Culture Question

-It has become de rigueur to claim that all cultures and their values are equally valid or valuable. What do you think? Are all cultures equal in terms of being right and wrong, good and bad? Do we have the right to proclaim one set of values to be better than another?

Yes, I believe it is easy for someone to state that we are all equal.  It goes along with the idea of "easier said than done."  I could say that we are all equally valuable, but I myself have never been in a circumstance where I have felt culturally invalidated.  Actually come to think of it...when I studied abroad in Mexico last semester I felt plenty of times that what I had to say and what I was culturally didnt matter because I was out of my element.  My circumstances didnt apply to the setting I was in, therefore I didnt fit in with the people and their lifestyle/culture.  I think that validity of a culture deeply has to do with the setting that you are in.  I did not fit the social norms of my setting.  

Also the question of "are some cultures good, bad, right, or wrong"  is highly subjective.  We would first need to define what the critera of being good, bad, right, or wrong are.  Who are we to say that someone's culture and the way their family opperates is wrong?  To them, their culture is highly effective and could help them opperate within their setting and environment.  How can that be wrong?  Ideas of what is right and wrong are different for everyone and usually comes along with a set of moral beliefs.  What I believe is wrong might not be to someone else. Does God say that our values are better than everyone else's? I wonder what he thinks?  I dont know enough to say, but what I do know is that we have been taught that different religions and cultures around the world each have little bits of truth.  They might not have the fullness of our gospel(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) but they have some of it, therefore I feel it is important to respect all ways of life, and to know we are all brothers and sisters.