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6 English sins

I asked a friend who's been in the UK just over a year for his outsider's perspective. What are some of my (English) culture's particular sins that we are largely blind to or tempted to excuse within the church? He'd clearly already given this quite a bit of thought as he quickly gave me six:
  1. Dependence on government rather than God. In a place where systems work well and the state provides a lot of excellent services - health, emergencies, financial - it is easy to grow an entitlement mentality and a reflex to look first to the state as our provider and protector. 
  2. You say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” (James 4:13) That's how we operate. There is a presumption we will not only last the night and wake tomorrow but that we will almost certainly live for several more decades. We don't live as if we are a mist that vanishes.
  3. Materialism. Accumulation of stuff. Ambition for stuff.
  4. Worship of success and status. We want to succeed, we want our children to succeed, we want to be know as successful people. 
  5. Superficiality in relationships. We say, "We should have dinner." But we don't actually make a date. It's largely a difference between peaches and coconuts. The English are easy to get to know superficially - sweet and friendly on the surface - but we're not good at letting people into the heart. Other cultures are superficially gruff and unfriendly but once you've penetrated the tough exterior they take you to heart and are strong, loyal friends.
  6. Disrespect of parents and elders. Spoilt children. Anti-authority.
Thank God for honest friends from other cultures.
Forgive me for all these sins in my heart.
Lord Jesus fix our eyes on you as our King and the sustainer of our lives this very moment. May we live for you who died for us and not for self and stuff. Give us a sincere love for one another and a godly respect of those over us. Give us the gift of repentance and the joy of multi-cultural worship. 
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