EDITORIAL: Clergy needs to get back to basics

Paul Taggart
It is hard to imagine anyone among us wanting to see the world overheat, the oceans rise, hurricanes multiply and crops fail.
Therefore the decision by 18 New Zealand and Pacific Anglican bishops to sign a statement in the wake of the recent two-day climate change conference in Wellington stating, "Climate change is a real and present danger to the future of this planet and the survival of the species," is simply regurgitating a view already expressed by many people in numerous countries.
The bishops said politicians needed to develop policies to limit climate change. But aren't they? Wasn't that the purpose of the conference? And isn't that the aim of the Kyoto Accord?
But it is an enormous, multi-national political issue, made more complicated by the fact that the United States and Australia are not parties to Kyoto, and China is effectively excluded from its commitments. Thus China last year set out on a seven-year programme to build more than 500 new coal-fired power stations.
What will be the impact on Chinese political opinion of the moralising of this nation's bishops? Absolutely nothing.
The one thing of which we can be certain is that the countless millions of rural Chinese who live without electricity will not be persuaded that they should abstain from the industrial progress which has bought warmth, comfort and good health to the people of New Zealand.
The Anglicans' social justice commissioner, Anthony Dancer, said people must care for the planet. True, but are there not more pressing needs that the bishops could devote their attention to, such as Kiwi morality?
Take the trial of Clint Rickards, Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton.
Leaving aside the controversial issue of suppressed evidence which has left some with the view that Louise Nicholas is a liar, when the picture could be completely different if the jury, and the public, had had the full facts.
There is another point - that is that even if Clint Rickards' behaviour was not illegal, how does the church judge the morality of a serving officer in a defacto marriage with a family going behind his partner's back to have group sex with a vulnerable teenage girl?
It is behaviour which has been met with distaste by callers to talkback radio following the verdict, but silence from the bishops.
Details of Rickards' sexual antics were known to the police when the matter was investigated 11 years ago, but he was still promoted to Assistant Police Commissioner and was tipped for the police commissioner's job before the matter became public.
Are such actions appropriate for a top police officer?
Should he have been allowed to continue through the ranks when such immoral behaviour was known to his superiors?
That is a matter that senior police officers and politicians need to reflect on. However, our church leaders need to stand up and be counted too. Before they tackle the international issue of global warming, our Anglican, and other, religious leaders might be better to get back to basics and give guidance on some of the everyday issues that are of concern to their declining congregations.