Rachel Stewart
Ex-NZ Herald, 2016 ‘Opinion Writer of the Year’, Canon Media Awards, but who really cares about mainstream media awards any more? I know I don’t. Firebrand, fearless, fun.
I’m not worried about Brian Tamaki. There. I’ve said it.
I’m more worried about the NZ Police and their tactics. I’m more worried about the NZ media and their tactics. I’m more worried about who decides who’s a decent person in this country.
Someone decided to share a video of a Destiny Church service where fiery things were said. Tamaki gave a sermon on what he calls “spiritual warfare”. He mentioned specific agencies and that they were “going to go down” because of “the evil that’s in our country”.
When he finished his sermon the congregation began to pray. “We call on the innumerable company of angels in Jesus’ name to come and strike these things down, to kill them, to purge them to cast them down to the deepest depths of hell where they belong,” said one follower.
“They’ve had their chance, but they’re done. They are dead.
“In Jesus’ name we cut their heads off.”
So far, so normal. I mean, go down to the American south and just listen to the gospel as they preach it, and often with a hearty side of snake wrangling. But, oh no, our Kiwi coppers decide that Tamaki is being literal not biblical. Jesus H Christ. The power of the NZ Police is becoming God-like.
My other thought is about the guillotine crew cutting off the metaphorical head of Winston Peters just the other day. Somehow that has not concerned the police enough to act on. So the boys in blue have decided to believe the trade unionists who said it was just a symbolic protest and not real, but Brian Tamaki is not afforded the same leeway? Is Christianity the new evil now? You have to wonder.
Having already taken Tamaki’s firearms, licence, and ammo a few weeks ago, and after seeing the offending video, they’ve now returned and taken his gun safe. But, why? There’s nothing more to take, is there? That feels like straight up theft to me. And another attempt at terrorising both him and his family.
And it IS terrorising. Make no mistake. When a bunch of cops turn up at your private residence unannounced and throw paperwork at you and demand your lawful possessions, it is disconcerting and surreal. I know this because what’s happened to Tamaki has happened to me. My sin in 2021 was joking on Twitter about an abusive individual in the NZ trans cult. That morphed into being a “danger to trans people” and all of my firearms, licence and ammo being taken, too. I know how this feels, and it’s a test of one’s mettle.
I ended up with everything being returned after spending $15k in legal fees to prove I was a fit and proper person to hold said licence, and Tamaki will likely prove the same. But it’s a terribly inconvenient, expensive, soul-destroying process designed to sully your reputation and ultimately shut you up. Certain topics are off limits from criticism. In my case it was trans, in Tamaki’s case it’s immigration.
Now I’m not gonna’ sit here and tell you that Tamaki’s preaching style is for me but that’s not the point. It’s his church, his beliefs, and his congregation. Free speech and religious conviction and practice is still legal last time I looked. I’m not a fan of the New Moon Sisters either but far be it from me to stop a bunch of ageing, cosmic women sitting around a bonfire playing with rocks and invoking Gaia. Paganism is just another ideology.
But have you noticed that Christianity is under attack these days? I have and I’m not even on the lookout for it. It appears to be everywhere in the West. What’s going on there do you think? Why is our new religion – for want of a better word – porn, trans, pride parades, rainbows, and bloody unicorns? Or suicidally welcoming the free flow of cultures incompatible with our own into this country? Are these things the new sacred cows and never to be spoken of?
All I know is that Brian Tamaki and Destiny have helped thousands of young men turn their lives around with zero help from outside funders or government. I believe he is genuine in his faith, and in his love for his whānau and wider humanity. I have proudly spoken side by side with him on the scourge of the trans cult and its effect on our children. I’d rather be in the trenches with Brian Tamaki than just about anyone I can name. He is decent man with a sound heart. And that’s why he invokes loyalty.
And before you say it, no, he does not agree with my sexuality. And he’s entitled to not agree with it. But he has never been anything but respectful to me, and others. Hate the sin, love the sinner and all that. And therein lies the lesson.
What you are witnessing in real time with Brian Tamaki is the further erosion of free speech, and the persecution of a person for his beliefs. Whether you agree with those beliefs is not the point.
And if you, like many others, who have been taught by our illustrious media to despise him – and the cops are betting on it – then the question has to be this. What happens when you say something just publicly enough to have the cops turn up at your door? Don’t think it would happen to you?
I here to tell you to think again.
This article was originally published by RCR Media.
