No. 9

#9 How did Christianity change this culture?

The Sawi culture, before the arrival of Don Richardson, was a culture that consisted of abominable treachery and vile cannibalism. As Don Richardson and his wife began a journey to acquaint this archaic culture with Christianity, they began to see drastic changes.

Don diligently delineated the life of Christ to the Sawi people. At first the Sawi, immured by the thought of treachery, were unable to understand the role of Jesus and misinterpreted that Judas was the real hero. But as the relationship between the Sawi tribe exacerbated, they gradually came closer to Christ. The Sawi then understood the role of Jesus and have accepted Christ as their Peace Child. Vendetta between the Sawi tribes soon seized and their demeanor toward each other altered.

Thus, Christianity, brining the Sawi culture to the acknowledgement of Christ, has changed this blood-thirsty culture by making it abandon its nefarious headhunting customs and its wicked practices.

No. 8

#8 What concepts in the Sawi culture intrigued / reviled / saddened / angered / surprised you?

There are many concepts within the Sawi culture that have intrigued, surprised, or even angered me. When I read about the gruesome cannibalism, I was shockingly appalled. How can a man eat another man? I do not understand why a person would fatten another man with friendship to slaughter them. The credo of the Sawi culture might be treachery, but is it really necessary for them to eat the victim?

Then, the concept of giving a Peace Child overwhelmingly surprised me. Imagine how hard it is for parents to give up their own child. The children are like their own flesh. I was surprised at the fact that they would actually sacrifice their precious child for the sake of serenity. Well, I, not having a child, could not fully comprehend the feeling of giving up one’s child, but even the thought of that is just nonsense to me. To worsen the situation, they have to nurture the child of the enemy as a replacement for their own baby. Wow…

Overall, I was surprised and disgusted by their benighted culture, not being able to comprehend why they would do such a thing.

No. 7

#7 What should society do for “uncivilized cultures” like the Sawi?


Society, for one thing, should contrive a stratagem to provide uncivilized cultures like the Sawi with moral knowledge. Society can provide them with moral knowledge by first introducing them to Christianity. It is indeed an arduous task for people to introduce a new religion and to implement a whole new culture within the uncivilized cultures. But despite its difficulties, the society needs to be like “leeches” in bringing them to God. In bringing them so, uncivilized culture could be able to discern right from wrong and therefore be able to become more civilized.

There are, of course, many possible ways in making the uncivilized cultures into a civilized culture. But we as a society have to come in sympathy, and have to be careful not to annihilate their cultures completely. It is true that the uncivilized cultures are civilized in their own way, but I believe that it is our task to deprive them from their falsehood of thoughts and actions.

No. 6

#6. What makes faith so important?

Faith is having trust, belief, or confidence in a person or a thing. Faith is something intangible.

Without faith, what can be done? This question mostly underlines why faith is so eminent. Can we be confident without faith? Can we have a dream? Can we be saved? No!

For example, the Sawi people sacrifice their own child to maintain peace. But without faith, can the Sawi people sustain tranquility? They will not be able to escape from the ineluctable vendetta among the local tribes.

Then, Faith is what makes up hope. With hope, we are able to achieve our dream.
As a Christian, faith is everything to me. We can only be saved through Sola Fide, which means faith alone. Moral depravity is what separates us from God. But faith gives us closer to God. Hence, we are able to be saved from the penalty of sin.

No. 5

#5 What does Jesus want us to do for the Sawi?


Many times in my life I have encountered the saying, “What would Jesus do (WWJD)?” In order for us to answer this question we first have to think about what Jesus would do for the Sawi.

It is stated in Matthew 29:19, that Jesus wants us to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I believe that Jesus wants us to guide and show them the way to Salvation. As we bring them into Christianity, they will finally see the truth through Jesus and will be saved from their sins.

In Matthew 22:39, Jesus proclaims that the second greatest commandment is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Thus, Jesus wants us to offer the Sawi our love as He has offered His to us. Even if they may honor treachery and live in the tradition of cannibalism, we have to show them our love to let them realize that no matter what, in Jesus’ eyes, we are all His children and that He loves each one of us equally.

No. 4

#4 What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?

In most cases, people tend to reject and disregard other cultures thinking that their culture is the “best.” when we are confronted with other cultures, we should instead learn to accept and acknowledge other cultures.

Approximately fifty years ago, Korea was a totally different place with wagons strolling around. The fact that Korea was able to develop was by adopting new foreign cultures. Korea had adopted different languages, religions, and technologies which all helped it to flourish. Therefore we should synchronize with other cultures to help ourselves to develop. However; it is important for us to question and understand the cultures before assimilating to filter out parts of the culture that is troublesome and to validate its necessity. Without the hesitation of asking or scrutinizing the culture we are about to accept we may lose the sense of our true culture.

No. 3

#3 what do mission organizations do for these people?

Throughout the world there are varieties of different missionary organizations helping out the “untouched” people. Brining them closer to the context of what is “right,” some organizations tend to invade and annihilate their cultures. Yes, it is true that missionaries do destroy cultures, as Don Richardson proclaims, “That [missionaries] destroy certain things in culture, just as doctors sometimes must destroy certain things in a human body if a patient is to live.”

The organizations attempts to give new values in life, of something that is worth living for. But as they struggle to bring new values into their life, the uncivilized people sometimes do not understand or misinterpret what the organizations are trying to accomplish.

Missionary organizations are interacting with these people by learning their language, customs, and values to find a cultural key which will guide them into Christianity. The missionary organizations also provide them with provisions and with the knowledge they lack; hoping to make them understand what the true values are and also hoping to light a new spark into their souls to bring them closer to God by spreading the gospel.

No. 2

#2 How does Faith relate to the world in which we live?

Faith is having trust, belief, or confidence in a person or a thing. Faith is something intangible.

Without faith what can be done? Can someone accomplish their dream? Can there be promises? Can there be Communication? No!

Faith is essential to the world we live in today.

Without faith no one can be trusted. There would be no love, nor relationships. I believe that through faith people have a purpose in life, and through faith people could look forward to things and be delighted. The fact that a person has no faith in someone or something would make a person feel extremely lonely and depressed. But if that person has someone to trust and have a relationship, they would rather feel firm and joyous.

Humans are imperfect. Therefore there are many things that people can’t do with their own abilities. So people like myself tend to depend on God. People pray to God to ask for wisdom and for help. We live in hope, we have expectations and we look forward to it. A person will meet many adversities in life and sometimes we will be overwhelmed by it and it will be hard to overcome. Without faith who can we depend upon and who will be our pillar of support?

No. 1

#1. What factors of your native culture have informed your religious world view? Explain the impact of these factors...

I am indeed a Christian...

I was born in a Christian family and was raised to be a Christian. I also lived in a Korean culture where superstition was present. I was taught by my parents and grand-parents that when going to church, we must be dressed formally. I was taught to bow my head under God and to always be obedient. I always had to offer new money and had to strictly obey the Ten Commandments.

Living almost ten years of my life in Korea, I have accepted its culture. Things were strict and rigid, and I became a self-disciplined child. I also became self-dependent which limited my reliance on God. At this point of my life, I knew who God was and attended church my whole life, but I was merely a Christian. I saw the world as meaningless that we are destined to be who we are and have to live according to our destiny.

Few years later, my life was filled with complexity and I happened to end up in America. I did not know why I was living in America, but I accepted as my destiny. America was a place where things were simple and just. There wasn’t much superstition and violence, but a place of freedom. I could attend church comfortably and be more open minded. I could now be dependent on someone like Jesus. Now I saw the world entirely different that everything has a purpose and meaning, and now I understood why I ended up in America.

My native culture impacted my religious world view by turning me into a fully-fledged Christian. I now understood that God has purpose for everything for each individual and learned that “Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice and also it is not a thing to be waited for, but a thing to be achieved.”