Hitting Close to Home

Immersed in a foreign culture for the past few months, I have found myself re-evaluating many habits and behaviors that I had considered ‘normal’. I’ve lived in cultures more foreign to the American way of life (French society was a much greater shock to my system a few years ago). Here in Belfast it hasn’t been the shock of cultural differences causing all this reflection—it has been the similarities. Over and over I have been struck by how many frustrations and dilemmas the US and Northern Ireland have in common.

Just like the language differences discussed in earlier reflections, America and Northern Ireland share much of the same culture. Because many Ulster Scots settled in the South of the US, many peculiarities of their language and habit have become infused with Southern culture. I feel like the culture around me is some strange mirror reflection of America—which would explain the idiosyncrasies, like Fords driving on the left side of the road or the unfamiliar accent. Sometimes it seems like I’m in some strange nether-world…I wonder if I’ll turn a corner to find cars driving on the right side and people speaking ‘American’. Things are so close to home, yet at the same time they’re so different…its eerie.

Reflecting on my past cultural experiences, I have realized that if everything was completely different in look and sound and feeling, like my summer experience in Peru, then at least I could separate the two worlds of here and home, of Northern Ireland and the US. But the similarities almost make the culture shock worse. Because the differences are not always obvious, I have had to re-evaluate my catch phrases, my habits of interaction, my sense of space and time—everything I used to consider normal, in order to identify what is peculiar to this place and this culture. This examination has brought feelings ranging from mild discomfort to outright shock.

Most of the observations that I have made could be applied—often very directly—to the US. For example, because of our 30-second sound-byte news culture, many in the US have the impression that Belfast is one large riot, all the time. But how easy it is for my generation—who never experienced it—to forget that just forty years ago there were race riots in cities across America. Many people who lived through the riots didn’t experience them directly either, because the violence was contained to certain areas of town. Likewise, some people here have only encountered riots on television. Only a preferred few get the pleasures of throwing bricks and breathing tear gas. Many live a quiet existence away from major ‘trouble spots’, with time spent driving to work, picking up the kids from school, making dinner, attending church, etc. Sometimes the commutes are complicated by fiery road-blocks and car-jackings, in violence like we saw a few months ago. But more and more, those occurrences are the exception, not the norm. ‘These kids,’ said one mother, referring to her own children, ‘they have no idea what we lived through, what the violence was like.’

One might compare the political and social situation of Northern Ireland to the US thirty years ago, as we were emerging out of the Civil Rights movement. Legally Catholics and Protestants have the same rights and protections, but society is still highly segregated in everything from schools to sports teams to churches. It makes me think about how much has changed in the States since that time. Schools? Public schools have integrated, but often times only because of forced busing, causing much anger and much pain all around. Sports teams? Certainly, but only through the suffering of those courageous enough to break the mold and challenge existing power structures. Churches? Not really. I have heard it said, and find it true in my experience, that Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week in America. How ridiculous is it that the very institution tasked with spreading the love of Christ on earth is the very institution that remains almost entirely segregated, years after the government and private business has changed?

Making matters worse is the simple fact that things could be different in the US. It will take much wisdom and hard work, on the part of many thoughtful and dedicated Christians, to integrate the American church. Many have been at work for years already, like those involved in a house church back home in Jacksonville, or those at Christ Central Church in Charlotte. They understand that church integration probably won’t ever happen completely. But then again, none of us will ever be perfect until we are able to see the Lord face to face, and that doesn’t stop us from striving here and now. Things could be different, and thus they strive to make them so.

This is where the comparison of Northern Ireland to America fails. Although there is a possibility of integrating the church in America, the religious nature of the division here means that the church will remain, indefinitely, the most segregated institution in Northern Ireland. ‘If you learn one thing about all this ruckus,’ one elderly man told me recently, ‘remember that it is all political. As much as people say its religious, its not.’ Two hours later, another elderly man expressed resignation at any possibility of permanent peace. ‘I don’t see how, because when it comes down to it, the conflict is religious—you can’t around that fact.’ As usual, the reality seems to lie somewhere in between, and I am stuck in shades of green when all I want is black and white. Hatred, violence, the segregation of an entire society-- they are not so easily explained. Perhaps my eyes will adjust to the shades and colors, like changing TV from black and white to color, so that I can observe more textures and hues of this insanely complex conflict. Only time will tell.