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However, an anonymous comment in the above post criticizes Church leadership.
As a Christian, I am sick and tired of publicity hungry chiefs seeking political notoriety, without dealing with what's important, standing amongst distracting homosexual looking Kanailagi crying out as victims of what they created.
Impure intentions of the embittered and the desperate, missing what once was which many did not favor, feeling rebuffed by a government who professed to represent us, the common average hardworking invisible people of Fiji.
Real Fiji News contends this is issue is political and not religious.
We should be reminded that only a hand full of Methodists have a political agenda, which consequently is destroying the religious values for the remainder of the 300,000 followers.
This is not about religion its about POLITICS. The Government is NOT against the Methodists, its against the POLITICS, lets be constantly reminded of that. The SDL party has freely admitted it has a clear strategy with regards to the Methodist church and the current government.
For a few bloggers, however, the arrests and charges do not represent a fight between the government and the Methodist church; rather, it is a battle against Rewa High Chief Ro Teimumu Kepa, a practicing Catholic who was Minister of Education in the SDL-led Qarase government.
What makes this issue so complicated – and potentially destabilizing – is it intersects so many fault lines within indigenous Fijian society: Namely, the role religion plays in the public sphere and the power indigenous chiefs have in politics. Some in Fiji are more than willing for chiefs and church leaders to entertain political aspirations.
Others point out that there is no place for either in modern society. They argue Fiji is a multi-ethnic and poly-religious nation – with other ethnic groups, especially ethnic Indians, making up nearly 40 percent of the country’s population and non-Christian worshippers accounting for more than 30 percent of those who live in Fiji.
Jenny Hayward-Jones, blogging at the Lowy Interpreter, argues the arrests were a desperate move by the government.
Yesterday's arrests in Fiji of the leadership of the Methodist Church and a female paramount chief are a dramatic development in Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama’s quest to increase his control over the country. Whether they will be the trigger for the ultimate demise of his leadership, or civil unrest, or whether they are a sign of the permanent entrenchment of a military dictatorship remains to be seen.
The arrests are a clear threat to two key pillars of Fiji society – the Methodist Church and the Chiefly System – and represent the most significant provocation from Bainimarama to civil society in Fiji since the 2006 coup. It’s a risky and desperate move from a leader who claims to understand the ‘Pacific Way’.
Laminar Flow, writing in Stuck in Fiji M.U.D., asserts the so-called pillars no longer have a pull on anyone in the country.
The proverbial pillars of Fiji's society, which Jones raised in her latest blog posting, was an emotional appeal for incitement. It may have escaped the mind of Jones, that those dual pillars she had highlighted; are so out of touch of reality that their influence on Fiji's populace has dwindled to a such a pathetic degree that, their appeal is actually anachronistic-oblivious to the changing demographics of Fiji's modern society.
Both pillars are no longer load bearing entities in politics, as they once were. Currently both bedfellows flaunt their roles in public, but the actual process of reducing their Chiefly/Religious footprint in Fiji politics would neither dent nor damage, the structural integrity of the progressing nation.
Nasima, writing in the Soli Vakasama blogsite, salutes a “true chief” like Ro Teimumu for defending her people.
A true chief will acknowledge that without his/her people, they are nothing. Therefore his/her service will always be to the people first and self later. A chief who respect his people will get respect in return and a true chief will readily acknowledge that people’s respect should never be taken for granted to justify discontinuing his respect for his people. A true chief will always have the welfare of his people close to his heart.
The above is rarely witnessed nowadays because true Fijians chiefs are an endangered species. Sadly, there are not many of them around and the Fijian people, as a unique race on the face of this earth, are being led to a slow death. Wannabe chiefs are more concerned with the figure in their bank account than with the livelihood of their people.
Many will highlight the fact that a woman is standing up in the face of danger to fight for what she believe in because of the Christian faith gifted to her and her people by her forefathers. What many will fail to realise is that regardless of whether it is a man or a woman, it takes a true blue blood to flow in your veins to be able counter head-on the dangers, the likes of which is descending upon the Fijian people.
My interpretation is that her primary purpose is to use the Conference as a means to create unrest and rally mass Fijian support for a political cause she shares with extreme Fijian nationalists. That is, to overthrow the Bainimarama government and see the return of a government that puts chiefly, and Fijian elite rights and privileges, ahead of those of other citizens, including those of ordinary Fijians. This is not because she is an unfeeling person but rather, I suspect, because she believes chiefs are born to rule, and that Fiji, first and foremost, must be for Fijians.
But Some traction, some gain, must come from the past three years. I say this with no disrespect for Ro Teimumu or the Fijian chiefly system. But in the modern, multi-ethnic, multi-religious state of Fiji, Fijian chiefs and national politics — and religion and politics — should be kept apart, and the concepts of vanua, lotu and matanitu [Fijian culture, Christian church and government], as they apply to the 21st century, need to be re-thought. The prostrate bodies of slaves should no longer be used as rollers to launch Ro Teimumu's or anyone else's waqa drua. Over the next few weeks ordinary Fijians should be particularly wary of such manipulation by chiefs, church and the SDL.
From the Blog: Waqa Drua = Large double-hulled canoes, some as long as 30 metres, capable of carrying up to 200 people, and faster than contemporary European ships.
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Moreover, the Management Board regularly provides the Supervisory Board with extensive current reports on all relevant issues relating to the business development of the company.
transactions which may have a material impact upon the profitability of liquidity of the company.
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TXAB: The Christ Almighty Blog: God must be our first resort. Never our last.
God must be our first resort. Never our last.
“When all else fails, try God” is not how Christianity works.
Let me reiterate: There’s nothing at all wrong with asking God for things. Jesus teaches us to do so in the Lord’s Prayer: It’s all prayer requests. (Even the parts Christians claim are “praise before the requests.” Asking that God’s name be blessed, his kingdom come, his will be done, are meant to be stuff we want.) When we need something, God expects us and invites us to turn to him for help.
In contrast, our culture encourages us to be independent. Do for ourselves, then ask for help. And you wanna avoid asking for help as long as possible. The world isn’t kind. They don’t help you without first asking, “What’s in it for me?” Strings get attached. They expect cash, or a quid pro quo… or at least a pizza.
Pagans in particular. When things are going fine, they tend to ignore God. When things are dire, suddenly they “get religion” and try to bargain with God. And to many pagans’ surprise—’cause we’d never offer ’em grace on those terms—God regularly takes ’em up on it, and brings ’em into his kingdom as a result. How many testimonies have you heard where people came to Jesus because of a crisis?
But even Christians have a bad habit of only calling upon God when it’s a crisis. God was a last resort when we were pagans; God’s still the last person we turn to when we’re totally stuck.
Heck, I’ve heard Christians teach this. In church. “When there’s no one else to turn to, you have God.” Isn’t that nice? He’s our safety net.
He doesn’t wanna be our safety net. He wants to be our support. He wants to carry us. Help us. Love us. Provide for us. Our first resort.
We don’t trust God to be our first resort.
Yeah, this is a faith thing.
Desperation isn’t faith. It’s actually the opposite of hope. Our other options have played out, we have no further options, we’ve given up… so we’re gonna try something ludicrous, on the tiny chance it might work.
Like the basketball player with two seconds left in the game, who wildly flings the ball at the basket on the slim chance she actually makes it. Or—to get away from all the sports similes—like the man who would ordinarily never buy lottery tickets, but he really needs money bad, and figures, “What have I got to lose?” Well, the $1 you spent on the lottery ticket… or the $100 you spent on 100 tickets.
On the rare occasions these desperate attempts actually succeed, they’re always met with shock and surprise. It’s this unbelieving surprise which exposes how little faith went into the last-resort behavior.
Same with last-resort prayers. We don’t really expect God to come through for us at all. Like the surprise last-second basket, if God ever does help us out at those times, our typical response is stunned amazement. We never thought he’d do it! In too many cases, people still don’t believe he did it. It had to be some bizarre coincidence or dumb luck. See, the request was never made in faith. Stands to reason it wouldn’t be received in faith.
And yeah, this is true of Christians too. We think we have faith, ’cause we believe in God and do religious things. But too often, we do religious things ’cause we’re used to doing religious things. Our “belief” is a learned behavior and an automatic response. It’s not actual belief. “I believe in one God…” is a creed we memorized, not the core of our being. If we did believe in the Almighty, we’d have turned to him immediately!
But we turn to him last because we don’t believe. It’s not a belief. It’s a theory, which we doubt too much to really put to the test. We’re comfortable with accepting it, but doing nothing more with it. Sometimes we embrace cessationism so we never have to test it. If we thought it was solid, we’d stand on it; but we imagine it’s a thin balloon, and don’t wanna poke at it and pop it and destroy our illusions. This barely counts as faith. Arguably it’s not.
Those who choose God as a last resort, often claim they do so have faith. Because at least they turned to God in their desperation. They didn’t give up and turn to no one. That’s something. Right?
Like I said, barely counts as faith. True faith is involving God in our decision-making process long before we have to get desperate. ’Cause we can’t see all the variables like God does. He sees the big picture. He knows the consequences of our actions—not just the logical conclusions, but the wholly unexpected accidents which no one could see coming. We could make the wisest decision possible, but God sees the slip-ups which’ll unravel everything. Or the happy accidents which create whole new opportunities. He can help us navigate these things. He wants to. But if we never consult him, and ignore everybody he forewarns, we’re on our own.
you’re vapor. You appear briefly, then you pass away.
16 Currently you all emphasize your phony plans, and all such emphasis is evil.
17 So when one knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to them it’s sin.
If we truly follow Jesus, we have no business making any serious life plans without first submitting our plans to God. If Jesus were your boss, you know you’d phone him to get permission before starting a project. How much more should we get his okay since he’s our Lord?
God’s solutions have only positive consequences. They may be counter-intuitive, but that’s because our intuition has its limits: We’re only guessing at the future, but God is in the future already. (He fills time, y’know. He looks at it from the inside.) He sees what’s gonna happen, and can help us around the pitfalls. True, from time to time this involves his miraculous power. Also true: He doesn’t always warn us he’s going to do something miraculous. But if we’re following and trusting him, the miracles and the pitfalls won’t shipwreck everything.
We just gotta do our part.
saying, “Your servant, my husband, died.
You know your servant respected the LORD.
3 Elisha told her, “Ask for containers from all your neighbors outside.
Empty containers. Not little ones.
4 Come inside; shut the door behind you and your children.
5 The woman left Elisha and shut the door behind her and her children.
They brought her containers, and she poured the oil.
They told her, “There are no more containers.” And the oil stopped.
7 She came to tell Elisha the God’s-man. He told her, “Go.
You might remember that story. You might not know the woman herself was a prophet; most translations only figure she was only the wife of a prophet. (’Cause sexism. The idea of a woman prophet simply eludes them, and futzes with their interpretation.) So she knew to turn to God in a moment of dire need. She knew to consult with Elisha, the head prophet, to seek God’s solution to her problem: Her creditor wanted money, and in that culture you could pay your debts through slavery. God’s solution: An oil pot that could miraculously fill much larger containers. A weird solution that would never have occurred to us. Wouldn’t even be tried by us—unless we had this woman’s level of faith.
The weirder God’s solutions sound, the more obviously he’s trying to stretch our faith. His answers won’t always appear to make sense. And he knows it. But we gotta trust him anyway. Our prayers are answered only to the limit we’re willing to trust him. Notice how the oil kept flowing till they ran out of containers. Had the woman borrowed any fewer containers, God would’ve turned off the oil sooner. But she borrowed enough to pay off the family debt, and then some.
As a prophet, this woman had the God-experiences to know Elisha’s instructions weren’t that crazy. She’d seen weirder. It’s way easier to have faith after we’ve seen God work often enough. If we’ve seen nothing, the first leap of faith seems impossible. Hurdle it, and it gets way easier.
So: When you pray, start submitting your plans of the future to God. What does he need to sign off on? What expectations do you have for your ideas—and might God be better able to fulfill them? Where might God need to give his input? Trust him with your future.
If we’re truly following Jesus, it’s the least we can do.
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