A response to Bishop Brian Tamaki

I need to start by saying two things.

First, I know people who attend Destiny churches. They are kind, caring, scripturally sound people, and this blog is in no way aimed at them. I do not believe the views of their leader are representative of the entire church population, and there are probably those among his church who found his comments extremely troubling, and now have some tough decisions to make.

Secondly, I do not support the opinion pieces that have been published, all written by non-Christians, referring to Bishop Tamaki as a “dickhead” among other things. Hate doesn’t beat hate, and also, how can you possibly say he’s quoting a book wrong when you’ve never bothered to read that book yourself?

The fact is though, he is wrong. And people who have actually read the Bible, not op ed writers, need to be the ones to point that out. As a dear non-religious friend of mine told me over dinner last night, “the sad thing is people read his comments and think you’re all like that.”

We are not all like that. I refuse to be represented like that. And that is why I need to write this.

So, here we go.

The key quotes from his sermon, as reported by the media, are as follows…

“The land actually speaks to God. Out of the soil… Abel’s blood spoke to God from a murder. The earth can speak. Leviticus says the earth convulses under the weight of certain human sin. It spews itself up after awhile – that’s natural disasters. Because nature was never created to carry the bondage of our inequity. Natural disasters are side effects of sexual sin.”

Not all of this is completely made up. Abel, son of Adam and Eve, was murdered by his brother Cain. When Cain tried to deny it, God replied “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”

And we read in Romans Chapter 8…

“Creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it….We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

So when Bishop Tamaki says that nature was never intended to carry our inequity, he is correct. The Bible teaches that when sin entered the world through man’s actions it not only affected mankind, but all creation. The ground was cursed and all of nature was thrown into disorder and chaos. 

But, alas, this is where Bishop Tamaki’s correct scriptural interpretation ends.

The specific passage in Leviticus that he refers to is Leviticus chapter 18 vs 24-28.  Leviticus 18 outlines a whole bunch of sexual sins. Homosexual sex is mentioned, but so is having sex with your parents, siblings, in-laws, neighbours, children, animals, and women on their period. It then goes on to say… “for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. ²⁸ And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.”

Bishop Tamaki uses this verse to justify his opinion that natural disasters are a result of sexual sin, but this is incorrect.

In this passage, God is speaking to the Israelites who have just taken over the promised land of Canaan. In order to possess Canaan they had to murder all the Canaanites who were having sex with their relatives and burning their newborns alive and doing a heap of other stuff that was ticking God off.  When God says to the Israelites that they will be vomited out of the land if they didn’t uphold these rules, he meant that they could be expect to be cast out of Canaan in the same way the Canaanites were before them. No mention of natural disasters.

Nowhere does the Bible say the earth convulses under the weight of certain human sin, and nowhere does it mention that natural disasters are a result of sexual sin.

The fact is, God is no longer in the habit of using acts of violence or natural disasters to punish sinners. Jesus was specifically questioned about this. He was asked about the mass murder of a group of Galileans who had come to Jerusalem to worship. This was Jesus reply…

“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

In other words, disasters, natural or otherwise, are not a punishment for being extra bad. They just happen because we live in a messed up world where messed up things happen.

Before I was a nurse I worked at Tutukaka General Store. The owner at the time was a Rotary member and he had a poster in his office of the Four-Way Test which serves as the organisations ethical guide.

It read…

Of the things we think, say or do

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

I think it’s safe to say that Bishop Tamaki’s words were none of these things, and as such he should never have let them leave his mouth.

I’d like to conclude with the bible verse that sprung to mind when I first heard about the content of his sermon. My hope is that Bishop Tamaki may read it and reflect on it also.

“You experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”