows the mother to raise his son.” These remarks stung the white man, Harold Keltner, who happened to be a YMCA leader. He took it to heart, and with the Ojibwa man’s help, started the Indian Guide program in 1926. So to me, learning about Indian cultures and emulating the father-son traditions were all very positive.

When I read the complaints, though, I recognized that the program had not always been kind to Native Americans or their culture. Fathers and dads sometimes chose goofy names like Running Bear (Bare), Y tribes mimicked Indian dances and adopted stereotypical words (e.g., “squaw”) and broken English (“Me gettum food for camp-out”) in their meetings, satirical logos were used, and religious ceremonies were copied for entertainment. And while some groups studied the culture and history of their namesake tribe, too often the participants just used Hollywood Indian generalities. Admitting these shortcomings, the national YMCA tried to clean up the program, but eventually, decided to drop the ethnic connection.

So, you may ask, why this excursion into Rich’s ancient history? Simply because the issues raised around the Y-Indian Guide program are still relevant today; in fact, the issues have grown in public discussions and are being applied to all kinds of situations. People are being charged with “cultural appropriation,” which is defined by the Oxford Living (online) Dictionary as, “The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.” Like when a white kid like me dressed up as an American Indian and called myself Running Deer – though I am not apologetic for having done so.

It’s actually become a hot issue, as the term is used as an accusation against people who use or adopt another culture or components of a culture as their own. The assumption is that doing so is insulting and wrong. But is it? I’ve been mulling over the term and its use, especially as it relates to our faith, and offer the following observations:

• I would make a distinction between appropriation and misappropriation.
  • appropriation is adopting things from another culture which one finds useful, beneficial, attractive, or enjoyable. People like what they see or hear, and desires to make it part of their own lifestyle. Thus, no matter where cell phones originated, people of almost every country and culture use them.
  • misappropriation is adopting aspects of another person’s culture in a way that is harmful, insulting, demeaning, or mocking to that other person. Plagiarism is a form of misappropriation, as is outright stealing. The sin of coveting is about wanting to appropriate for oneself what belongs to others.
• Appropriation of another’s cultural traits proves the  statement, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” It says, “I really like what you do/eat/wear and would like to adopt it in my life.” It is a compliment to the person or culture that developed it.
• People everywhere and throughout the ages have had to solve the same basic challenges of life – food, shelter, clothing, protection, language, reproduction, and so on. They have solved them in different ways based on their different resources and experiences. We can learn from each other how to meet life’s challenges by following their example. Thus, people can learn to eat certain plants and avoid others by observing the experiences of other societies. For example: Native Americans introduced corn and potatoes to the European explorers; where would we be without French fries and corn-on-the-cob today? (Note: French fries are just called that; we didn’t misappropriate them from the French. Likewise, when I introduced a Frenchman to French toast, he made a face and said he would call it “American toast.”) As one person learns from another, so one society can learn from another.
• There would be no culture without appropriation. Everything we have, do, or say has been copied/borrowed/adopted from other cultures. If we have developed something new, the skills, material, and even thought processes have borrowed from others before us. Our world would be much plainer without the variety available to us:
  • clothing: tunics (Romans), telescopes (Dutch), dresses, pants (Germanic tribes), pajamas (Persians), sandals, hats, suits, etc.
  • food: sandwiches and blood pudding (English), bratwurst (Germans), hot dogs, hamburgers (Tartars), tacos (Mexicans), pizza (Greeks and Italians), spaghetti (Chinese), bagels and matzohs (Jews), sushi (Japanese), potatoes (Peruvians), crepes (French), corn (Mayans), curry (Indians), chocolate chip cookies (my wife), and haggis (okay, we can skip that one), etc.
  • tools and machinery, electronics. Mathematics such as Algebra (Arabs), and calculus (English and German). The alphabet (Romans who borrowed from the Greeks who borrowed from the Phoenicians).
  • language is appropriated (made one’s own) from someone else. Few of us will create a new word or thing, and if we do, it will die out and disappear unless people appropriate it for themselves. The fact you can read this blog means you understand English, which comes from the English but had been developed over centuries by contacts and infusions with other languages – including Britons, Celts, Danes, Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Latin writings, etc.
• Appropriation is unavoidable, necessary, and desirable. Proper appropriation is done with respect, honor, attribution, and where possible, permission. The use of one trait by another culture should be a compliment and a way for that trait to persevere.

This is important to recognize because the transmission of the Christian faith depends on cultural appropriation. We are recipients of a faith first begun in the ancient Middle East. We worship with forms handed down thousands of years ago thousands of miles away. The Word of God was written in languages far different than ours, in formats (scrolls and codices) invented by other cultures. Yet those words, and that faith belong to us because we have appropriated it to ourselves (through the work of the Holy Spirit). Likewise, every time we translate the Bible to a new language using words and phrases familiar to that culture, it now belongs to them as well.

When we proclaim the Gospel to a culture other than our own, we seek to find ways to express our faith in ways that people from that culture will clearly understand. Our goal is not to make “Americans” out of the hearers, but believers in Christ. Our desire is not for them to abandon their culture for ours, but to “redeem” it by bringing Christ into their lives.

Acts 17:16-34 gives the example of Paul’s mission work in the very pagan city of Athens. He uses an object from the Athenian culture – an altar dedicated “To the unknown god” – and quotes from their own philosophers, to make a connection for them with the true God.

The ultimate example of appropriation is our Lord himself, who appropriated human form and culture to become one of us (Philippians 2:5-10), in order to save us from our sins and redeem us for eternal life. Just as he did so for us, so one day will we appropriate his heavenly inheritance for our own (Colossians 3:24, Hebrews 9:15, 1 Peter 1:4).

May your life be rich with the proper appropriation of all that is good. It’s not brain surgery – just faith in Jesus Christ.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Acts 17:16-34