Until quite late into this century, many high-caste Hindus believed that in venturing beyond India one became ritually contaminated. While Islam has practiced social pluralism, it is through tolerance rather than the substitution by the vernacular of Arabic. The missionary success of Islam is in effect the universalization of Arabic as the language of faith. Every Muslim must step into Arabic on entering the mosque to perform his rites, a daily passage that for many reaches its climax in the annual hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. When one considers that three out of every four Muslims in the world are non-Arabs, it is clear that this implies a downgrading of their mother tongues in the fundamental acts of piety and devotion.
Cultural diversity is, at best, irrelevant or, at worst, a hindrance to faith.
The lesson for evangelism today is plain. The very nature of the gospel implies that we take, with equal seriousness, both cultural specificity and cultural relativity. The church that is the bearer of the gospel to the nations must be critically aware of its own sociocultural situation and the way its preaching and methodologies not only reflect but challenge that situation. But the capacity to challenge is only possible if the church takes seriously its culturally pluralistic nature. Cultural critics have shown how communication is distorted by the power relations that operate in the context of communication.