There’s no escaping the God thing in Samoa. We’re I’m staying if you’re not awake by 8.30am you will be rising to the sound of my old AOG mates (the happy clappies) as they wind up for their morning sing-song. Public broadcast mode seems to be their default setting and we can sing along a block away. I probably would if I knew Samoan. But it seems to me that God might have a problem or two around these parts.
Please, I know the God thing is a touchy subject. I can feel the air go tense around us as we broach it. A lot of you already know that I’m a quietly terrorising outspoken conservative rebel who is a born again denomination free AngloCathoChristian the fringes of the mainstream Christian community. I’ve probably already caused somebody offence by calling one of my old denominations “happy clappies” but let’s just get over it be generous towards me for a moment and ride out these words to the end.
The church scene here is in your face wherever you go. I mean seriously in your face!
I’ll try to share a few things without being t-o-o-o negative . . .
The church buildings.
No kidding, these church guys over here have it nailed. If you drive through a rural village you can be lucky to see one decent house, but you will ALWAYS see a few good big strong well-kept churches. They stand out and are in your face big time. OK some of them are run down but the signs of the wealth of God’s business here is overt. The Mormon Temple is a beautiful monstrosity that probably gives the goose bumps to the LDS guys. It puts shivers down the spine of many of my Palagi that I’ve spoken to though. “That thing over there” one guest pointed “is an abomination to my eyes!” they said forcefully. I know that such overt wealth displayed in essentially a third-world country is one of the main problems.
The curfews.
Slip along the main road at curfew time on the North East coast and you’ll pass through one village where maybe 20-30 security guards stand to attention making sure that nobody comes or goes in or out of their house during the prayer curfew.
Many villages have some form of legislation in regards to prayer time or curfew time that has been issued by the village chiefs and is enforced.
The tithing.
The attached image is of the tithe sheet outside the Moamoa Catholic church. Other churches do the same. This is just one that Trevor grabbed a quick photo of when we passed through. Villagers are quick to ensure that they pay their dues in full sight of the pastor and many churches check and record offerings. I have problems with the teaching of tithing and certainly with the enforcement of it. Research of my own shows me that the basis upon which tithing is preached is erroneous at best and fradulent if we approach the matter honestly. For the record, I have tithed most of my life and have given many times more than a tithe when looking at my entire suite of activities, so I am not trying to justify my position because I don’t want to give. I believe that we should live as generous givers and that if we’re not giving 100% to the Lord then we are selling ourselves and God short, but we’re talking about Samoa here – not my own personal sermon for the day!
The prayers.
At any meeting it is standard practice to pray for the people and business to be conducted. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, please help us in business, keep us safe and healthy, Amen sort of thing. Look I’m all for any acknowledgement of God’s goodness and grace and anything else people want to attribute to him. That’s all well and good, but when the prayers are delegated to the godly one in the group and I know the leaders have demonstrated some pretty un-godly behaviour behind the scenes, I think about the words of the Master along the lines “Don’t get caught up in all the public pontification stuff; get behind closed doors and have a little heart-to-heart with the Father”
The Blame thing
God cops a lot over here. Seriously. Some very senior leaders, and a lot of the population have accused God for bringing the Tsunami and they are quite specific about why He did it too. To some it was because the Prime Minister forced through the road rules law change that made everyone drive on the wrong side of the road. Seriously, this was a strong sentiment over here at the time, and intelligent educated Samoans were telling me dealdly seriously that this was fact. The more discerning ones tell me however that it was because of all the Sunday trading that was going on in the South Coast, and that Sundays should be family time – no swimming in the sea or the river – just going to church and staying at home with the family.
I feel sorry for God in that He constantly gets the blame for the Tsunami – but I’m OK with His capacity to deal with it. Personally I think that God is a little less like the big ogre in the sky that these people seem to think He is. I think that mankind is basically responsible for bringing about decay and destruction in what was orininally a pretty nice sort of place. I think that He warned us pretty clearly that this sort of thing was going to happen more and more too. One day we’ll all be a lot wiser over this I’m sure.
Golf and the Sabbath.
Sunday trading is a big no-no over here. Everything is closed on Sunday. Believe me – everything. And the local golf course too has just been shut down “In God’s name”:
View the news article here
Note that
“God continues to show his love for Samoa, four or five cyclones have missed us so why not respect Sundays”.
Does He not love Samoa if a cyclone DOES hit us?
Note also that the SDA community get pinged unfairly:
A regular at Faleata, Iosefa Rimoni said the decision is unfair.
“Because there are others who are Seventh Day Adventist and tourists so they should be allowed to play on Sundays,” he said.
This one could be a real big prblem for me because I struggle to juggle the Sabbath thing with two countries and the time line and this Saturday/Sunday Sabbath issue. If I’m to listen to everybody then I have to stop work on Thursday night here in Samoa, because that’s the start of NZ Sabbath and my SDA programmer goes off into “Purda”. Then the next day it is the Sabbath here in Samoa, then it is the Sunday thing in NZ then it is the Sunday thing here in Samoa, so there is a good 72 hour three full days and nights where for some reason I can’t communicate or work or get anything done – unless I’m prepared for God to send another Tsunami. One day I could get blamed for it, but I’m in good company if its going to happen in God’s name. Don’t worry, I try to respect the culture here and do it their way. So I keep my head low on Sunday and just work quietly behind the scenes so that nobody can see me working and everything will be just fine. That’s how they do it here.*
The trouble I have with many of the rules-based religions of the world is that my bible tells me that you cannot legislate goodness, nor love. nor a changed heart. In my book (and I think, the good book says too), one cannot legislate faith. Faith can be demonstrated but each of us have to exercise faith in our own ways.
Leaders over here are intensely proud that “Samoa is founded upon God”. Personally, I actually wonder whether God might have a problem or two with how His name is used here in paradise. Please, don’t think I’m picking on Samoa. I just happen to live here. I can and would also do the same spiel about Bishop Brian and his lifestyle. Thanks!
Posted on a Saturday, no a Sunday? oh I give up. Posted “In God’s name!”
* Trevor and I witnessed the high chief of a certain village doing good business on a Sunday from the back of his shop. Oh sure, the shop was closed aout the front, but it was obviously OK to just help a few people out if the kids needed lollies or . . . or . . .
In New Zealand we would call that hypocrisy, or insincerity or bad. In this culture it’s called OK, because he’s the high chief. Once again don’t think that I’m pinging the high chief – I’m not because I too could easily sell the lollies on a Sunday but I wouldn’t be using God’s name so overtly on the Sunday thing if I was selling something!
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