We all have them–those areas in our lives that we need to give over to God, but aren’t even aware of, much less able to address effectively. Oh, we might know something isn’t right–our spiritual “Spidey-senses” tingle uncomfortably, or we become aware of negative consequences our actions are bringing about. Or, we might be completely clueless. Sometimes these are personal sins, those areas of our lives that we just don’t see as a problem. But the hardest blind spots to deal with are social sins–those things that our culture accepts, or even values, that do not line up with the Gospel as expressed through the person of Jesus.

Two things made me think of this over the weekend: an excellent article on Senegal’s success in addressing female genital mutilation, and a book review by Efrem Smith, a leading voice for racial reconciliation within the Covenant, of John Piper’s new book “Bloodlines.” I won’t go in depth on either article here (you can read them yourself!), but here are a couple principles I took away from them regarding addressing social sins.

Be gracious, with yourself and others.

I am consistently amazed at God’s patience with humanity, especially as I read the Old Testament. For instance, how could David, whose hands were admittedly “soaked in blood” and whose palace bore some striking resemblances to the Playboy mansion, be considered a man after God’s own heart? Either God was just fine with David slaughtering entire villages and collecting concubines–it wasn’t sinful after all–or God was exhibiting hard-core grace for a person who simply didn’t know any better. I believe the latter.

There are areas of our individual lives and cultural identities that are so broken it could take lifetimes to repair. We want God to wave a magic wand over the world and make things perfect now, but God doesn’t usually work that way. He is patient, and we are all works in progress. We need to be patient too. Contempt is not called for–in fact, it may just make people defensive, and cause them to cling even more tightly to unfortunate ideals.

For instance, the international outcry against female genital mutilation, which has been practiced in Africa for thousands of years, may have pushed African governments to ban the practice, but had little bearing on what actually happened in the villages. Progress was made, however, when people began to acknowledge that this practice was done out of deeply-held traditions and love for their daughters, and addressed the issue “African-style”–getting the village leaders engaged, building consensus among the people, and using ritual to celebrate the end of the practice.

Seek outside input.

The problem with blind spots, especially cultural blind spots, is that we can’t see them! If we want to address them, we need to get input from people who can. This can be scary for some of us, but how are we ever going to become aware of our blind spots if we only ask the people who think and act just like us? We all like to be affirmed, but sometimes we need to be challenged. 

Efrem Smith’s review of “Bloodlines” was gracious, but he did take issue with the second half of the book. Here’s a snippet from the review:

Dr. Piper presents Calvinism as the theological framework for living into racial reconciliation biblically. I must respectfully disagree with him. He states in the book that Jesus deals with ethnocentrism, but then presents a theology rooted in Eurocentric ethnocentrism as the solution.

Now, I’m no Calvinist, but being approximately the color of oatmeal, and having been exposed primarily to theologians of European descent, I had to wonder–how is Calvinism Eurocentric?And what would non-Eurocentric theology even look like? It startled me that I couldn’t pinpoint the issue Efrem was addressing–couldn’t even see it–and so I asked. I got some wonderful, gracious, and incredibly helpful responses, and have become determined to learn more about how my brothers and sisters in Christ who aren’t wearing European glasses approach theology. I have no doubt that it will stretch me, and no doubt that I need to be stretched.

So, there are a couple ideas about how to address cultural blind spots. What about you? Do you feel you have blind spots you need to address? What are the blind spots you see in your own culture? What are some other ways can we address them?