Simon Pound is a reporter for Media7 the TVNZ7 media show, He also writes a bit for George FM's favourite REMIX magazine.
Every week he gets out and about to the most interesting media happenings all over the place. The more colourful the better.
On Wednesdays at around 8.30 he joins Nick D to talk about the amazing people and things he chases around. Tune in & check it out!

10 March 2010

Brian Tamaki has been getting a lot of flack. He is a figure that the media love to pillory and has become a by-word for homophobia and greedy hypocrisy.

I wonder if he doesn't get an unfairly hard time.

There are other prosperity focused churches that feather their bosses' nests but don't get the same scrutiny over their motives — -like City Impact or Life Church who are profiled in those links by the excellent Tony Wall.

I think that those other Churches do work with much less damaged and difficult people. Many of the men that Tamaki helps are Maori fathers that have had patchy relationships with employment, society and women in the past. Many had been violent or in trouble before getting involved in the Church. This is how the Tamaki supporters tell it anyway. Tamaki preaches that men should not drink, they should work hard and they should make their families the center or their efforts. If he is turning Maori men who weren't good fathers into good fathers then he is doing good work. This can not be stated clearly enough. One of the saddest things in this country is the number of children who grow up without fathers. And unfortunately you will find that it is Maori who are most likely to miss a stable father figure in their lives growing up. There are many reasons it is a good thing to have fathers involved in kids' lives. For example kids who grow up without fathers grow up to be disproportionately more likely to be criminal or neglectful themselves.

This is a view that isn't represented enough while the media scoff at Tamaki's cars and highlights.

The fancy churches like Life and City Impact also ask for money off their middle class congregations yet they do not do such important work and don't get such a hard time. Why does everyone know about Tamaki's tacky tastes and most could not even say who leads the Life Church — which is bigger, takes more money off its congregation and has 20million of assets — including even having a boss, by the name of Paul De Jong if you didn't know, who also rides a flashy trashy Harley Davidson.

In terms of the Homophobia there are plenty of other churches that are homophobic. The Catholics for example won't give communion to open homosexuals and believe they are off to hell. Most Christian groups are homophobic but are just a bit more slimy about how they categorise their prejudices. I would love to see the same liberal outrage applied to other Churches that the Destiny Church receive.

There are also plenty of religions that have kooky beliefs and leaders that are deified. If you were to give the same style of coverage to the Catholic Church that the media do to Destiny Church you could run stories about this crazy group who gather on Sundays to ritualistically drink the blood and eat the flesh of their founder, a zombie from 2000 years ago that rose from the dead and had magical wounds that bled from his hands. They believe he was born because God implanted him in his virgin mother and have made a fetish out of this immaculate conception. These people worship a cult leader they call the Pope, who was a member of the Hitler Youth and is said to be infallible, the very word of God on earth. This group have land holding worth billions. They pay no tax. They get money off their congregations to build enormous Cathedrals while people starve in the world. Etc Etc

(That stuff about flesh eating is true. Catholics believe that through transubstantiation the bread wafers and wine actually turn into the blood and flesh of Jesus Christ. Once this happens they then eat and drink of it. I'm not trying to be stink to Catholics here, just showing that you can frame things in negative ways very easily with any religion. I'm looking at you Mormon magic underpants.)

All these facts are true and could be leveled at the Catholic church — but are not in the media night after night. They aren't on the front of the Herald. And this is strange because there are a lot more Catholics in NZ than Destiny Church members. Surely this is bigger news? But it isn't as we are used to the Catholics and don't hold them to the same standards we are holding Destiny Church.

I don't like Brian Tamaki. I don't like religion that tells people what to think and takes money off the weak and vulnerable with the threat of eternal hell for those that don't play by the rules. I don't like homophobia and bigotry that Destiny practice in the exact way I detest Catholic or any religious intolerance. I don't like the thought control that they preach. But what I would love to see is the same standards applied to other religions that are applied to Destiny. And I would like to see what exactly the people who rail against Tamaki are reckoning should be done with the thousands of families that he is helping and that no other movement is keeping sober, nonviolent and productive.

And as a final thought I wonder if there a racist tinge or a class tinge to the way he is hounded and Paul de Jong is anonymous. I'd love to hear what you think?

Click here to share your thoughts.

Simon Pound