Papua New Guinea's speaker destroys 'pagan' carvings.

[afleitch]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/papuanewguinea/10534323/Evangelical-Christian-speaker-of-Papua-New-Guineas-parliament-destroys-evil-pagan-carvings.html

'The speaker of parliament in the Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea has caused outrage after destroying intricate wooden panels and artefacts around the parliament, which he says represent "evil" non-Christian gods of witchcraft and idolatry.

In an evangelical Christian "purge" likened to the Taliban destruction of the statues of Buddha at Bamiyan in Afghanistan, Theo Zurenuoc has chopped up numerous carved heads and panels and is now planning the removal of a thirty-foot high, four-ton totem pole from the parliament's Grand Hall.

He wants to replace the pole with a "Pillar of Unity" which will contain a Bible, a copy of the constitution and feature an everlasting flame and an inscription stating "The Word of God".'

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Surely he should loose his job?

[afleitch]

Part of the problem is that the Christianity that tends to be exported particularly to Asia and Africa and by the sounds of things, Papua today is the sort of saccharin digestible crap that America seems to mass produce for export rather well. It's intellectually and philosophically lazy, dangerous (see Uganda) and has no concern for whatever culture is planted into. It's commercial and capitalistic and I hope that India, Nepal and elsewhere can keep it at bay for as long as possible. Less we see local people in cheap suits and patterned dresses with their donated colour printed bibles and portable dvd players telling their government (who has more pressing matters to deal with) that they need to do something about gay people right now because some nice white man from Missouri told them all about them.

[afleitch]

No, and if some purity of thought is sacrificed in the process of getting the basic message across, then, frankly, the end justifies the means.

Of course it does