Indigenous Communities in Distress: Religious Deluge and Church Deflection in Solomon Islands

Abstract

The five pillars of Christianity in Solomon Islands since the 1800s are: the Anglican Church of Melanesian, Catholic Church, South-seas Evangelical Church, Methodist Church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church (hereafter “the Church”). Despite differences in institutional structure and dogma, the five pillars coexisted well which started to unhinge following Solomon Islands independence in 1978 when rural and urban squatters' communities were deluged by new opportunistic churches and religious sects from overseas. The deluge triggered church deflection in which large communities abandoned the Church and joined the new brands of Christianity and religious sects causing interdenominational animosity and cultural and spiritual instability within families, communities and tribes. Informed by indigenous epistemology, ontology and hermeneutics, the paper critically examines church deflection, repercussive interdenominational animosity and community instability and what if anything can be done to mitigate the situation. Ample coverage is also given to colonization, race, economics, gender, governance and other topics intrinsically linked to religious deluge and church deflection.

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