Graham Davis's father was the President of the Methodist Church in Fiji during the late 1960s and early 1970s and Graham was brought up in a Methodist environment. In
this article (which I urge you to read as soon as you have finished reading this posting) he expresses his sadness and dismay at the words of the new President who is as intent as his immediate predecessors were to link Methodism and ethnic Fijian paramountcy with his interpretation of
Old Testament Christianity.
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| Rev Tuikilkila Waqaniratu: "I have a dream" |
I will leave it to others to challenge the Reverend's theology but it should be noted the Methodist Church has always held that disciplined theology calls for the careful use of reason, and that from its beginnings the church has been concerned with social issues identified in the
New Testament, namely, justice, mercy and social ills. No where, ever, except in Fiji has the church been associated with promoting the interests of one race at the expense of other races and religious beliefs.
In his interview with ABC's Bruce Hill Rev Waqaniratu justifies his call for a Christian state on two grounds. He says that in 1874 the Chiefs gave Fiji to God and Queen Victoria and "52% of the population is Christian." This is a most novel rewrite of the Deed of Cession, which I will ignore, but later today or early tomorrow I'll show how his arithmetic is also found wanting. Now please read Graham's article, and if you are in Suva make a special effort to attend this evening's meeting at USP. It promises to be very special.
4 comments:
Croz
It is rather hypocritical the way people like you and Davis choose to live in a democracy with the right to express your rather interesting views but want to suppress and rubbish those with different views?
Methodist church needs to make up their mind. Do they want to be a religious origination or a political. If they want to participate in politics, they need to pay back taxes dating back to March, 1987.
Oh don't get me started on the hypocracy and double standards from Croz and his fellow apologists. One rule for the kilitray and everyone else is held to a very difffdrent standard. Croz spends most of his time interpreting and handling PR on behalf on Bainimarama and the military as they tend to lecture everyone on where we are all going wrong and how we should really not be invloving ourselves in military governance matters of corruption, nepotism and the toatl lack of any accountability and instead 'looking forward!?' to when law acrtually do apply to everyone. (until the next thug scraps the constitution of course and gives themselves immunity)
Power, power, power! The church's power is not in 'the number of people' it has nor in 'politics' but in the person of Jesus Christ! Anything other than that corrupts! The Methodist should pause, pray, and re-look at her rich history and re-discover her theological taproot. Return to it asap lest she be found wanting! What the president is saying is simply a symptom of a deeper spiritual corrosion resulting from a poor mixed-up theology [OT-NT]that has been entertained in the denomination-Fiji context only. It may be a little bit late.
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