Source: 'Red-Soil'

What have you Christians celebrated and reflected on recently at Christmas, apart from the birth of Jesus Christ? Jesus was born yes, but who is he and why? Serious questions posed by Pastor Matei Ibak, the Youth Bible Study Master of the Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea. Pr Ibak is a man who is very vocal on the teachings of Jesus and believes that the son of God will not have approved of any mining activity, especially the Experimental Seabed Mining because of the destructions to Mother earth.

Pr Ibak strongly believes that Jesus was born to speak out on the injustice. That Jesus was born to fight the exploitation of millions of innocent people by greedy governments and capitalists, the very ones who commercialized his birthday today and claim he’s on their side.

If he appeared tomorrow, he’d still pay the highest cost to fight all this injustice caused by greed that has made men want to destroy mother earth, said Pr Ibak. “All these nuisances have now led to the attempt to turn the seabed upside down in the name of money. He’d still be the radical agitator that he is and go against the system, and they’d still nail him to a cross for that,” said the pastor.

“This great mass of water we call the sea has depths that hold life unknown to men, but put there for a purpose, that may be greater than our human understanding. Why do we want to give that up, our very survival in the name of mining? Isn’t it as simple as fire, don’t touch it, it will burn you?” he points out.

The pastor went on to say, that while all you Christians, followers of Christ attend church services and welcome the new year, think of what Jesus would do if he were here.

“Comrade Jesus is the greatest humanitarian socialist of all time. Therefore as for the Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, more than 2 million of us nationwide will continue to stand together and firmly say ‘No to Experimental Seabed Mining’s to happen in Papua New Guinea, our heaven on earth.”