NZAmoeba

Damn I wish we had official seperation of church and state in this country...

Our newest political party is Destiny New Zealand, a spin off from an actual chain of churches across the country, (so basically everyone that goes to that church will be forced to vote for their churches party).

They have the usual agendas, no gays, make it a xtian country blah blah blah, and this is just as we have de-criminalised prostitution, and are looking at legalising gay marrage.

Hopefully the relatively low religious count here will make sure these people don't have a chance in hell

1 Million of our 4 Million population said 'no religion' in our 2001 census...

But yeah, for once, I'm going to get involved with politics... going to find out just who the hell is supposed to be my MP, and shoot them an email about this.

Plus, seeing as I hate most political parties, I may do a throw-away vote, to ensure that I don't actually elect someone, but i make sure Destiny get's a lower percentage. (if other's want to do this, make sure we don't all vote for the same hopeless case, we don't want to let the communist party take over or something crazy like that lol)

Farren

NZA - A friend who lived for a time in NZ said that half of his class went blank when religion came up, and half of the remainder thought it was silly. I don't think you have too much to worry about from what I've heard, at least. Even the supposed religious 3/4 of the pop are probably embarassed about it.

My suggestion is to broadcast the meme so succintly expressed in the story of the polish priest who said "When they came for the jews, we said nothing because we weren't jewish. When they came for the gays... when they came for us there was no-one left to defend our liberties". This sets even the thinking xians apart from the fundies.

BTW Lunachick is complaining that the time gap places her far away from the majority of the posters on this board. If you posted a little more maybe she wouldn't feel so isolated

lunachick

I don't complain, dahlin'. I bitch.



NZA - are you serious? I am so wrapped up in American politics and global goings on these days that I have no freakin' idea what's happening at home!

I think letters to the Listener, the NZ Herald, Radio NZ and all that other media malarky is in order to raise awareness of this, and squash it like a bug before it starts to fly.

Those stupid Destiny Churches. They're all based on American style evangelism. They've manage to seduce a few Maori rather successfully I've noticed lately.

But we'll fix them, ay. We'll sort them right out, mate.

Hayden

...they haven't even finished their web sit yet:
http://www.destinychurch.org.nz/cms/...ticle&artid=56

Where are you based, NZA?

HR

Hayden

Here's the party's web site:

http://www.destinychurch.org.nz/cms/...ticle&artid=56

Not bad, actually, apart from the content.

HR

NZAmoeba

Farren: nice quote.

Luna: yeah its crazy to think this shit could actually happen here, its embarrasing to have to deal with this kind of stuff.

Hayden: Auckland, or more specific, Waitakere

I sent an email to my rep, apparantly a Labour MP, basically saying that i'm scared of what could happen if this kind of stuff is allowed to go ahead, and that the only way to prevent it is by getting a legal church/state seperation.

I also mentioned the 25% 'no religion' thing too, if there's one things politians like its demographics...

I mean, if they tell all their church followers to vote for the one party... they will... is it 5% of the party vote they need to get one seat?

orac

It's 5% of the party vote or at least one MP from an electorate seat and then they get their full allocation of seats. 4.9999% isn't enough, but if they get at least 1 electoral seat, they'ld drag 5 others into parliment with them.

Let's hope they do as well as all the other "christian" parties have done. (ie: barely register as existing, yet alone have a chance to destroy the country.)


The thing that cheers me up is that they're effectively admitting that modern christians have no strength of faith. They're all so terribly upset that there are people committing sin within a hundred miles of them, but they're not prepared to take any responsibility for their own actions - instead they want to use the law to punish us for not obeying their rules.

They can spend as much time as they like explaining that society is to blame for their failing relationships, their lack of belief, and all of their sins, but the reality is they're just trying to blame others for their own problems.

Either that or they're just all homosexuals in serious denial. That works for me, too

Rachel

I didn't realise it was legal in NZ for people to vote whilst someone is holding a gun to their head.

Considering my experiences with NZ'ers, including religious NZ'ers, nobody is going to be forced to vote for anything. They don't seem to be able to agree which side of the political fense to be on.

NZAmoeba

yes but think about it, if the church rattles on endlessly about how THEY are the only chance at salvation... who do you think their followers will vote for?

Its the same in the states with the fundy churches telling people to vote republican, except in this case the fundy church ITSELF is the political party.

Hopefully they crash and burn and blame it all on satan... the media is treating them like a pack of loonies.

Otherwise, Canada is starting to look like a REALLY nice place to live.

Rachel

The fundies aren't about to get control of NZ. It's one party. It won't do any better than the other christian parties.

Do you think the churches in NZ aren't already saying who their congregations should be voting for? Don't be silly. Ofcourse they do. They're either a) non-christian parties or b) no one is listening if they are christian parties.

Given how it generally stands in Aus. I'd say it's the former. We're close enough religious wise to compare.