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Petition a 'wake up call' for Tamaki says expert

Mon 21 Nov 2016 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback

A 100,000 signature petition to have Destiny Church's tax-exempt charitable status rescinded, in the wake of its self-appointed leader's rant linking homosexuality and earthquakes, will have made an impact on Brian Tamaki, a leading expert on religions says. Brian Tamaki sermonises against glbti people. Professor of History Peter Lineham, a gay man who specialises in religions and who in 2013 wrote a comprehensive book about Destiny Church, believes Tamaki "is increasingly so out of sync with New Zealand attitudes and must now surely be aware of it." Lineham says it has been "striking to see such an amazing reaction and support for glbti people" in the wake of Tamaki's televised sermon. And he says, Tamaki's "diatribe" linking homosexuality to earthquakes might not have happened if the preacher had not been extemporising on "judgements on sin" and is not a surprise. "Unfortunately there is a strand of teaching in Christian tradition that links he physical with the spiritual... and within the pentacostal framework coming to an understanding of sin, with a very narrow focus like this, is important in bringing people into personal repentance." Despite the huge scale of the petition, Lineham says he doubts it will have any effect on Destiny's charitable status other than as a show of support for glbti people and disgust for Tamaki's characterisation of the earthquake tragedies in Christchurch and Kaikoura. Tamaki's "private views" are "not a reason for Destiny Church's charitable status to be struck down," he says. "There are quite a few people out there with views glbti people would find abhorrent who do genuinely charitable work through organisations."    

Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff

First published: Monday, 21st November 2016 - 12:23pm

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