Reddit reviews Ku Kanaka: Stand Tall: A Search For Hawaiian Values

>“It is often said by the critics of Christian origins that certain ritual feasts, processions or dances are really of pagan origin. They might as well say that our legs are of pagan origin. Nobody ever disputed that humanity was human before it was Christian; and no Church manufactured the legs with which men walked or danced, either in a pilgrimage or a ballet. What can really be maintained, so as to carry not a little conviction, is this: that where such a Church has existed it has preserved not only the processions but the dances; not only the cathedral but the carnival. One of the chief claims of Christian civilisation is to have preserved things of pagan origin.” – G.K. Chesterton

Lots of things that are considered Christian today are rooted in what appears to be Pagan. Christmas was once Yuletide, All Hallow’s Eve(Halloween) was once Samhain, a bride wearing a veil at her wedding was once used to hide her from the “Evil Eye” spirits, etc.

One of the biggest Christian organizations the Roman Catholic Church/the Vatican grew out of one of the biggest polytheistic empires in the world “The Roman Empire” but they eventually became “The Holy Roman Empire” when they became a “Christian nation” and yet the Catholic Church preserved the things from Rome that were once Pagan, like the Pantheon, once a Roman temple dedicated to the gods became a Christian Church.

I think how Christianity “reconciles” with Modern Christian Hawaiians who want to preserve their history/culture is handled in a couple of different ways:

Biblically: A Catholic Bishop talks about how Jesus’ apostles were able to evangelize in a heavily pagan culture. The main takeaway quote from this video for me is “You can’t evangelize a culture you don’t love” The idea that “all things are redeemed” through Jesus also seems to be how to reconcile culture & faith

Historically: We are still learning about how our kūpuna(ancestors) reconciled their Hawaiian culture with Christianity as well. Historians have usually gone to English language sources to learn about Christianity in Hawaiʻi which obviously has given us a VERY biased view of what it was like for Hawaiian Christians back then but as of recently more Historians have been trying to uncover Hawaiian language based historical sources for a more balanced view of how our kūpuna justified their culture and faith. Ronald C Williams Jr. the Director of the Lāhui Hawaiʻi Research Center at University of Mānoa is interviewed on that exact topic. He also wrote a dissertation on Christianity & Hawaiians called Claimimg Christianity: The Struggle Over God and Nation in Hawaiʻi. Historian Nancy J Morris & Theologian Robert Benedetto released a book about Hawaiian Pastors called Nā Kahu giving small biographical portraits of many Native Hawaiian Christians.

Philosophically/Theologically??(Dont know if thats the right word LOL): George Heʻeu Sanford wrote a book during the beginning of the Hawaiian Renaissance called Kū Kanaka the book was a philisophic understanding of what it means to be a Hawaiian that holds Hawaiian values in the Contemporary age. The first chapter is dedicated to the topic of Religion and what that means for the modern Hawaiian. Sanford states that ka poʻe kahiko (The Hawaiians of Old) were one of the MOST religious people, everything was Ritual and Religion, sleeping, eating, canoe-building, war, etc. The philisophic claim Sanford makes is that our ancestors wouldnʻt be shocked at us for being religiously Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, etc they would be more shocked at how Secular we are. From the Christian side of philosophy JRR Tolkien, of Lord of the Rings fame, and CS Lewis, of Narnia fame, wrote two of the most “pagan” Christian fantasy book series in all of history the way they reconciled that was the idea of Christianity being the “true myth” and I think many Hawaiians see the myths of old Hawaiʻi reflected in the myths of Christianity.