The Case for Brian and Me

You know, I defended Brian Tamaki once. It was not something I was terribly proud of, and something I thought I would never do, but Moosetastic raised a matter of principle once that got me riled (official secularisation of New Zealand’s religious holidays, I think it boiled down to) and so I stuck up for Mr Tamaki’s side of the argument.

I can’t bring myself to call Mr Tamaki a Bishop. Decades of Catholic indoctrination and a cynicism about calling people by their job titles (For me, they are Mr Key, Mr Obama and Mr Sarkozy, thank you – I don’t call people Teacher Fish or Master of Awesomeness JudgeNotKate) makes it impossible for me to take that seriously, and I will call him that only as a point of polite conversation.

And I find the most known tenets of his church incompatible with my own beliefs. I won’t say that I find the church’s beliefs repugnant, as I would have to take them seriously for that. I once tried to buy a couple of “Enough is Enough” t-shirts for a gay Civil Union, but I think the person on the other end of the e-mail line twigged on to my intentions and found that all the church’s stocks were exhausted. People are allowed different world views, and if BT and the Destiny Church can provide a vision that others can have hope in, then who am I to stand in the way?

What does get my goat is stories like those currently coming out of the mouths of disgruntled Destiny churchgoers (reported in the NZ Herald, and more here, and of course there have been interviews on the telly). There always did seem to be two purposes to the church: to spread the world of God (as interpreted by Her slick-haired Polynesian representative), and to generate funds to support those ministering. The problem is that the latter now seems more important than the former, but the two are so powerfully linked that those in the church are unable to differentiate the two.

I could blame the followers of Destiny Church for being gullible, if not outright stupid. Who could fail to see that Mr Tamaki’s lavish lifestyle of motorbikes and daily TV appearances as the start of his demands rather than the end? Who would continue to stay with the church when the demands for money and signs of devotion (at a cost to the devoted, of course) escalated?

But in the end, the fault lies with Mr Tamaki, who has built (and I am sure he hates the phrase) a cult around himself. The church he founded is no longer about God, or Jesus, or the Bible or good works. Destiny Church, to all outward appearances (to my eyes at least), is now all about him. And the fact he can’t step back and see why so many people are criticising how his own church has developed to what it is now as a result of his desires rather than his interpretation of the Bible is the ultimate form of egocentrism and denial.

So, no longer do I see Mr Tamaki as a figure of mild mockery. Actually, that is not true – he is that, and he always was. But now, my perception of him is clouded by the presence of all those who now flock around him, like the sheep Jesus apparently so cherished but that so mindlessly will follow. Now, Mr Tamaki and the people of the Church of Destiny just scare me, so the quicker it collapses under the weight of its swollen head, the better.

Verdict: There is no point telling people wrapped up in a cult that they are following a narcissistic nutter, so I am thrilled to see the people within that cult are realising it for themselves. The sheep are awakening and will hopefully escape from their pen shortly. 6.5 shackles freed out of 10.