A Christian Analysis (Written Nov 3 2005)

Just in case you haven't read the disclaimer at the top of this blog, for this particular post I think its worth repeating – the views expressed here are mine alone and do not reflect the views of the US government or the Peace Corps organization. Now, onto our program:

Today we had our medical session on STDs and practicing safe sex during our service. As you all know the easiest and safest way to not get an STD is to not have sex until you are married, especially in a foreign culture where people tend to extend the truth. One of the statistics that popped out to me (and two other volunteers) is how 1 in 50 Peace Corps trainees will get some kind of STD during their service. Well, I know 3 trainees from Group 75 that will not have a problem with that – Julya, Sara and I are all Christians. Does that mean we won't make mistakes during our service? No, but it does mean that we will make the conscience effort to put our personal walk with Christ before making any rash decision like having pre-marital sex. I'm just telling you about the STD session because it led to another discussion later on tonight about Christianity in Samoa. Our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) told us that a lot of Samoan kids are sexually active, despite the fact that Christianity (in its various forms) are quite prevalent on the island. It would be quite hard to find an atheist Samoan here (unless they've traveled outside of the island). So Julya and I were talking about how when we first got the assignment for Samoa, we were both very excited about the fact that we were going to a predominantly Christian society. It would be easy to keep up with our personal walk with Christ simply because everyone around us in our community would be Christian. Well, things are a lot different when they go from paper to reality. Now this is not an all encompassing statement by any means but it feels like a lot of the Christianity here is not of a personal nature, it's more of a group nature. Julya was telling me that in the village she was told that they do not believe in the concept of individual sin, just communal sin – which is part of the Old Testament, where if one person did something wrong the whole community had to repent for that person's sins but we're no longer under the Old Testament laws we're under the New Testament laws where if you sin, you repent for your own sins. Christianity just does not have a personal feel here – it definitely has more of a required feel because if you're not a Christian you're just not a member of society here. Everyone you meet is a Christian – even the guys that are dating 3 girls at the same time, that make racist remarks, that care what you're wearing more then what you're getting out of the service. At our FiaFia, I talked to a volunteer named John who is also a Christian (he lives on Savaii) and he told me – before we went to the village – that Christianity is different here and that he reads his own bible during Church service just to keep up his personal walk with Christ. I didn't really understand what he was talking about until we went to our first Church service in the village – and you could definitely see that it was more style over substance. One of the things they did during the service that really bothered the 3 Christians of the group was the fact that at the end of the service they read aloud the amount of money each person gave to the church and how much each family has given to the Church the entire year. The bible says give to the Church what you can – and if you're only able to give a little bit, something like that is really embarrassing and could be a stumbling block to some people. It's very disheartening. So now I understand what John meant when he said that it was different here (especially in the village).

Now with all that said, there are Christians here who have accepted Christ on a personal level and not just the communal level that everyone else seems to be at. Fale, one of our language trainers, is a great Christian and has been a lot of help to us 3 when we want to talk about Christianity and the Samoan culture. Another Samoan, Tie, is a bartender at our hotel and whenever he gets a chance to at work you can find him reading the Bible and asking questions about what some things mean – those two examples are encouraging to me just so I don't get a limited view of Christian life in Samoa. But the accountability I had in the states, I won't find here in Samoa – so it'll be up to us 3 trainees to keep each other accountable. It's a support group within our larger support group. Pray that we'll be able to keep up our personal walk with Christ without compromise.

Also, tonight we had our first movie night where we were able to borrow the projector from the trainers and watch a big screen movie in our hotel room. See what happens when you place a bunch of geeks together, they find cool ways to entertain themselves without drinking. J Anyway, we watched a movie called 'Equilibrium' starring Christian Bale (the guy from Batman Begins). It was a good sci-fi movie, not great by any means. It felt like one of those movies you would see on a Saturday afternoon when there was nothing else to watch on. Is it worth a rental? If you like Christian Bale, sure – see what he did before he did Batman. Otherwise, wait for it to come on TV on a Saturday afternoon. But as long as we're in training we could probably do this once or twice a stay in Apia which would be really cool.

As you may have noticed, this post is all over the map – it was truly stream of thought writing. These are just my preliminary thoughts on Christianity in Samoa and they could change, but right now it looks like I'm walking with 2 other Christians right now instead of a society of Christians. L8r.