Under the second covenant Jesus died for our sins and God would no longer go around smiting people out of wrath until judgement day. Apparently nobody informed Bishop Brian Tamaki of this. His accusations that LGBT people and their sins are responsible for the Kaikōura earthquake has angered many not only in the Queer community but in the Christian community and the wider public. So it was that a small protest gathered to march on Destiny Church in Wiri, South Auckland, to show the Bishop that his bigotry would not go uncontested. The crowd was small but the energy immense. With rainbow flags, placards and music blasting out from the speakers atop the van we marched on the Church. All the while the Bishop’s own sermons were blasted back at us. Clearly he was a little put out by all this, from time to time between songs he could be heard complaining about those outside.
But while there was a distinct lack of support from inside the church the same cannot be said from those who drove passed. Many people who went passed showed their support, honking horns, waving, thumbs up and giving the odd high five. Indeed, it was not until the service had ended and those inside were going home that we received disapproving looks from those going by. Yet even Brian’s flock could not resist when we started playing YMCA across the car park at them. Braving sun burn and hostility from church goers and Destiny’s own news crew our little protest made itself heard.
The demonstration itself lasted around two hours, the duration of the service itself. As we packed up to leave we delivered a message to Bishop Brian Tamaki. That we did not accept his accusations and that if he continued to preach hate speech that we’d return. There is no place for his hateful rhetoric either here in Aotearoa or anywhere on this Earth. His disgusting homophobic comments were rightly greeted with outrage. It is encouraging to see that the majority of people are in support of the rights of the Queer community and do not accept the words of the good Bishop. However, this does not mean we can be complacent. We cannot allow people like Brian Tamaki to preach hate uncontested. We must make it clear that the gains made by the Queer community in recent decades will not be slowly eroded by such vile propaganda. Because if one thing is certain we have the power in our hands to rock Bishop Brian Tamaki’s world! And he does not appreciate us for it.
