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Daniel Briceno
Jon Beadle
English 113B
16 February 2016

The Christian Culture

Have you ever stopped and wondered how diverse a community is? Culture is what
makes our community and helps us identify ourselves and others. In the article Culture and
Communications by Anastacia Kurylo she states that Culture is not just an identity or category
but also how a group of people share a way of life (Kurylo 3). Having a feeling of belonging in a
certain group is called culture identity because you are categorizing yourself in a group where
you feel shares the same way of life as you. The Christian culture is a group of people who
believe and try to imitate everything in the bible. I, as an individual, consider myself to be in the
Christian culture because of my experiences and beliefs. This culture affects the way I am today
because I am a hardcore believer who tries to imitate everything in the bible. That means that my
behaviors should let other people see Christ in me. Even though I consider myself to be a man of
god, my behavior changes when I am in different spaces because different spaces gives you
different feeling which makes you react differently to each feeling.
I consider myself to be in the Christian culture because of how I grew up learning all our
traditions and beliefs. In the bible there is a very important quote that is very popular in the

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Christian community which is For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (New International Version,
John. 3. 16). John 3:16 gives us hope of eternal life in heaven through the love of God and death
of Jesus Christ. This quote teaches us that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, God's Son, will
be saved. This is Crucial because this quote alone summarizes the whole tradition of Christianity
because if you believe in God and Jesus Christ, then you believe everything in the bible. This
quote influenced me as I was growing up because since my family believed in this quote so
immensely, this made my family and I try to apply everything we read off the bible in our
everyday life. Just like Ronald Jackson, Cerise Glenn, and Kesha Williams said in their article
Self Identity and Culture people must create a shared system of understanding through the use
of symbols" (Jackson, Glenn, William 123). We Christian have many symbols and this quote is a
huge symbol in our culture. John 3:16 is the summary of our Christian culture which is an
emblem because although everybody is different, we succeed as a cohesive society because we
learned to use John 3:16 as a token which helps us understand our shared system. Not
acknowledging that John 3:16 is our emblem, it would make our culture fall because we have no
reason to be a Christian in the first place. Without John 3:16 my family and I would never have
tried to apply the bible in our lives which would mean that I would have never have learned these
traditions and beliefs growing up such as praying, loving everybody including enemies, and

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worshipping god. There are more things that I learned in my tradition but Ultimately, I consider
myself to be in the Christian culture because of how I was raised and what I believe in.
Although I grew up learning these traditions and beliefs, I would have never been a
strong representation of a Christian without the experiences I had to face growing up. Just like
Del Gandio said in his book Rhetoric for Radicals Your self-knowledge expands with every
experience (Del Gandio 95). This shows that you learn more about yourself as you experience
events in life. This is important because that means that with every experience you go through
you can learn from it and understand more about yourself. It is important to learn about oneself
because since we were little we grew up with so many cultures around us. Some are good and
some are bad. We need to know about ourselves to see where we feel where we belong in the
culture. It is also important to know about yourself so that you can build your-esteem and be
confident on what you believe in so that way you don't fall into other cultures because of peer
pressure. Two years ago my dad unfortunately had a cancerous tumor on his neck which was
spreading all around. Every two days he had to go to the hospital and they would take blood
samples and make incisions on his neck which were very painful. Every time the doctors put the
tumor down, the next couple of days it came back larger and stronger. Even though the doctors
told us that there is nothing they could do to cure it unless he go to chemotherapy, which is very
expensive, we did not lose hope. The next week we went to church and their was a special guest
who was going to preach the word. His topic was about healing and how god is our healer. At the

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end of the service he called everyone up to the altar so that he can pray for those who are sick.
The majority of the church went up and for some reason he went up to my father and he put his
hand on my dad's neck, which my dad was hiding from the public. The man starting speaking in
tongues and declared for my dad to heal. The next day my father woke up in a jubilant manner
because the tumor was completely gone! He went to the hospital and they could not explain the
miracle that they had just witness. This shows how god works in these types of situations and
how you should never lose faith because he is by your side. This is important because since our
family experienced this, it made me realize more about myself as an individual and how i had a
strong feeling of belongingness in the Christian Culture. This example shows a lot about my
culture because my culture is all about love and faith and without these two components, I could
almost guarantee that my father would not have survived. This also shows a lot about my culture
because of how we took action when we heard the news by still going to church and testing our
faith with god and declaring that he is our healer. This shapes my identity because after this
experience, I knew that I had a strong feeling of belongingness in the Christian Culture and let
everyone know that I am a Christian. Also it shaped my identity because since I know where i
was coming from, my behavior changed from being a mean guy who liked messing with people
to being a loving guy who just wants to help people. Of course, depending on the space I am in,
my behavior and thoughts changes. My behavior with my parents and church remained the same
but, as of being in school, people saw how I was still myself but different. Of course I did not act

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exactly how I was at church because i still cussed and sometimes get angry but, because of this
experience, people already saw that I was trying to be a better person. Ultimately, without
experiencing what my father went through, I would not have considered myself to be in the
Christian Culture.
I consider myself to be in the Christian culture because of my close relationship with
God. As a christian, a goal we have is to let people see Christ through us. In the bible it says For
to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (New International Version, Philippians. 1. 21). In
order to live is to be in Christ and the only way we can do that is if we proclaim the gospel. It
also means that we imitate Christs preachings. For example, not having hate in your heart and
loving everybody. Especially loving your enemies. This scripture also means that we are willing
to give up anything that prevents us to be with Christ which could be bad habits such as smoking
and drinking. The quote says to die is gain, which basically means that if you live in Christ, then
your gain will be in heaven. This is an important quote for my Christian culture because action
plays a huge role for us. However it is more important to have a close relationship with God so
that we can live righteous. Furthermore, it does not mean that we have to live a perfect life. No
matter what, people will slip and sin here and there. Charles Swindoll stated in his article What
is Christianity and what do Christians believe? instead of adhering to a list of "do's and dont's,"
the goal of a christian is to cultivate a close walk with God. That relationship is made possible
because of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit (Swindoll 1). This quote shows that

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Christians are not people who behave well but instead sin just like anybody else. The whole point
of being a christian is to have a close relationship with God. This is important because people
lack knowledge when it comes to our beliefs. They call us hypocrites and say that we judge
people when we actually acknowledge that we are no better than any other person. Our goals as
Christians are not to be good people, but to have a close relationship with god by being
righteous. What I mean by this is to understand that you will not go to heaven by being as good
person. You will go to heaven if you accept Christ as your savior and have a close connection
with god. For example, all my life, I thought that I will go to heaven because I am in the worship
team and because I always went to church. At that time, I never really had a connection with God
because i never prayed nor read the bible. Since I never did any of these things, I felt empty and
never really felt Gods Presence. Then, one day my Pastor gave a preaching and one thing that
stuck to me was when he said, God will rather take a very sinful man to heaven who knew God
and had a strong connection with him instead of taking a good man who never had a connection
with him. After hearing that, I talked to my Pastor, and after a few weeks of his reminders of
praying and reading the word, I started doing these things on my own. Not only that but, I began
to feel filled up by God and can feel his presence. I consider myself to be in the Christian culture
because I have a close relationship with god and always try to live righteously.
I consider myself to be in the Christian culture because of the traditions and beliefs I
learned while growing up, my experiences, and my close relationship with God. Without having

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these reasons, I would not consider myself to be in the Christian culture because then, I wouldnt
have value. I encourage all Christians to take these points into consideration and applying them
to their life in order to have a stronger connection with the Christian culture. Ultimately, this
culture shapes who I am and how I behave throughout the day and depending on the space I am
in, I behave very different. Nevertheless, I always try to everybody around me that I am a
Christian.

Work Cited
New International Version. Ed. Susan Jones. New York: Doubleday, 1985. Print.
Kurylo, Anastacia. Culture and Communications. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2014. Print
Jackson, Ronald, Cerise Glenn, and Kesha Williams. Self-Identity and Culture. Los Angeles:
Sage Publications, 2013. Print
Del Gandio, Jason. Rhetoric for Radicals. New Society Publisher, 2008. Print

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Swindoll, Charles. What is Christianity and what do Christians Believe. Vancouver: Thoman
Nelson, 2009. Print