My friend, pastor George, told me that until quite recently, many Marshallese have doubted climate change because they said God promised that he would never destroy the earth with water: Genesis 9:11 "I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."
When you look in Luke 21:25-26, however, you find the following as a sign for the end of the world "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world."
While Bible exegesis is obviously a difficult and contentious undertaking, some Marshallese thought that the flooding was a way in which God punishes people for their sins. But what made them rethink this theory, however, is when many the graveyards, which tend to be build very close to the shore, started being inundated. The Marshallese reasoned that God would never want the graves to be destroyed - and they moved the graves closer inland, often into their backyard.
For the linguistically interested, these beautiful white tombs can harbor interesting signs of language transfer, as the following specimen illustrates:
When you look in Luke 21:25-26, however, you find the following as a sign for the end of the world "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world."
While Bible exegesis is obviously a difficult and contentious undertaking, some Marshallese thought that the flooding was a way in which God punishes people for their sins. But what made them rethink this theory, however, is when many the graveyards, which tend to be build very close to the shore, started being inundated. The Marshallese reasoned that God would never want the graves to be destroyed - and they moved the graves closer inland, often into their backyard.
For the linguistically interested, these beautiful white tombs can harbor interesting signs of language transfer, as the following specimen illustrates: