Compare and Contrast two cultures - Case Study Example

Download file to see previous pages This does not mean that she is an entirely close-minded person. She is exactly the opposite. She has very clear ways of thinking, expressing herself on general matters and is capable of sticking to her own viewpoint mulishly. Only when it comes to personal and emotional issues, it is almost impossible to get a word from Lisa. Her opinions, when they are mildly expressed, lean more towards prudish and conventional mould. But socially she is known to be a liberal to the point of generosity. She cannot tolerate people suffering socially with any kind of stigma. Her prudishness is mainly applied to herself than to others. In spite of having conventional views, she would never stay behind from helping a person in need, although the individual is suffering from being unconventional and untraditional. She has very healthy points of view when it comes to economic issues. Condemning and discriminating the poor and the deprived could never be tolerated by Lisa. Her political views are unexpectedly refreshing. Her liberal mindedness is extended to politics and she likes to see fairness in all the political issues. She is a just person and does not like people suffer quietly due to injustice.
She belongs to the Episcopal Church in the United States and perhaps this is the main draw back, because Lisa conforms to most of its principles. Being somewhere midway between Catholicism and Protestantism, Episcopalian movement has rather unclear issues like supporting both sides of abortion, and homosexuality. This has confused Lisa immensely, even though she tries hard to adhere to the Church. To some extent, Lisa approves the women's equality because the Church has thrived on the issue of women priests. Sometimes, Lisa finds it difficult to apply the Church principles to everyday modern life; but she has the grit and determination to stick to it however difficult it could be. Even though it is the same Christian church, the oddities have entered into different kinds of churches according to the geography in which they are placed. "Christian faith, the system of belief, worship and cultural and religious characteristics which grew up around Jesus, has similarly to assume cultural and socio-political identities and bear their consequences," Wilkinson (1993, p.5).
The fact remains that in addition to the cultural stiffness attributed to the earlier British, Lisa also has the Church rigidity to abide with, and this has resulted in a difficult combination that has made Lisa a stickler kind of a person without much flexibility. This has happened despite her liberal-minded views and even though she is now living in a rather over-liberal society, it only has made Lisa further disapproving. There could be a gender dimension here, because women have always been more God fearing. "Women's stronger attachment to church activity was a major factor underlying their generally higher level of religious identity during the century. Not only did women go to church more than men, but they were usually the critical figures in organizing the rituals marking rites of passage - marriage and baptism," Brown (2006, p.30).
2. In apparent contradiction, David is very different from Lisa, with highly emotional character. He never had any problem in expressing his emotional side, had never been bashful in the display of emotions. If one takes Lisa as one extreme, David would fit to the other extreme without any exaggeration. David is definitely not at all prudish, unlike Lisa. His ideas ...Download file to see next pagesRead More