too much influence?

Do Ellice pastors have too much influence?

"Yes, but there are some signs of change/ 7 says ISA PAENIU, in this commentary.

I’ll never forget the mysterious old days, and I am glad that they are over. But my troubles are far from being over. It is my duty to bring the victims of the past to the freer atmo sphere of today, and moreover to bring the Protestant Church pastors in the Ellice Islands to a proper and more realistic position in the community.

Ever since Christianity sailed un expectedly from Manihiki, in the Cook Islands, to the Ellice Group more than a century ago, the pastors and their associates have become powerful on all the islands. In the beginning, the pastors had very little trouble in diverting the faiths of the natural, peaceful Islanders from their stone idols to the new doctrine. After all, the almost automatic conversion was due to a combination of fear carried forward from primitive be liefs, and the friendliness of the Islanders towards the visitors.

The Samoan pastors, well trained to understand the Holy Book, did not hesitate to take advantage of it.

While the church did a lot of good, it also helped to mislead the people.

To quote a very simple example, one still cannot ride a bicycle on Sunday on my home island of Nukulaelae, and if you did you would stand a good chance of being thrown off your bicycle and abused by the “Christians”. In other words, if you broke Moses’ law, it would be as serious to the local people as murder is to a judge. And you couldn’t get anywhere if you tried to sue them in court, for the island authorities and the jury would all be “good Christians”. The laws of the pastors are more important than those of the government.

I can remember from my days as a young pupil in the mission’s village school at home. I had the same fear of the pastor as the rest of the pupils, and in fact, the whole island had this in common. The pastor was regarded as “sacred” and everything he did was supposed to be the will of God. I saw older pupils being kicked out of the class room covered with blood. They had been caned for some mysterious deeds, which are regarded today as normal, and nobody, not even the

parents, dared to say a single word in protest!

A pastor who had come from Samoa with twopence in his pocket, would in no time acquire tremendous wealth and live in luxury, far beyond that of big landowners. After all, there is not much difference between families with 10-14 large plots of land and those with 2-5 small plots, for however much the big landowners boast about their importance in the community, the truth remains stead fast that to live reasonably well one has to be a good fisherman rather than a big landowner. The infertility Isa Paeniu is an Ellice Islander who is with the GEIC Information Office. He has written this article for PIM in a private capacity. of the coral soil clearly proves the fact. More than half of a family’s only cash income, derived from the sale of heavily-taxed copra, went to the pastor and the church.

How was the money that went to the church spent? The pastor alone might know. However, it was gener ally believed that the money was being used to bring Christianity to the dark people of Papua-New Guinea. Nobody in the Ellice today know how big is Papua-New Guinea compared with their tiny coral atolls, what are its resources, where it is on the map, what have been the means employed to bring Christianity there, what is the cost involved, what is the standard of living compared with their’s.

It has never been brought to the notice of the Ellice people that they, too, have been a developing com

munity, and with means terribly in ferior to those of Papua-New Guinea.

Papua-New Guinea can stage the South Pacific Games this year, whereas it will never be possible for the Ellice Islands, let alone the whole colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, to cope with anything of that sort.

Ellice families with one or no males to fish would often find life miser able. While numerous hungry stomachs would go to sleep every night, fish and the best Islands dishes were left to rot in the pastor’s food safe. The food was donated by the Islanders themselves in spite of their hardships.

To them, just to make a “good turn” to the pastor every day was more important than their hunger, whether the pastor needed it or not.

To donate to the pastor in cash, food or labour is more important than paying for the land tax which is used by the Island Council for island de velopment in all fields.

At a word’s notice every adult male and female even today is up at the mission station to re-thatch, repair or even rebuild the pastor’s house, kitchen, etc., voluntarily. The pastor has a whole family as unpaid servants. On top of that, he employs in turn a minimum of three girls and three boys from his school with pay of three meals a day.

In 1952, a pastor’s revenue—in donations of cash, food, labour and miscellaneous collections—would have

Exceeded b powers

been equal to an amount, if not more, to that received by the Resident Com missioner.

There have been many changes since 1952, when I lived at home, but it is hard to believe that there are any significant differences between 1952 and 1969. With the establish ment of island local governments in 1967, the Islanders certainly have started to recognise some form of authority, but the pastors, most of whom are now Samoa-bred Ellice Islanders (graduates of the Samoan Mission colleges) are still the top influential people.

As a Treasury officer, I accom panied a superior officer to explain to the Ellice Islands in 1966 the change-over from £sd to decimal currency. At one atoll my superior officer, in his capacity as an appointed official member of the then Advisory and Executive Council, had to settle a dispute which had arisen between the pastor and the Island Council (that is, the whole island community).

The pastor had behaved badly and had exceeded his powers by telling the Island Council in wide terms to do what he wanted, and it was a great relief on this occasion to note some indication of understanding and determination on the part of the Islanders.

Can't serve two masters

Nevertheless, the church’s adminis trative staff seem to be better qualified as politicians than as priests. The tide seems to have turned from island affairs to territorial politics. Today, two out of four of the House of Rep resentative elected members from the Ellice are pastors, one of whom is the secretary of the church, who has to leave his church responsibilities to attend the GEIC Governing Coun cil meetings every two months or so.

One cannot do two things thoroughly at one time, let alone serve two masters.

All the church actions I have de scribed have resulted in some ordinary [slanders taking a critical view of :he missions.

Christianity should not be devalued, ?ut the pastors must adopt them selves to the truths.

What I have said will sound bitter ° many people within the GEIC, md they will hate me. However, that s a small matter. What is more important is to straighten things ip and to bring light to a people vhose hearts have been wrongly in ioctrinated.