To declare Fiji a Christian State is tantamount to blasphemy, according to Reverend Josateki Koroi, the former president of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma.
Submissions to the Constitution Commission recommending that Fiji should be declared a Christian State have caused considerable debate.
The idea would continue to be debated, Mr Koroi said, “because many of us accept this concept at face value rather than following Jesus Christ’s teaching as recorded in the scriptures, ‘come follow me’.”
According to Mr Koroi, Fiji needs to separate Church and State — to distinguish clearly between the State’s role to govern and the role of Christianity.
Christianity, he said, was personal and to do with a person’s living relationship with the living person who is Jesus Christ.
Declaring Fiji to be a Christian State would mean that Christianity became an ideology enshrined in law, and adherence to this ideology would be compulsory.
Mr Koroi said that Christianity was never meant to be like that.
“Christianity is a worldwide religion; it is not sectarian, closed religion of one’s own race or country as the Fiji Christian state being advocated by others”, he said.
Sources
- The Fiji Times Online
- Image: Fiji Guide