The Role of Samoan Churches in Combating Family Violence

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A Theological and Cultural Framework for Responding to Family Violence

Introduction

Family violence is an issue that requires an urgent response from Christians, churches, ethnic communities, and all institutions and organisations that seek to promote the common good. A Christian response to family violence should be rooted in our Judeo-Christian theology of self. It is only by knowing ourselves as beings created in God’s image that we will also understand the consequences of our attitudes and actions toward self, other, creation, and God. The Samoan understanding of self likewise offers a potential ethical framework for rejecting family violence, as it is a socio-centric self that is inextricably bound up with the common good of others and creation.
the same attitude of wakefulness, attentive listening, and prayerful discernment. If Samoan Christians and churches remain passive, denying or turning a blind eye to the agony that many families confront on a daily basis, and separating themselves from the problem of family violence, they will be failing to follow Jesus’ directive. The Church must not “sleep” while its own church families struggle with family violence. It must rise up to directly confront and battle against the problem of family violence—a problem that can be overcome through the power of a relational theology of the unconditional love of God and Jesus Christ, and with the practical help of the ministries the Church provides. Otherwise, family violence will continue to destroy families for generations to come.

A Biblical Understanding: We are Relational Selves

At the very beginning of our biblical story, in the Book of Genesis, we learn that both males and females were made in God’s image. This means that our understanding of who we are is grounded in our desire to emulate the compassionate attributes of God, a God who is always in an ongoing relationship of unconditional love with all people and all of creation. This is a God who is “…slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 103:8). Samoan Christians are challenged to reflect this unconditional love of God through their love of and respect for others, on the basis that we are all relational beings, made in the image of and absolutely loved by God.
Scripture also tells us that on the night of Jesus’ arrest by the temple guard, Jesus asked his disciples to remain alert, attentive, and pray in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 36-56). Jesus is calling on us, as disciples, to cultivate

A Samoan Understanding: We are Relational Selves

Tui Atua, the current Samoan Head of State, explains how fa’asamoa (the Samoan way) is, for many Samoans, the very essence of their identity. Tui Atua describes the Samoan identity as follows:
I am not an individual; I am an integral part of the cosmos. I share divinity with my ancestors, the land, the seas and the skies. I am not an individual, because I share a ‘tofi’ (an inheritance) with my family, my village and my nation. I belong to my family and my family belongs to me. I belong to my village and my village belongs to me. I belong to my nation and my nation belongs to me. This is the essence of my sense of belonging.³²
In explaining the Samoan identity, Tui Atua elaborates on the fa’asamoa as a collection of spiritual and cultural values that motivate people.³³
In this sense fa’asamoa is an umbrella term that inculcates ethical principles and traditions by means of shared core values. This is captured in Drozdow-St. Christian’s statement that fa’asamoa “…is a kind of shorthand Samoans use to indicate a wide range of things. These include their perception of how their ancestors lived, to their persistent concern with propriety and a truly Samoan way of living, to the tension between what many see as conflicting interests of tradition and the need for modernisation and development.”³⁴
This Samoan collective sense of self, which is shared with many other Pacific Islands cultures, should be a resource that can be drawn upon to guard against family violence. If it is true, as Tui Atua says, that “I belong to my family and my family belongs to me,’ then the well-being of everyone in the family must be safeguarded at all costs. No individual can take advantage of or undermine any other individual in the family and community that are so essential to what it means to be human. This socio-centric understanding of the self, which values the common good, should be a protection against any threat to the safety of any member of the family, especially the most vulnerable. As Michael Roberts asserts,
Family violence is a terrible scourge on our society. It creates deep psychological scars on the victims and intrudes on their future enjoyment of life for many years often never finding complete solution…It also denies the humanity of the perpetrator, who themselves maybe perpetuating the cycle of violence they received themselves or observed in their home as children.³⁵
Critical reflection is required at the deepest level to understand why it is that this rich cultural resource has not been sufficiently inculcated in contemporary Samoan communities to prevent the scourge of family violence which exists today.

The Problem of Biblical Interpretation36

The Ministry of Social Development in its “Nga vaka o kaiga tapu: A Pacific Conceptual Framework to address family violence in New Zealand” has rightly argued that the misinterpretation of Biblical texts is a factor that contributes to family violence. In reality, the Bible has often been used to justify violence aginst women and children. Samoan family relationships are strongly influenced by the patriarchal system which dominates the Old Testament. This is a result of missionary teachings, whereby the English missionaries in the nineteenth century placed strong emphasis on the Old Testament. The New Testament was read but was hardly used in preaching. The missionaries described God as a patriarch, and espoused the subordination of women which was typical of the Victorian England from which they hailed.³⁷
This patriarchal theology continues to shape Samoans’ interpretation of the Bible. A literal reading of biblical passages is still used to justify men’s dominance over women and their physical ‘discipline’ of women and children. The Bible is not only taken out of context but used to buttress the imbalance of power between men and women.
There are also specific biblical passages which have often been employed by Samoan clergy to justify the patriarchal theology which condones violence against women. Some of the passages most frequently used to justify male dominance include the following: In the second creation story in Genesis 2: 4b-3:24, it is argued that ‘out of man woman was taken’ means that women are inferior to men and must submit to their control. 1 Corinthians 11: 2-6 is likewise often cited, and the words ‘the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband’ have been interpreted literally, ignoring the contextual considerations in first-century Corinth.
In the light of this legacy of unquestioningly accepting the patriarchy embedded in biblical narratives, a re-reading of the Bible ‘with fresh eyes’ is essential if the Samoan churches are to challenge the theological underpinnings of their complicity in family violence and thereby restore relationships shattered by violence.

Preface 
1. Introduction
2. Unmasking Family Violence in Samoa and Samoan Communities in New Zealand
3. A Theological and Cultural Framework for Responding to Family Violence
4. The Role of Samoan Churches in Combating Family Violence
5. Christian and Samoan Values as an Effective Response to Family Violence
6. Conclusion
References
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Christian Faith and Family Violence