What actual Christians think of Gloriavale

"Kate, you should write about Gloriavale” I was told for the fifth time.

“No you shouldn’t!” Said another, “it’s been done already.”

It most certainly has been done. The community has served as fodder for every opinion writer in the country, declared a misogynistic hell hole, an idyllic society, and everything in between.

“What you should write about”, said a third, “is how to do a cult properly.” Because, being as holy and religious as I am, I could obviously set up a successful cult in my sleep.

I have only watched one episode of Gloriavale, but as far as I can tell they’re doing a pretty solid job, and do not require any advice from me. The leaders are very strong in two key Cult Leadership 101 skills, fear and isolation.

Gloriavale is run by a small group of men who decide everything from how the finances are managed to the dress code, the menu, and what time you get out of bed in the morning. They’re decisions are final and cannot be questioned or challenged under any circumstances. To outsiders looking in, this is of serious concern, but how are residents of Gloriavale meant to know that? They are completely isolated, with all contact with the outside world tightly controlled by Neville and his buddies. They don’t have the ability to say “hey, this doesn’t seem right” because they have no frame of reference. To them, it seems completely logical that God has chosen to communicate his will exclusively through a convicted sex offender. And if anyone ever did have the nerve to ask questions, the leaders have two infallible aces up their sleeves, ‘God’s will’ and ‘hell’. If one of your members disagrees, simply play the ‘God’s will’ card. If that fails, you can promptly remind them what happens to those who do not do ‘God’s will’, aka play the ‘hell’ card. Because who in their right mind would pick the ability to use contraception over hell? To me, being forced to have 10+ children, and spending 7+ years of your life pregnant, and at least another 5 years breastfeeding sounds pretty hellish, but if that or an eternity consigned to a fiery lake of burning sulphur are the only two choices, I know which one I’m going for.

What Neville really needs advice on, I feel, is how to read the Bible properly. Because there is no way any reasonable person could read the Bible and come up with Gloriavale. The community claims to base itself on the description of the early church found in the book of Acts. It reads all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

And there is a bit of that, you can see glimpses of it. The sense of community in Gloriavale is admirable. However, the Bible clearly states that members of the early church helped anyone who had need. You didn’t need to abandon your family and move in with them. You didn’t need to agree to marry someone you hardly knew and make an indefinite amount of children with them. You didn’t even need to believe what the early church believed. You might not know Jesus from a bar of soap, but if you had a need, the church was there to help.  

This is what the church and Christianity should be. To set yourself up a little community and declare anyone outside to be evil is ridiculous. God may well be in Gloriavale, but he is also in Ngawha prison, in the emergency department, in the local CYFS office. He is wherever people need him to be, all we have to do is ask.

One place I don’t believe him to be however, is in the heart of Neville Cooper. The ‘hell’ card he so often plays on others may one day be played on him. And on that day, perhaps he will realise the huge mistake it was to confuse God’s will with his own.