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MONOGRAPHS ABOUT CORPORATE IDENTITIES OF SELECTED
NATIONS.
© Pieter Bos, Serving the Nations, Almere, The Netherlands.
General
about Corporate Identity (CI).
Throughout the Bible peoples, tribes and nations, and also cities,
are spoken of as very important to God's plan, and they are spoken
of and treated as corporate personalities: they have an identity,
they are addressed as "Virgin Daughter Judah, Virgin Daughter
Babylon", they are held responsible for their actions, they
are covenanted, they will be judged and they can be redeemed.
Definition.
These "corporate persons" are created in the image of
God. The CORPORATE IDENTITY of a corporate personality is a. the
expression of God's character in that personality, because of which
it contains b. her destiny in God and c. her redemptive gift to
her fellow peoples. Through the fall and the effects thereof, this
(corporate) identity has been distorted and corrupted. Each individual
person of a people group reflects more or less the CI of that group;
a substantial part of his personality is rooted in his corporate
personality.
Threoughout the Bible we find nations and cities "named"
(Jer 8:5; Hos 2:23; Hos 1:9; Isa 41:8; Deut 9:24; Isa 13:19; Jer
50:12,31,32; Isa 47:1; Rev 18:5; Isa 19:25; Isa 10:5).
The
way to discern the Corporate identity of a nation.
I found the identities presented in these Monographs through Bible
study, corporate prayer, waiting on God, and through posing all
sorts of related questions to spiritual and secular leaders in these
nations. These questions concerned both the true and the corrupted
expressions of the corporate identities, both in hero's and in facts,
both historically and contemporarily. Of course the examples are
selective, but all of the monographs presented have been discussed
in the very nations over and over. All suggested corporate identities
are open for further study.
Generalization
Through years of travelling a long list of CI's has developed and
refined. I have found, that the inevitable generalisation in this
approach does not make void the general use of this concept. In
case the reader might think what he reads about other peoples applies,
but for his own people not really "because it is too general,"
then I am confident. It is always a surprise how other peoples perceive
you, especially when you are not accustomed to thinking at peoples
scale
Purpose
of these monographs
First of all: Just reading the Corporate Identities gives a new
joy of the manifold wisdom and character of God, our Lord Creator,
the Shepherd of the Nations.
Second: These monographs should not be used to feed prejudices against
peoples that one has already. Rather use these monographs to pray
hope and destiny into the peoples.
Third: We should start to accept that there are differences between
peoples. Suppressing the experience of differences between peoples
works in the end very negative. Understanding the original divine
given corporate destiny of peoples, and their distortions, and the
possibility of redemption, will open new dimensions of ommunication,
unity and cooperation. This is my experience in many nations since
1990. Even stronger: with this understanding I could help many people
in many nations to accept and love their own nation, both where
they suffered from anti(American)nism or national inferiority or
discrimination.
Corporate
Identity of the USA: ADVENTUROUS LEADER.
© Pieter Bos, Serving the Nations, Almere, The Netherlands.
God's
character:
God was for sure adventurous, both in his creation plan and in his
redemption plan; so was Jesus in his coming to dwell among humanity.
And he is for sure a leader, even the "Pioneer and Perfecter
of our Salvation."
Positive
expression, historically and at present; typical persons:
In the church: The church of the US has taken worldwide leadership
in world evangelisation; movements such as AD 2000, with its subsequent
"tracks" bear fruit worldwide. Several international evangelistic
organisations, like OM and YOUTH WITH A MISSION, are originally
American, with worldwide fruit.
In society: Leadership is something natural for Americans.
Even the whole terminology of leadership, leadership styles, leadership
training, leadership manuals, etc., etc., is typical American. "I
can do that," "You can do that," "Go for it,"
are typical American sayings. Small girls are cheerleaders; boys
are impregnated by the idea of establishing and leading a big company,
or setting a foot on a moon yet to be reached. Competition fits
very well in Adventurous Leadership; rather: Adventurous Leadership
has made America highly competitive; and the celebration of celebrities
in America is almost a cult.
The question whether the necessary attitude of the early settlers
has caused this Corporate Identity is not relevant here: modern
Canada* was also established by settlers, but her CI is almost opposite
(and much American-Canadian sensitivities are the result).
Negative
expression: historically and at present; typical persons:
In general: The corrupt side of Adventurous Leadership, or,
as another foreigner after living nine years in the US had observed:
"Dynamic Entrepreneur " is "Presumptuous Leadership":
the boss is right; do not question the boss. Internationally this
expresses along this line: Americans tend to think that their leadership
is the best: "When an American has not done it, it has not
yet been done." They evaluate other nationalities on the basis
whether they have leadership quality or not. In other words: they
tend to measure other nationalities against their own standards,
and often do not mind to value cultural qualities of other nations
or cultures. The effect is a cultural insensitivity, which the Americans
do not experience themselves (at the most it frustrates them), but
it has caused a worldwide anti-Americanism. The fact the American
leadership often is the best, does not matter in this discussion.
I have discovered this CI by working very intensely with Americans
in Europe and through travelling in the US, and, to be honest, through
some intense irritation of the presumptuousness of Americans, even
to the point that God told me, in a missionary setting, to make
a public confession of my pre-occupation. That was God's way to
force me to wonder the redeemed version of Presumptuous Leadership
might be, and accept and then also love Americans, redeemed in their
American-ness or not yet redeemed.
In
the church: In the church this distortion of God-given Adventurous
Leadership has become evident in cross cultural missions: American
missionaries who were spiritually mature enough to obey the Lord
to go abroad, but who had not yet discovered their American-ness,
let alone letting it be (the beginning of) redeemed, and in this
way unknowingly forcing a type of leadership on peoples with a completely
different understanding of leadership, or people without outspoken
concept of leadership, but with great understanding of servant hood
or of spiritual authority!
In society: The type of leadership inside the States itself
is rather top-down: the boss is right. Also the (extreme) competition
in the US culture results from a corruption of her CI, to the detriment
of the marketplace, the political arena and the education system.
Another corruption is individualism: going your own way, because
leadership is "better" than being led.
US
- Russia
Some comparisons between the US and Russia* may shed more light.
Very briefly I give "the CI of Russia: GLORIOUS RULER, TEACHER
KING (<-> Tyrant and teacher of tyranny).
Two large nations: I am convinced that God made these two
nations so large and powerful, because He wanted to show forth some
very beautiful aspects of his Own Leadership and Ruler ship qualities
to the whole world and on a grand scale.
Language learning: People of both nations are very eloquent.
Internationally the corruption of both the American and the Russian
CI leads to "linguistic imperialism": America and Russia
have forced many peoples to learn their language. This is a terrible
sin: Learning another language means: to humble yourself to the
toddler stage and "start all over again." In going cross
cultural, it is either-or: either the foreigner humbles himself
and "toddlers" into the host culture, or: the foreigner
forces his host to a toddler stage and makes a little America/Russia
around himself, where he is the eloquent Leader. For a long-term
missionary this behaviour is of course very contradictory to the
mission he has.
Violence: American corrupted leadership leads to individual
violence -exported through the film industry-; Russian corrupted
leadership leads to collective violence -exported through her political
system-. Both corrupted CI's pollute the whole world.
US - Russian confrontations: numerous are American-Russian
frustrations: Americans are achievement oriented, Russians are rank
oriented. Americans are team workers, Russians are delegators. Americans
think in horizontal relationships, Russians think in hierarchical
relationships.
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