By Rev. MICHAEL BRESCIANI

As a boy I marveled at the documentaries that showed how people approached what they perceived as God around the world. Some worshipped rocks and trees (animism) while others picked some venerable ancient personage and elevated them to the place of deity (avatars).

When missionaries encountered the Sawi tribesmen of South America they found cannibalism and it was considered a way of gaining complete power over someone by eating their brain. When documentary commentators described the tribe’s religious beliefs in their narratives, I found it hard to give much credence to them in light of their other frightening cultural practices. Could those who think its fine to eat other people have stumbled across the true path to God?

Differences in culture can be as innocuous as simple color preferences, like the fleshy pink houses all across Lisbon’s hilly neighborhoods; versus the stark white dwellings so favored in the cities towns and hamlets of France. The Louisianans eat mudbugs (crawfish) and in North Carolina a breakfast of white gravy and biscuits makes the day for millions of country folk in the beautiful rolling hills of Appalachia.

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