Holy baptism, troubled waters

Religious symbols often lose their meanings, take up new meanings, run their course and expire, and/or leave a bad taste in the souls of adherents. And sometimes, religious teachings misappropriate local languages and rituals. The two shared Christian sacraments, Baptism and Eucharist, use liquid (water, wine) as symbols. But liquid is real and substantial, and we in Pasifika (Pacific, Oceania) live in a (physical, cultural, symbolical, metaphorical) liquid world. Our world is dominated by liquid (sea), and our (oral) cultures and (relaxed) ways are fluid. The troubling of our liquid world by nuclear weapons tests and global warming problematize the use of liquid as religious symbol, and in this article i reflect on the use of water in baptism.