In an Asian culture, they scold them often, to correct them, and when the scolding is very angry, and very strong put down, and the person becomes ashamed, so shame is used to control the person in the family. It happens in churches, and I've picked it up in some churches. I said you can't talk that way, that's not how you talk to the children of God. They're children of God, just like you and I are. You can't do that to them, it's an evil, and so what we did then was I ministered to them. Well you can't believe the demons that came out of everyone, because they'd been scolded: spirits of death, spirits of hate, self-hate, spirits of shame, all kinds of demons came out of people. They screamed and - I haven't seen such a spectacular display in a long time, but it was over the issue of being scolded, by someone trying to control their behaviour.
Many times in families, people try and control the behaviour of others by shaming them. Another kind of shaming is ethnic shaming. The Bible tells us God has made us out of every tribe, kindred nation, every ethnic group has made one people, yet what happens is, we think that we're somehow better than others. Usually, to put it bluntly, the ones who are in the majority, think they're better than the ones who are in the minority. The ones in the minority feel shamed, because they're not accepted, valued or received like everyone else. It's true, and the church is somehow going to have to get a grip with this one, because the church is growing now - in this coming decade, it's going to become multicultural, and it's going to have to face the issue of how to cross not only the gender gap, but particularly the cultural gap between different cultures.
So cultural shaming means we think that we're better than someone else, our way is better, see? So there's a shaming comes on the minority group, until the minority become the majority, and it turns out they think just like us, that our way is better. Now we're in the minority, and now we're shamed. That's what goes on. That's what happens. Rarely does a group of people coming into a nation to settle there, think their way of doing things is less than the way of the people in the nation. They think it's more important, or its better, and when they've got enough numbers, then they become the predominant culture, and they shame the other culture. But Jesus has called us to be of one culture. He calls out every tribe, every nation, to become one culture. Kingdom of God culture, it'll have tremendous variety of expressions, depending on the culture people have come from, but it's still a kingdom of God culture, and it's not a western individualistic culture.
We have a western mindset, which we think is normal. It's completely anti-biblical. The Bible's concerned about family, about community. We're all about looking after me, number one, and getting ahead, and that breaches the whole concept of what God has built into His own culture, which some cultures in the earth really welcome that. Hey, you're getting all quiet. [Laughs] Don't get too serious on me. Interesting isn't it aye? Here's another area where people get shamed, and that is through the media. The media shame us. Now how do the media do it? Have you ever sat in front of a TV and watched some of the adverts? You'll notice they do the same thing, that in order to be happy, you need such-and-such a product! [Laughter] They're extremely clever - you can't be happy? How can you possibly say your life is right, unless you have da-da? And so we need all kinds - your kids get in front of the television, you know, to be happy they've got to have that latest toy. Get them away from the tele, you won't have half the expenses. [Laughs]
Okay then, so then of course the other place that shaming takes place is in the area of the church. Church is one of the worst at shaming people. Jesus has entrusted us the keys of releasing people from shame, and yet often what happens is through a judgemental attitude, we cause people to feel ashamed about being different. You see that judgemental attitude, Jesus confronted continually. The Pharisees of His day failed to recognise that the call of God encompassed all nations of the earth. They had gender prejudice, they had religious prejudice, they had racial prejudice, or ethnic prejudice, and when Jesus confronted it, they just wanted to kill Him.