Idolatry

===Polynesia===
The [[Polynesians|Polynesian people]] have had a range of polytheistic theologies found across the [[Pacific Ocean]]. The Polynesian people produced idols from wood, and congregated around these idols for worship.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert W. Williamson|title=Religion and Social Organization in Central Polynesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RJaAQAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-62569-3|pages=5–6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Robert W. Williamson|title=Religion and Social Organization in Central Polynesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RJaAQAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-62569-3|pages=6–14, 37–38, 113, 323}}</ref>

The Christian missionaries, particularly from the [[London Missionary Society]] such as John Williams, and others such as the Methodist Missionary Society, characterized these as idolatry, in the sense of islanders worshipping false gods. They sent back reports which primarily focussed on "overthrow of pagan idolatry" as evidence of their Christian sects triumph, with fewer mentions of actual converts and baptism.<ref>{{cite book|author=Steven Hooper| title=Pacific Encounters: Art & Divinity in Polynesia, 1760–1860|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2S55LTEAogC |year=2006|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-3084-7|pages=27, 65–71}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=J Mezies|title=Abolition of Idolatry in Polynesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYEFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA370|edition=The Journal of civilization|volume=XXIV|year=1841|publisher=Society for the Advancement of Civilization|pages=370–373}}</ref>