Houhia ki te kura, ka amo i te whakaio whenua i te rongo taketake koia!
Bless with the everlasting peace!
Towards the end of last year, at least two major journalistic projects sought to examine Destiny Church: John Campbell’s TVNZ programme in December, and Mata, led by Mihi Forbes, released in September. Even the promotional material for these pieces gave me pause. Watching them more recently confirmed the unease I felt at the time.
There is, of course, value in hearing from people who have been part of the church. And some spoke of real abuse within the church, so this is worth airing, their experiences matter. From its founding to the present, Destiny Church has provided a sense of belonging for some of the most politically and economically marginalised people in this country. Māori have long faced systemic violence, and Pacific communities have been disproportionately harmed by the capitalist state. For many, the church has offered connection and meaning in conditions of deep social alienation.
I am not a supporter of Destiny Church. But I am far more concerned with the system that produces institutions like it than with the moral spectacle built around them. In the current context — with state violence intensifying under a National–ACT–NZ First government — moralising about Destiny Church misses the point. The church is a symptom of a broader economic order that has failed the majority of people in this country.
More than half of New Zealanders are effectively locked out of meaningful economic security. The top half of the population owns around 93 per cent of the country’s wealth, while the bottom half — some 2.5 million people — owns just 7 per cent. Yet this concentration of power and wealth which is the story of our country from colonialism to the present day neo liberalism, rarely receives sustained journalistic scrutiny.
What we get instead is emotional storytelling and moral outrage directed at figures like Brian Tamaki. This kind of coverage functions as a sideshow. It is easier — and safer — to focus on personalities than to interrogate structural power.
To my knowledge, neither Campbell nor Forbes has seriously examined the roughly 372 individuals and their associated companies who collectively own more wealth than the bottom 2.5 million New Zealanders combined. Our whole system has, and does revolve around this elite class. Nor do these projects meaningfully engage with the histories of colonisation and the structural dynamics of capitalism from which Destiny Church emerged.
Journalists and researchers who do attempt to expose real power — figures like Nicky Hager, along with those on the far left and even perhaps some on the far right — are routinely marginalised or dismissed. Meanwhile, mainstream journalism remains confined to what Noam Chomsky described in Manufacturing Consent as the “approved parameters of discussion.
I do not look to John Campbell as a moral authority, and I find the use of evocative music and emotionally charged personal narratives — particularly in Mata — irritating. While such approaches may elicit empathy towards particular cases within the church that serve some purpose, they do little to illuminate the underlying crisis of today and the crisis upon which the church was founded. At a time when elite greed continues unchecked, and government intervention is absent, public money is better spent exposing the structures that are actively impoverishing our communities, and exploring what we can do about it.
That is where moral urgency belongs. That is where journalism should be focused. Kia ora koutou katoa.
Ko te raupatu nei, kei te rakorako tonu ana ringaringa. He mana toa, he mana aumangea , he mana wehi kore tēnei kaha noa atu I a Destiny Church. He mate tō Destiny Church he iti iti ia I te mate o te raupatu. Ko te ara pea I ngā moni kāwana e whiwhi nei a John Campbell rāua ko Mihi Forbes ko te whakaahua I te Capitalism nānā I tango te whenua, me ngā taonga Māori arā te kāwana me ana kaingarengare te hunga whai rawa.
The raupatu’s hands are still reaching at us. The raupatu is a strong mana, very strong, this fearless mana is much stronger then Destiny Church. Destiny Church has issues, but these are small to the issue of the raupatu. The path perhaps for the government, with its funding given to people like John Campbell and Mihi Forbes should be used to examine capitalism, the capitalism that stole the land, and taonga Māori , that is the government and the people that run it, the elite wealthy
Kei hewa i te ara ngākau o te kōrero — kei tua te mana whakahaere.
Do not misconceive the emotive aspects to talk- beyond it is the real power
E aku toihau me te iwi, tēnā rā koutou katoa
To my leaders, greetings
