WILLIAM G. JOHNSSON

Several years ago travel writer Paul Theroux wrote about the island paradises of the tranquil Pacific in The Happy Isles of Oceania. Scrap that title: War has come to paradise. And even more surprising, there’s an Adventist connection.

On May 19 of this year one George Speight led a group of gunmen that stormed the Fijian parliament, taking prime minister Mehendra Chaudhry and other government officials hostage. Speight named himself interim prime minister. After a nearly two-month standoff all hostages were released on July 13.

This is the third coup in Fiji since 1987. The country is almost evenly divided between indigenous Fijians and Indians descended from immigrants, and ethnic tensions over land ownership and control of commerce have simmered for years. Ousted prime minister Chaudhry is of Indian descent, Speight of Fijian.

Speight was raised a Seventh-day Adventist but apparently has not been a practicing member for many years. He is an alumnus of Andrews University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1981 and a master’s of business administration in 1983.

A report in the July 1 issue of the Record, the official paper of the South Pacific Division, notes: “That there are Fijian Adventists who strongly support George Speight’s pro-indigenous cause cannot be denied. Some also endorse his political means and personal ambitions and are now participating in the crisis. But Fijian church leaders Pastor Waisea Vuniwa and Joe Talemaitoga have rightly and publicly distanced themselves from this stance.”

But that isn’t all.

In the Solomon Islands a growing ethnic conflict on Guadalcanal, where the capital of Honiara is located, led to the declaration of a state of emergency on June 17. Issues of land ownership and compensation led to armed clashes between militants from Guadalcanal—the Isatabu Freedom Fighters—and settlers from the neighboring island of Malaita—the Malaita Eagles Force. At least six people were killed before a peace was arranged on June 28.

Here also some Adventists were involved, with church member Andrew Nori being a leader of the Malaita Eagles. “I don’t condone what Nori has done, and I’m embarrassed that more than a few Seventh-day Adventists are carrying weapons,” the June 24 Record quotes Western Union Pacific Mission president Neil Watts as saying. The secretary of the union, Lawrence Tanabose, became the main broker for peace between the warring parties.

Before the events this year some Adventists had been involved in the protracted struggle in Bougainville as it fought for independence from Papua New Guinea.

These developments trouble me.

But first, we need to keep them in perspective. Is there a connection between Adventists and civil unrest? Of course not; just the opposite, in fact. We are a law-abiding people who take seriously Paul’s admonitions to respect and obey “the powers that be” (Rom. 13:1-7). Further, we have historically opposed the use of force, advocating that even in times of warfare Adventists serve only in noncombatant roles.

With the rapid growth of our church, it isn’t surprising that a former member or even some who currently hold membership should be caught up in a social movement fueled by ethnic feelings. Indeed, as in Fiji some may feel impelled by a Christian nationalism.

With these caveats, however, the guns in paradise in the hands of former or current Adventists suggest two areas in which we all should sit up and take notice:

Ethnic loyalties: We aren’t doing nearly the job we should in educating believers as to the implications of the gospel. Somehow we think baptism will take care of the racial prides and prejudices that we absorb from our environment, but it will not. We have to meet head-on social attitudes and mores that oppose the cross of Christ, which levels the ground on which we all stand. We have to instill into our people that in Christ we are first His children, Seventh-day Adventist Christians, and only secondarily Fijians, Indians, or whatever.

Noncombatancy: We’re slowly losing this defining characteristic. We’re letting it be obliterated by a desire to be known as patriotic. Because it’s not mentioned in the 27 fundamental beliefs, we’re not teaching it as we must if we are to retain it as a living practice.

The South Pacific Division has made a start. In a “statement on ethnic and political tensions in the South Pacific,” division leaders “challenge all church administrators and ministers to pursue a more active role in educating members in a proper understanding of the gospel in respect to human relations, armed conflict, and our relationship to God and government.”

That’s a message for the entire Adventist world.

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William G. Johnsson is editor of the Adventist Review.