Samoa Officially Becomes a Christian State (Theonomy Applied)

The June 16 article in The Diplomat, titled "Samoa Officially Becomes a Christian State" by Grant Wyeth, states, 

In early June, the Samoan Parliament passed a bill amending the constitution to transform the country from a secular to a Christian state. The objective of the amendment was “to insert in the Constitution that Samoa is a Christian nation to declare the dominance of Christianity in Samoa.” ...

Samoa already had a reference to Christianity in the preamble to its Constitution, which declared that the Samoan government should conduct itself “within the limits prescribed by God’s commandments,” and that Samoan society is “based on Christian principles.” This kind of wording is common in the preambles of constitutions among Pacific Island states (the exception being Fiji). 

Apparently, Samoa recognizes the failure and danger of a religiously pluralistic state. According to the article, a motivation for this appears to be out of fear of "religious wars":

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi sees ... “religious wars” currently playing out at a global level, and that these are leading to civil wars within countries. ...
Tuilaepa believes that it is now the government’s duty to legislate to avoid religious tensions. This line of thinking indicates that it is the secular state that provides the environment for religious tensions to ferment, and that a country which legally enshrines a religion will avoid creating these tensions.

Another motivation for the constitutional change, according to the article, is to protect the culture from other states pressuring it to promote such non-Christian ideas as homosexuality.

Read the full article here. 

One important factor to note is that several groups in Samoa identify as Christians, including Protestants, Catholics, and Mormons. Hopefully Samoa will narrow the definition of Christian to historical orthodox Protestantism.