SENSITIVITY - EMPATHY - HUMILITY

I quote a touching conversation between a daughter and her missionary mother below. This conversation teaches me (us) about sensitivity, empathy and humility - I offer my apology especially to those who strongly believe in the superiority of 'Christian culture' (I intentionally prefer the word 'culture' instead of 'faith).'

“Mom, wait a minute,” Emma said to me. Something had been troubling her ever since she first came home from school. “What would you say if...” I set the plates back on the table and sat down. “What would you say if I told you I was going to become a Hindu?”

It was a good thing I sat down. “What did you say Emma?” I stalled.

“What would you say if I told you I was going to become a Hindu?” She didn't take her eyes off my face.

“You’re not joking?” I knew she wasn’t. Her deep brown eyes could not have been more serious.

“I am not joking,” Emma replied.

What was there for me to say? The sweet, earnest, devout child before me, flesh of my flesh, a Hindu?! I had never thought of her in any way except as a child of Christ. I had failed her, and I had failed God. I had failed the other missionaries and the Indian Christians. How could I face anybody? All this came over me in a flash, and I was then more deeply shamed in the realization that my first reaction was one of loss of face.

She let me sit in silence until the whole impact of what she had said sank in. I saw her whole life before me including her marriage to.... Where was her father?! Perhaps he would be able to cope with this better than I could.

I must have looked very stricken, for she suddenly said, “I’m sorry, Mom. I just want you to know how Rani’s mother will feel. Rani is going to tell her mother, this vacation, that she is going to become a Christian. It will affect her family as deeply as it would affect you if I became a Hindu.”

Source: Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World by David Livermore (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic; 2009) pp. 160-161.