Destiny Church, New Zealand
Encyclopedia
- For unaffiliated churches which share the same name, see Destiny ChurchDestiny ChurchDestiny Church may refer to:*Destiny Church Groningen, a network of churches based in the Netherlands and South America*Destiny Church , a network of churches based in New Zealand...
.
Destiny Church is a Pentecostal fundamentalist Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
movement, headquartered in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. The church advocates strict adherence to biblical morality, and is notable for its position against homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, its patriarchal views and for its calls for a return to biblical conservative family values
Family values
Family values are political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society. Familialism is the ideology that promotes the family and its values as an institution....
and morals. It also teaches prosperity theology
Prosperity theology
Prosperity theology or gospel is a Christian religious belief whose proponents claim the Bible teaches that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians. Most teachers of prosperity theology maintain that a combination of faith, positive speech, and donations to Christian ministries will...
. The Destiny Movement considers itself under the spiritual authority of Bishop Eddie Long
Eddie Long
Eddie Lee Long is a controversial preacher and the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, near Lithonia. When Long started as pastor for New Birth Church in 1987, there were 300 church members...
of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta.
The Destiny Church movement was founded in 1998 from 20 members of Lake City Church in Rotorua
Rotorua
Rotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. The city is the seat of the Rotorua District, a territorial authority encompassing the city and several other nearby towns...
, initially calling itself City Church Auckland. It is led by Brian Tamaki
Brian Tamaki
Brian Raymond Tamaki heads Destiny Church, a Pentecostal Christian organisation in New Zealand which advocates strict adherence to fundamentalist biblical morality, and is notable for its position against homosexuality, its patriarchal views and for its calls for a return to biblical conservative...
, a charismatic orator whose actions and rhetoric have attracted criticism from the New Zealand media and other public figures. The church sponsored a nationwide rally against civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
s, issued a DVD asserting that the Government was "evil", ordained Tamaki as Bishop over all local Destiny churches, and recently held a gathering of 700 men who swore a "covenant" oath of allegiance, obedience, and deference to Tamaki.
Culture
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, with a total membership in excess of 10,000. The church provides not only religious guidance but also a range of social services including budget advice, support for drug addicts and provision of food and housing. The church also operates a composite school (catering for both primary and secondary students) which uses the Cambridge system.
Church services have a Pentecostal worship style, and sermons have a strongly conservative, literalist
Biblical literalism
Biblical literalism is the interpretation or translation of the explicit and primary sense of words in the Bible. A literal Biblical interpretation is associated with the fundamentalist and evangelical hermeneutical approach to Scripture, and is used almost exclusively by conservative Christians...
interpretation of Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
teachings. Its membership is drawn mainly from lower socio-economic sections of New Zealand society and is multicultural, although predominantly Māori
Maori culture
Māori culture is the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, an Eastern Polynesian people, and forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture. Within the Māori community, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the word Māoritanga is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori...
and Polynesian
Polynesian culture
Polynesian culture refers to the indigenous peoples' culture of Polynesia who share common traits in language, customs and society. Chronologically, the development of Polynesian culture can be divided into four different historical eras:...
. Brian Tamaki is himself Māori, and the church has been identified as part of the Māori cultural renaissance of recent years. Peter Lineham has compared Destiny Church to the Ratana
Ratana
The Rātana movement is a Māori religion and pan-tribal political movement founded by Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana in early 20th century New Zealand...
movement and linked with historical Christianity in Māoridom
Maori religion
Māori religion is the religious beliefs and practice of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand.-Traditional Māori religion:...
.
The church's leadership demand strict obedience to its teachings and its rhetoric has alienated other churches that have different approaches to Christianity. In 2003, Tamaki, in what he described as a prophetic utterance, predicted that Destiny would be "ruling the nation" within five years.
On his website "New Zealand: A Nation Under Siege" Tamaki has declared the government of New Zealand to be "inherently evil", pointing out that some members of Parliament chose not to swear on the Bible, and one (Ashraf Choudhary
Ashraf Choudhary
Dr Ashraf Choudhary, QSO, is a Pakistani-New Zealand scientist in agricultural engineering and a member of the Parliament in New Zealand. He is a member of the Labour Party, and is New Zealand's first MP from South Asia and Pakistan....
) swore on the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, when being sworn in to government. In a later interview, Tamaki said Destiny was ready to wage war on "secular humanism, liberalism, relativism, pluralism", on "a Government gone evil", on the "modern-day witchcraft" of the media, and on the "radical homosexual agenda".
Media articles using former Destiny Church members as sources have alleged that Tamaki's has an outspoken autocratic style and highlighted the church's frequent appeals for tithe contributions, and its insular culture. The Sunday Star Times highlighted Tamaki's visible wealth and personal luxury, questioning its consistency with the church's tithing system. Church pastors agree to a restraint of trade
Restraint of trade
Restraint of trade is a common law doctrine relating to the enforceability of contractual restrictions on freedom to conduct business. In an old leading case of Mitchell v Reynolds Lord Smith LC said,...
that applies in the event that they withdraw as pastors.
The church's Brisbane pastor resigned in March 2010 over a difference in doctrine. 25 members of the congregation followed him out of the church, some expressed their support for him to the media, saying that the church was a money-making cult.
In late March 2010, controversy arose over allegations against two adult children of Destiny Church Taranaki Pastors Robyn and Lee Edmonds, it was alleged that their son had indecently assaulted a thirteen year old girl and their daughter had been involved with a sixteen year old boy in foster care. Charges were withdrawn by Police with their son as there was no evidence. The Edmonds resigned from Destiny Church Taranaki leadership
Enough is Enough rally
Destiny Church has been active in campaigning for a return to what it considers to be "Christian moralMorality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
values" in New Zealand society, particularly for the "sanctity of marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
between a husband and wife". In August 2004, Destiny members met on Parliament under their "Enough is Enough" rally which drew 5000 protesters against civil unions
Civil unions in New Zealand
Civil union has been legal in New Zealand since 26 April 2005. The Civil Union Act to establish the institution of civil union for same-sex and opposite-sex couples was passed by the Parliament on 9 December 2004. The Act has been described as very similar to the Marriage Act with references to...
legislation.
The rally attracted considerable criticism. The black t-shirts and track-pants worn by many of the marchers prompted negative comparisons with Nazi storm-troopers
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
in the New Zealand media. A second march occurred in Auckland along with the Christian Life Centre and the City Impact Churches in March 2005.
When the rally was in progress, accusations of cult-like tendencies followed this statement by Tamaki:
- "I have a higher calling than a politician, I am a man of God."
Plans for a "Destiny City"
On 29 October 2008 it was reported that Destiny Church was planning on building a holy city in South Auckland. The report was based on comments made by Brian Tamaki at the church's 10th birthday celebration, and released on DVD, where he talks about a 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) site the church had procured, with a budget of $2.4m. He said the community would have its own maraes and medical facilities and that "every child of every member of this church will never go to a state school again".The church subsequently denied the report, a spokesperson saying they only intended to build a new headquarters and supply "social help" programmes, despite Rotorua's Daily Post quoting Tamaki as saying Destiny planned to create a "city within a city" in 2006.
Momentum conference and pledge of allegiance
In October 2009, about 700 male members of the church attended a conference called "MoMENtum" in which Tamaki likened himself to King David. Attendees swore a "covenant oath" of loyalty and obedience to Mr Tamaki and were given a "covenant ring" to wear on their right hands. A document entitled "Protocols and Requirements Between Spiritual Father & His Spiritual Sons" contains the oath:
The document asserts Tamaki's authority as "Bishop" and "spiritual father" of the church he founded. Another section, "Conduct Towards Bishop", states that "Bishop is the tangible expression of God", instructs the "sons" to follow numerous protocols, to defer to Tamaki with unquestioning loyalty and obedience, to follow his dress code, and to never tolerate criticism.
Cult allegations
Following this pledge, the church was labelled as a cultCultThe word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
by several New Zealand media outlets and other observers.
In an interview with TVNZ, Mark Vrankovich of Cultwatch criticised the covenant, saying Mr Tamaki was "taking a kingship position", and
In the same interview following the reports of October 2009, Mr Tamaki and Richard Lewis defended the pledge on the basis that it was taken willingly, and simply attempted to set standards and codify established practice within the church. Lewis denied the "cult" claims, noting that church services are open to the public. Tamaki denied the existence of a "cult of personalityCult of personalityA cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
", saying that he was simply setting a visible example for men to follow; and that the church helps a lot of people from difficult backgrounds.
A competing current affairs programme, "Campbell Live", made use of a covert camera and an unidentified witness to critique church practices and the Momentum conference. The church later issued a response, stating that "a number of comments made by the individual were grossly inaccurate", that the source was not credible, and the report reflected "poor practice".
In a separate report Peter Lineham, associate professor at Massey University, expressed similar concerns but stopped short of using the word 'cult':
Cult allegations resurfaced in 2010, when Cultwatch accused Tamaki of denying the bodily resurrection of JesusResurrection of JesusThe Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...
, the claims and Tamaki's denial of the cult status generated substantial media coverage.
Other activities
Richard Lewis, a member of Destiny Church Auckland, formed the Destiny New ZealandDestiny New ZealandDestiny New Zealand was a Christian political party in New Zealand centred on the charismatic/pentecostal Destiny Church. The party described itself as "centre-right". It placed a strong focus on socially conservative values and argued that the breakdown of the traditional family was a primary...
political party in 2003. The party first ran candidates in 2005New Zealand general election, 2005The 2005 New Zealand general election held on 17 September 2005 determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. No party won a majority in the unicameral House of Representatives, but the Labour Party of Prime Minister Helen Clark secured two more seats than nearest rival, the...
. Candidates from four different churches joined with candidates who came from Destiny Church. Despite Tamaki's prediction that the church would rule New Zealand by 2008, the party gained only 0.6 percent of the vote. This was well short of the five percent threshold required to enter Parliament without an electorate MP but was the best performance of any party that failed to enter Parliament. In 2007, City Impact Church and Destiny Church collaborated in the establishment of a "Family Party", but the latter failed to gain public support and was dissolved in 2010
Destiny TV, a televangelist ministry, was launched in 2001 and produced 30 minute programmes that ran every weekday morning on New Zealand's national television broadcaster. The programmes were funded by donations from Destiny Church members. The programme ceased to be broadcast by TVNZ in late 2004 just after the Destiny New Zealand political party was formed, but Destiny TV still currently broadcasts on Prime TV and also in the South Pacific and Australia. Programmes and live services are also broadcast worldwide over the internet on www.streamingfaith.com.
Following a unanimous agreement by the 19 other pastors of Destiny Churches throughout New Zealand, Tamaki was ordained as a bishopBishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
during a ceremony performed by kaumatuaKaumatuaKaumātua are respected tribal elders of either gender in a Māori community who have been involved with their whānau for a number of years. They are appointed by their people who believe the chosen elders have the capacity to teach and guide both current and future generations...
Manuel Renata on 18 June 2005.
In 2011 Brian Tamaki's wife Hannah campaigned to become national president of the Māori Women's Welfare LeagueMāori Women's Welfare LeagueThe Māori Women’s Welfare League or Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko I te Ora is a New Zealand welfare organisation focusing on Māori women and children...
. In her campaign material Hannah claimed that Brian "is a direct descendent" of Te Puea HerangiTe Puea HerangiTe Puea Herangi, CBE was a respected Māori leader from New Zealand's Waikato region known by the name Princess Te Puea.-Early life:...
for founder of the League. Te Puea had no children. Hannah released a statement saying My standing is NOT a ‘Destiny’ takeover.
Locations
Destiny Churches were established in the following locations:
Auckland AucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
- July 1998Whakatane WhakataneWhakatane is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region, in the North Island of New Zealand, and is the seat of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Whakatane is 90 km east of Tauranga and 89 km north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatane River.The town has a population of , with...
- March 2001Tauranga TaurangaTauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.It was settled by Europeans in the early 19th century and was constituted as a city in 1963...
- April 2001Nelson Nelson, New ZealandNelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....
- June 2001Hamilton Hamilton, New ZealandHamilton is the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, and Hamilton City is the country's fourth largest territorial authority. Hamilton is in the Waikato Region of the North Island, approximately south of Auckland...
- June 2002Christchurch ChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
- April 2003Whangarei WhangareiWhangarei, pronounced , is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the regional capital of Northland Region. Although commonly classified as a city, it is officially part of the Whangarei District, administered by the Whangarei District Council a local body created in 1989 to administer both the...
- June 2003Wellington WellingtonWellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
- August 2003Wanganui WanganuiWhanganui , also spelled Wanganui, is an urban area and district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Manawatu-Wanganui region....
- May 2004Taranaki Rotorua RotoruaRotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. The city is the seat of the Rotorua District, a territorial authority encompassing the city and several other nearby towns...Brisbane BrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
See also
- Religion in New ZealandReligion in New ZealandReligion in New Zealand is dominated demographically by Christianity, at just over half of the population at the 2006 New Zealand Census although regular church attendance is probably closer to 15%...
- Christianity in New ZealandChristianity in New ZealandChristianity in New Zealand dates to the arrival of missionaries in the early 19th century and is the country's primary religion. Slightly more than half the population identify as Christian...
- Christian politics in New ZealandChristian politics in New ZealandThis article discusses Christian politics in New Zealand, particularly socially conservative and evangelical Christian politics. Although slightly over half of New Zealand's population belong, at least nominally, to Christian denominations,...
- Māori religionMaori religionMāori religion is the religious beliefs and practice of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand.-Traditional Māori religion:...
Further reading
- More than meets the eye, autobiography by Bishop Brian Tamaki, 2006. ISBN 9780473112424 / 0473112426
External links
- Official website, New Zealand
- Destiny Church, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Creedopedia, a collection of quotes and links related to Destiny Church
- Religion in New Zealand