Atu Vuloano, Paul McGeough, and Elmer Gantry heads to Fiji for a little hot gospelling ...

(Above: Atu Vulaono on the right, and Reijeli Vulaono in the background).

Here at loon pond we get to marvel at the strange ways of the world on a regular basis, and nary a ripple in the farthest reaches of the pond should be ignored, lest it provide another wondrous example of the mysterious ways of the lord.

It was Paul McGeough's report An unholy alliance of church and state that first introduced me to Pastor Atu Vulaono in Fiji, sounding like a close kissing cousin of Pastor Danny in Melbourne (no, not in that way, in a lordly way).

Now there's no point in cannibalizing McGeough's piece - its charting of the rise and fall of the Vulaonos is sufficient unto itself - but I thought the intertubes might provide some complementary readings for this Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, and as usual the full to overflowing intertubes provided some neat ancillary items.

First up is an offering from the Fiji Times online. Though it's fallen on hard times under the new regime, the venerable paper nonetheless provides more details on the rise of Atu and Reijeli Vulaono, in No easy road up:

When Atu and Raijeli Vulaono registered the New-Methodist Christian Fellowship on August 5, 2002, they caused little more than a stir in the Christian movement in Fiji.

The new church was almost irrelevant in the sense that it only had nine members attending service at a hall in Votualevu, Nadi.

Their son played the drums, a daughter at the keyboard, two more daughters singing and mum and dad preaching.

Their audience was a Filipino woman and her two sons.

From little things big things grow - it's the Christian way - and eventually the New Methodists could claim 20,000 members, including some in Australia, with churches in Sydney, Griffiths, Cairns and Perth, a following amongst footballers and the police (with their own crusades - was it just a coincidence that Atu Vulaono's brother in law was Esala Teleni, the Police Commissioner?), and as well as the churches, four trucks, two boats and a multi-media system. Not to mention some cash to splash on advertising and a television show.

"We appeal to the police, the soldiers, prisons and the ruggers because we are genuine and I believe I am very honest," says Mr Vulaono.

"We are very transparent. Whatever we preach, we live that life so it is credible.

"When I preach, I talk about what the Lord has done to me so people can identify with the message.

"I believe that the Lord has really helped me to be honest."

The Vulaonos live a very busy lifestyle.

They have an open home in Nadi and house their missionaries as well.

When they can, they hang out at the Esquire coffee shop at the airport. That is when they have their family quality time.

"We are very close and I think that's our strength," says Mr Vulaono of him and his wife.

"When I stand up and preach, I have a very powerful woman behind me, not only powerful but very close to me.

"She supports me.

"That's why when critics come, the harder they come, the harder they fall."

These days, as McGeough charts, it's Vulaono who's taken the fall, as he fell out of favor with the regime and its dictator in chief, Chairman Frank.

In the glory days of the cult, 4000 youths marched in the streets of Suva to declare God in their lives as part of a week long 'youth explosion conference'. (New Methodists march to declare faith). In those days it was easy to preach about the evils of kava (Kava is evil, says minister), since it's the food of the devil, and as usual there was a call for family values.

But then the mood began to change - Victims of 'jealousy' was the story June 28, 2009:

Atu and Raijeli Vulaono are the talk of the town, but for a different reason.

They say they have become the victims of a vicious whispering and email campaign by people motivated by jealousy and envy.

"We believe that iron sharpeneth iron according to the word of God," says Mrs Vulaono.

This verse is found in Proverbs 27:17 which reads, "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."

"When we hear criticism, we look at it in a spiritual way," she says.

"If it's going to help, then we go that way. Or if not, then it just doesn't bother us."

Well no bother ... up until Chairman Frank sharpened his iron.

You can keep googling through the Fiji Times - "bling" away you Murdoch-loving satanists - but we wanted something a little more juicy and we found it at Soli Vakasama:

First there was a link to some holy rolling hot gospelling Fiji style, here, as part of the Fiji police crusade. Along with this in the comments section:

sency railau

I do here a lot of bull shit from you maam.
There is a lot of au, keirau, au ,au ,au - Sa rogo na vosa o au , sa yali na Kalou
Sa matata na gusu ni gunu lolly pop.

Well they play it tough in Fiji. A bit like a rugger hooker in a scrum with a decent punch, this came back and hit somewhere around the groin:

@ sency railau,
1.) when you think you have the guts to accuse, you should also have the guts to give your real name and show your face and not just a blank!
2.) the comment you've put doesn't belong in this website, go find a sova benu site to put all your benus in!!, preferably a site called garbage bag(if there's any!!)
3.) you have displayed a very cowardly act by bitterly accusing Mrs Vulaono using a fake name, a faceless mask and by displaying your address as from Wambe, Sudan. What I don't understand is, since your name is fijian and your contant is also broken English and Fijian, are you a sudanese immigrant in Fiji, or are you a fijian botoboto wannabee kai Sudan, or maybe you look like a kai Sudan with sark black face , ulumaji, lila waso and all, yeah???? please reply and identify yourself, i think you'll be an interesting specimen to observe!!

Now there's a Christian sharing the love.

Well there's over two hundred comments on the Soli Vakasama piece, starting with this one, and heading right down to the recent news that Chairman Frank has shut down the holy rollers:

This must be one of the way fwd that that this illegal regime is advocating. Using a brand of religion that teaches women to point to their private parts and say as Mrs Atu said ‘Oqo na kei Atu” (pointing to her vagina ) and Atu in one of his sermons emphasing man’s superiority over women stated that during sex “me toka ga i cake na tagane ka davo tu ga i ra na yalewa.” This holier than thou approach runs parallel to VB’s philosophy of my way or the high way. Now VB is seeing first hand how hard it is to lie and lie and then ask the Internatinal community to understand him. Time is running out VB, qurt whilest you are ahead, but you still will face the music for being a murderer, a traitor, a women abuser and civil rights abuser etc etc etc.

And there are more blogs out there, with more fussin' and feudin' and fightin' over lost souls and Fiji, not to mention Chairman Frank. Will no one rid him of the troublesome vexatious bloggers? (Raw Fiji News, Coup Four and a Half, etc etc).

Well who knows how long McGeough will last in Suva, filing this kind of copy, but I for one am grateful for his report from the furthest reaches of the pond, and his stories of cops helping to reform prostitutes in very strange ways ... but first pausing to get serviced on the job.

The spirit of Elmer Gantry is unquenchable, unslakeable, insatiable, limitless, omnivorous, ravening, unappeasable, eternal, voracious and wondrous, and it's no coincidence that Sinclair Lewis first got his inspiration from Methodists, Unitarians and pentecostalists.

While Chairman Frank gets his style from the dictators of old:

There was no public announcement. "The closest to an official announcement was a letter from the chief censor to editors, ordering them to cease broadcasting the New Methodists' paid programs on the grounds that they had become a security risk," a media source says. Says Barr of the police crusade: "It was a stupid thing." The priest dismisses Vulaono as something of a charlatan - "he roars and yells at sinners; to hear him preach is out of this world. People were upset as much by the influence he was gaining over the police and young people as by the contradiction of Frank's claim to want a multi-religious society, and here was this splinter group trying to dominate the country.

"Then, suddenly, it was over. I spoke to the PM's secretary - he waved his hand and said, 'Finished.'"

Finished! This is the end beautiful friend, this is the end, my only friend, the end of our elaborate plans, the end of everything that stands, the end, no safety or surprise, the end, I'll never look into your eyes ... again.

Ah well, Sic transit gloria mundi. But Elmer can never be defeated, and he'll rise again somewhere else in another form, and we eagerly anticipate his rising ... for where would loon pond be without its loons? Ride the snake baby, to the ancient lake baby ...

NB. Links to Fiji on the fragile intertubes are fragile because Chairman Frank takes a view, so no guarantees re above links ...

(Below: young Christians on the march, and further below, back row from left, Vonokula, Elijah and Rosy, and front row Atu Vulaono and Ophia).