My ethics class is designed to teach the students how to apply biblical ethics to today's problems. One way I do this is to have them find a newspaper article which presents an ethical issue (like Michael Yambal did below) and determine what the Bible says about it. I also assign them a
Scripture verse or verses and ask them to come up with four ways that Scripture is being followed or ignored in contemporary Melanesia. Below is a response one of my students gave. Jeffrey M. Hapeli applies Lev. 19:18 and Deut. 32:35, which speak of the need to allow God to take vengeance, to the Melanesian practice of murder by witchcraft.(The photo is NOT of a witch. It is of a Highland's woman in mourning.)
It is a practice in my area that people use witchcraft to kill others. When one uses that means to have another person killed, it is always difficult to find out who actually did it at the time of the person's death. However, sometimes later, say after four or five years, the news about the killing normally is made known to the relatives of the deceased. During such times, the relatives of the dead man seek revenge for the loss of their family member against those that have killed their family member by witchcraft. Most believers in the Lord still do that nowadays in my area. Thus this is against Biblical ethics and should be forbidden. Let God alone deal with them that do us harm.
Later on in his paper Jeffrey cites an example where God did take revenge on a man who assaulted a CLTC student in Mt. Hagen with a knife. The student forgave his attacker, who was himself later stabbed at a fast-food restaurant in the city.
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