Reverend Katie Marcar, a senior teaching fellow in biblical languages at the University of Otago and a deacon in the Anglican Church in New Zealand, believed the ideology promoted by the Destiny founder was designed to magnify fear.
“People who are afraid are easier to control,” Marcar said.
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki leads a march down Queen St. Photo / Alex Burton
“This type of hype runs high on emotion and low on Christian values and teaching.
“Christians should be people defined by the love, sacrifice and hospitality of God, not fear.”
As a Christian, she believed New Zealand was a country in which all faiths could be expressed peacefully.
Presbyterian minister at the First Church of Otago, Reverend Malcolm Gordon, said New Zealand was not a Christian country in the way Brian Tamaki wanted it to be.
“He wants to weaponise Christianity against people who are different, using it to disenfranchise those who aren’t like him.”
Reverend Craig Vernall, the senior pastor of the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Tauranga, said it was alarming to see our democracy used to silence people.
Destiny Church’s Brian Tamaki and followers protest against "foreign" religions in Auckland. Photo / Corey Fleming
“It’s both alarming and ironic to witness Brian Tamaki use the freedoms granted by our democracy to advocate for the suppression of those very freedoms for others,” Vernall said.
“True democracy doesn’t privilege one religion over another. It protects all from domination by any.
“To use the liberties of democracy as a tool to silence or delegitimise other religions is not only hypocritical – it reveals a startling insecurity.”
A number of complaints have been lodged with the Human Rights Commission after the protest that saw Tamaki and scores of his followers march and rip up flags of religions and movements they deemed “satanic”.
Earlier this week, Ethnic Communities and Police Minister Mark Mitchell condemned the march, saying behaviour that incited discrimination or violence was damaging.
“I condemn the vile rhetoric and behaviour of the Destiny Church and its associates. The behaviour I saw was not Kiwi, nor Christian.”
During Saturday’s march, Tamaki told his supporters: “We are living in dangerous times, we are living in the last days.
“This is about standing for our flag. What you see here today are true New Zealand patriots.”
The marchers had earlier walked down Queen St with a very large banner that read: “NZ’s official religion: Christianity”.
They chanted “Faith, flag, family” before announcing, “No assimilation, no immigration”.
“It’s time to take aim and launch a full assault – exposing Islam, the UN, and every foreign religion and ideology hijacking our country,” Tamaki claimed earlier in a press release.
