BUSA JEREMIAH WENOGO Via PNG ATTITUDE
PAPUA New Guinea is regarded as a Christian country. Its constitution declares Christianity as a State religion, although our homeland also embraces freedom of religion.
Yet, given the influence of Christianity, Papua New Guineans who affiliate themselves with other religions such as Islam or Hinduism make up just a tiny minority of our people.
Papua New Guinea is also said to be one of the last frontiers of the great crusade to Christianise and subsequently civilise the uncivilised. These efforts have not been easy.
The early missionaries frequently shed blood to establish Christianity in this country. In terms of progress, the role of the churches cannot be ignored. In the absence of a government presence or even support, churches have had to carry the heavy burden of development in Papua New Guinea.
Our public institutions involved in the work of justice and governance, such as the courts and Parliament, are required to have reverence to God in carrying out their mandated duties and responsibilities.
By the same token, we the governed are expected to conduct ourselves in a manner that reflects high moral principles and aspirations. Even miscreants and convicts are required by law to take an oath on a Bible before they give their testimony to the court.
However, as a nation, it is fair to say that we have failed miserably to live up to the high ideals of Christianity. We are not alone, of course. Every nation is at fault in not living up to its Constitution or moral laws.
Yet, in Papua New Guinea, one almost gets the feeling that we deliberately allow this mischievous behavior to flourish even though we feel the pain that it inflicts upon us. Or worse, when it contradicts the Christian values our nation has adopted in its Constitution.
This is where calling ourselves a Christian nation becomes a form of hypocrisy. These days our Christian values and principles are muddled with the tide of ideas promoting a liberal and humanistic lifestyle. Yet, our government does not see the necessity of policing such behaviour to ensure we conform to the Constitution.
Take for instance, the way we celebrate Christmas and Easter. We tend to promote two contradictory messages. At Christmas there are Papua New Guineans who flock to the shopping malls to buy gifts for their loved ones. Kids go into shops hoping to shake Santa’s hands or wish that he would come by in his sleigh to drop off gifts. Papua New Guineans conduct vigils in churches to commemorate the birth of Jesus.
Then there are the young people who indulge themselves in binge drinking accompanied by loud music which is the new way of celebrating Christmas, sadly becoming the norm. Nobody cares about asking whether it is an acceptable practice or not.
At Easter, the same trend is displayed where one group takes part in church activities to acknowledge the significance of Christ death on the cross while the others go looking for bunnies, chocolate eggs and beer. Is this how citizens of a self-professed Christian nation should behave?
Our nation’s hypocrisy was on display when Speaker Theo Zurenuoc replaced parliamentary carvings and totems and installed a 400-year old bible. This was his attempt to institute reforms in parliament. However even this noble idea was met with strong opposition from Papua New Guineans, including certain members of the “body of Christ”.
This was said to be part of the Speaker’s attempt to fight the corruption pervasive in PNG’s echelon of power. Perhaps by replacing these traditional totems with Christian symbols he was trying to reinforce the fact that we are a ‘Christian’ country; that Christianity and not PNG’s diverse cultures and traditions is the underlying commonality that is critical to our unity.
While some argued from a philosophical standpoint about the importance of maintaining some level of independence between the State and church others saw the move as anti-nationalism; a slap in the face for PNG’s culture and traditional values.
Regardless, in a Christian country, such a hostile reception towards an endeavour to promote Christianity is nothing short of an act of hypocrisy.
PNG’s founding Judeo-Christian principles should be the yardstick to help our leaders chart our course towards our destiny.
Our journey as a nation has been one of taking huge strides and great leap of faith. Sometimes we do so at our own expense and other times we find ourselves riding its waves of success. In moving forward we should confess that PNG is a Christian country. Faith without works is not faith at all.
A country is a lion when it leaves behind a lion’s footprints. Let us live up to what we profess to be - a Christian country – otherwise we show hypocrisy of the highest order
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