This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What is cultural superiority? Why are some cultures’ values made to feel inferior?
In When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert believe that some Christian mission trips are based on cultural superiority. This means that they’re trying to help others, such as the poor, but believe their own culture is more important than those they’re helping.
Let’s dive deeper into the concept of cultural superiority to better understand it.
Cultural Superiority
The authors point out that every culture has a system of values that govern people’s behavior within that culture. So what is cultural superiority? A cultural superiority complex consists of failing to respect another culture’s value system when you interact with people of that culture. Whether you disregard the other culture’s values because you consciously view them as inferior and unimportant or you’re just oblivious to the differences, such disregard will cause misunderstandings and hinder relationships.
Cultural superiority complexes can be a problem any time Christians minister cross-culturally. The authors observe that the effect is greatest on mission trips to countries with very different cultures, but even different ethnic groups or neighborhoods within the same city sometimes have sufficiently different cultures to cause misunderstanding and friction.
Addressing Allegations of Hypocrisy
Corbett and Fikkert affirm that the Christian worldview is objectively superior to other worldviews and that teaching the Christian worldview is a crucial part of alleviating poverty because of the advantages that the Christian worldview provides. Does this mean that they have a cultural worldview superiority complex? And since they point out the problems that superiority complexes can cause, does this make their position hypocritical?
Not necessarily. Although they don’t take time to explicitly refute this concern in the book, we can infer that they don’t see any hypocrisy in condemning cultural superiority complexes while maintaining the superiority of a Christian worldview because they believe Christianity (and thus a Christian worldview) can flourish in a wide range of cultures. They thus distinguish religion from culture: No culture is above another, but Christianity is above all religions.
The authors assert that collaborating effectively with local, indigenous churches is a key element of ministering effectively to the poor. And to drive this point home, they emphasize that if you want to help a particular group or community, you should start by learning how and where God is already working in that community, not by assuming that you need to bring God to that community. This approach stands in contrast to approaching a community with a cultural superiority complex.
Thus, while the question of whether the authors’ faith in the superiority of the Christian worldview constitutes a superiority complex could probably be argued both ways, their views are at least self-consistent.
Classifying Cultural Values
Corbett and Fikkert identify four key values and the spectrum of perspectives that different cultures take on them. Let’s consider each of them in turn and the ways that a cultural superiority complex can be counterproductive to building relationships between the missionary and the poor of another culture (which is a prerequisite for helping to heal the poor person’s relationships with God, others, self, and creation).
Cultural perspective on power over circumstances: The authors observe that Western cultures tend to postulate that people control their own destiny, but people of some other cultures view the circumstances of life as being largely beyond human control. This can lead a Westerner with a superiority complex to regard others as apathetic and undeserving of assistance.
Cultural perception of authority: The authors note that Western culture tends to value giving all individuals equal social status, while some other cultures value certain hierarchies of social status. A Westerner with a superiority complex may ignore the social hierarchy of another culture, insulting people at the top of the hierarchy and asking others to do things that aren’t culturally acceptable in that context.
Cultural perception of time: Corbett and Fikkert explain that Western culture is strongly “monochronic,” meaning that Westerners view time as a limited resource. Meanwhile, the authors describe many other cultures as “polychronic,” meaning that they view time as an unlimited resource. A Westerner with a monochronic mindset and a superiority complex may become impatient or even offended when people show up late to meetings, fall behind schedule, and don’t seem to respect their time.
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- How many Christian church missions actually do more harm than good
- A look into the true nature and causes of poverty
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