William Chong

The New Zealand media spotlight generally falls on Christians under two circumstances. Firstly, if there’s a tragedy or loss of life that involves a Christian individual or group. And secondly, if there’s any whiff of a scandal, controversy or a public fall from grace. So there was a strange juxtaposition this week when on the same evening that TVNZ’s Close-Up was running a piece on the legacy of tragically-slain good Samaritan (and devout Christian) Austin Hemmings, TV3’s 6pm News broke a story of Destiny Church wanting to establish a standalone community in South Auckland. The Dominion Post subsequently reported denials of a plan for a “walled city“.

The TV3 news report said this:

“Destiny Church is planning to create a holy city for its followers in the heart of South Auckland.

The church’s leader, Bishop Brian Tamaki has told supporters the plans are well advanced, and that donations for the project have topped $2.4 million.

He is urging church members to sell up their homes around the country and move to his promised land – a suggestion that is not being welcomed by everyone.

Tamaki unveiled his vision in front of thousands of parishioners at Destiny Church’s 10th birthday conference.

…

Tamaki told his parishioners the city will hold a church to seat 5000, maraes, medical centres and schools, so his parishioners never have to leave.

“Every child of every member of this church will never go to a state school again,” says Tamaki.

Destiny has 10 churches and over 7000 members throughout New Zealand.

Tamaki wants all of them to sell their homes and move to his holy nation where he can protect them …”

Through all that there’s not a single mention by Bishop Tamaki of a “walled city”, so there’s a fair bit of hyperbole being thrown around here.

I mean, I don’t purport to be defending the church zealously, but I think the report’s a bit disingenuous on a number of fronts:

• The report claims that Bishop Tamaki “is urging church members to sell up their homes around the country and move to his promised land”. In the video, the pastor does exhort to the conference audience to “shift for the purpose of God”, but he could just be referring to a shift to Auckland, rather than the planned 10-20 acre plot itself. Remember that there are Destiny Church members scattered across the country and Tamaki would have been addressing them. Besides, the report makes no mention of any proposals for housing developments: Tamaki mentions plans for a 5000-seat church, maraes, medical centres and schools. Trying to house all 7,000 churchgoers on a 10 acre plot is probably logistically impractical.
• Plenty of Christian denominations run church-affiliated schools, and plenty of parents do send their children there in favour of state schools. Examples in Auckland include Elim Christian College, Sancta Maria Catholic School, Tyndale Park Christian School, St. Kentigern College, Diocesan and so on. I suspect that the magnitude of controversy around Destiny Church’s ambitions stems from its past reputation in mainstream media, such as their much-publicised “Enough is Enough” protest against the 2004 Civil Union Bill.
• The news report also makes this statement which I just don’t see any evidence for: “Tamaki wants all of them to sell their homes and move to his holy nation where he can protect them.” Seriously? Holy nation? It’s a bit too sensationalist for my liking.

There’s been the predictable cry of “Kool-Aid” and “Waco”, where both Christians and non-Christians express their apprehension at Destiny Church’s startlingly rapid growth. Cultwatch director Mark Vrankovich warns that “if Brian becomes deranged or goes extremely strange we could end up with a Waco.”

All in all, I guess it is worth keeping an eye on developments as they arise – but for now, to clump Brian Tamaki together with infamous cult leaders like Jim Jones and David Koresh would be as premature as declaring a National Party victory in the 2008 NZ general elections. Let’s not cast the straw men into the furnace too quickly!

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(Disclosures: None to declare regarding Destiny Church.)