Entry #3: Religion

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 Since our interview a month ago, I've thought a lot about my conversation with my half-brother about religion. The next topic I wanted to ask Joel about was his experience with religion. Back in the mid-1800’s German-American protestant missionaries arrived in the Marshall Islands. Marshallese people took Christianity very seriously. Even today, almost all Marshallese people are devoted to Christianity. They attend church every Sunday and often during the week. In my atoll of Wotje, there are more churches than stores. I was curious about Joel’s experience here in the US, but having been raised by a Marshallese Christian family. Joel said, “Church gatherings are very similar, but sometimes they are not as serious as back home.” I asked what that meant and he said, “Back home, nobody works on Sundays and everything’s shut down, and here, sometimes I have to work. And I only go to church when I have time.” Joel stated that, “It’s shocking how Americans brought Christianity to the Marshall Islands, but then when we came here, we found out that most Americans don’t go to church, and they work on Sundays.” Over time, Marshallese-Americans have become less religious and strict about attending church every Sunday than Marshallese people living at home on the Islands.


Images are from the journals of the first missionaries on the Marshall Islands.



Bingham, Hiram, and Captain Moore. “Hiram Bingham, Jr. - Story of the Morning Star, 1866.” Digital Micronesia, https://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/html/MorningStar/MorningStar1866.html. Accessed 19 November 2023.



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