Comments

Ah but Adam, what you are missing is the "Facts of Reality" Fact, Most people on Earth are NOT Christians. Fact, Israel is a Jewish Nation and they DO NOT accept Jesus Christ as The Son of GOD, to them He is ONLY to be considered as a Prophet. Fact, in ALL of history when Religious Leaders get into positions of Political Power, People Die. Fact, one of the first Public acts of PMJM on 26th. August 2019, was to "Call Down Curses" in the name of Christianity. Fact, YOU are assigning to YOURSELF the power of Infallibility. Your belief that YOU are right gives you the RIGHT to force upon ME your Beliefs. But you would deny me the right to my beliefs, even when they do no harm to YOU ???. During the Spanish Inquisitions (which went on for more than 100 years) Christian Leaders tortured people untill they converted to Christianity and then killed them to put the Non-Christian out of their Suffering as an act of "Christian Mercy". Do you not see any similarity to our own situation in parts of PNG where mostly Women are being brutalised because some people "say" they have practiced sorcery ??. Therefore you can not say "We would never do that". History is a great teacher. Look at History. And then may I suggest that the separation of State and Church is in fact the results of History and the lessons it has taught. And to close I will quote from a very wise man, who said "God NEVER interferes in the affairs of MAN, because IF he did then GOD would be interfering in MANS right of Choice and in doing so GOD would render MAN back to being an ANIMAL again". Oh and that same Wise Man also said "Never argue with a Religious Man"

Well said Priscilla

This decision by the State is very interesting, and could be fulfilling Bible prophecy in regards to One World Government & Religion. State/Religion amalgamation is one of the catalyst for the Biblically-prophecied New World Order

Well done dear Cornelio . Keep going to achieve what you are willing to be.

Alex, well said.

Well written article! The current administration has opened a can of worms. Radicalized Christian groups will use this decision by the Marape-Steven Government to attack other religious groups resulting in religious conflicts.

Great piece, however, with few comments/observations. First, whenever a concept is not defined but is left open for human interpretation, illiberal practices a likely - people interpret the concept on their own hence applied it different. The democratic world is facing this problem right now: democratic ideas/concepts such as rights to association, religion, conscience, thought, movement, expression and speech, etc, etc, are been left open for interpretation (and therefore application) at the whims of an individuals or a group of individuals. This is creating social chaos. Cases in point are gayism, lesbianism, transgender, abortion, decriminalisation of prostitution (or prostitution per se). These are examples of issues that the society knows are wrong but are being defended all in the name of [human] rights. In the end, people are now arguing that 'it is one's right to marry a doll, computer, a tree, or a robot'. This is nonsense. Coming to PNG Constitution, especially Sections 45 - 52, these sections does not defined those rights; rather they are left for public interpretation and application; and so goes a prostitute, gay, lesbian, transgender, terrorists, etc do their business and then cover under these provisions all in the name of "rights". Concept of region needs to be defined in order to establish perimeters within which that concept can be applied. You cannot allow a concept to be undefined as this will lead to unscrupulous interpretations and misapplications in life. Second issue is the "separation of church and state"; this is the result of 1648 Westphalia agreement. This treaty came into being because of human effort to mismanage what was originally an ideal divine intern to have God as the King over His children (earth), as Israel was before if became a state in August 1948. Thus, when talking about separating and state, the issue is not about whether they should be kept separate; the issue is "whether the church is the state and therefore must play an important role in managing the earthly affairs just as God would be interesting in directly dealing with and managing the affairs of the people (a microcosm)". This issue must be addressed because "you ascribe to God as King, meaning a Government, and then keep Him or His Agency, the Church, from politics on Earth". Earth is God domain and therefore is He is the King, then His Agency the Church has the right to involve in politics in order to execute His Kingdom will on Earth. So whether you keep the Church and State separate really depends on how one sees them.

Great detailed idea. we need more of such research to support implement law that could help the Informal sector economy in our country.

When God created Adam and Eve, God gave them the power of choice or freedom to choose. God never imposed on Adam and Eve to worship him. Throughout history, people's power of choice or freedom were tremble upon when there was a Church and State Union. Millions of have died on the hands of clergymen and the state apparatus. Our Constitution is Homegrown, drafted by our Forefathers, many of them were former clergymen. They had the power to include PNG as a Christian country but chose to only include "we adopt the Christian Principles" in the Preamble of the Constitution as opposed to "Christianity as State religion". They made the decision to enshrined the divinely power of Choice as freedom of expression in the Constitution. This must be protected at all costs. This decision to amend the Constitution to officially make PNG a Christian Country is not divine but evil. It's the idea of certain Evangelical fundamentalist to impose their distorted unbiblical doctrines on the people using the State apparatus and is clearly wrong, very dangerous and evil. State and Church must remain separated. State must not make laws on religion or religion must not imposed its fundamental doctrines on the State. This proposed constitutional amendments to the Constitution should not be allowed. There is nothing wrong with the current provisions of the Constitution which clearly separate the Church from the State.

An excellent piece and well written. The evils of state sanctions of religions/denominations are well documented historically (christianity resulting in expulsion and massacre of Jews and muslims following Spanish reconquest, Catholic massacre of huguenots in France, Protestant persecution of catholics in England and Ireland) and are a shameful part of christian history that was only possible when state sanctioned a particular religion or sect. One cannot force an individual to be a better christian; it has to be a matter of choice. The increase in religious fundamentalism in PNG is a concern and is partly fueled by poor education (a population that is said to be literate but does not read widely enough to be able to make conscious and independent conclusions on important issues in life).

Align section 45 of the constitution to our belief system in the country. Freedom of religion is encouraging so many immoral and unethical practices like that of USA which is hit hard the most on earth. Too many brilliant ideas & findings opposing Christianity wholly or partially are not solving the societal problems and this problems are now on the rise. Christianity is the way to " take back PNG" through christian practices.

Dr Robin Oge has brought out the crux of the matter; politics and christianity must be separated. PNG must not change its constitution to make it a christian country. On the onset, PNG does not qualify itself to be a christian country when there is blatant taking of human lives without remorse, ingrained beliefs in sorcery throughout PNG resulting in torture and killings and systemic corruption in all levels of governance and societies. There needs to be a new generation of people and leaders that have respect for humanity, respect for the rule of law and reverence of duty to others, then PNG can qualify to be called a christian country.