Saturday 1 June event at Destiny’s Manukau megachurch will be “a celebration of our unique perspectives on life, our struggles and our common goals going forward…an evening peppered with quality, vibrant entertainment and passionate, heartfelt speeches from well-known and iconic personalities from both communities.”
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki has announced the launch of his new political party Coalition NZ, with his wife Hannah as leader.
Today will be followed by a ‘historic event’ on Saturday 1 June that Destiny Church International say will celebrate, ‘the forging of a new relationship between the community of Destiny Church and the LGBTIQ + Community of New Zealand.’
‘This event will be a celebration of our unique perspectives on life, our struggles and our common goals going forward.’ An invite to the event signed by Tamaki and his wife Hannah, claims.
The event which will be held at Destiny’s megachurch complex in Manukau next Saturday will feature members of both Destiny Church and the LGBT community who will deliver ‘heartfelt speeches’ in what looks like to be an attempt to reconcile Destiny with the LGBTIQ+ community after years of attacks from the church’s leader.
Tamaki first indicated yesterday afternoon that he would be returning to the political arena with the formation of a new Christian values based party.
The Destiny Church leader says the decision to become involved with politics again was, “not a decision which we have undertaken lightly.”
Tamaki said he was compelled to act on the basis of what he sees as a ‘escalating tide of poor decision-making’ by the current government.
He goes on to explain that the “eroding of New Zealand values by politicians – we feel that we have had no choice but to stand up for the ever-growing silent majority of regular New Zealanders who are becoming more and more fed up and sick of the spin.”
At today’s launch, Tamaki said the public could expect his party to represent ‘politics with teeth.’
“You’ll see a party led by leaders as leadership is what is lacking right now.
“Labour has been taking us in the wrong direction. Our freedom is endangered due to harmful politics coming from the Government.”
“The fates of our children and our children’s children are hugely important, and deserve all possible due consideration.” Mr Tamaki says.
Coalition NZ is the second time Tamaki has been involved with a party bearing the same name as his church, after the launch of Destiny New Zealand in 2003. Although officially Tamaki was only ever the party’s ‘spiritual adviser,’ with Richard Lewis as leader.
The party was formed out of opposition to the Clark government’s introduction of civil unions for same-sex couples as well as other socially progressive policies of the fifth Labour government such as prostitution law reform.
In 2004, Tamaki predicted that Destiny Church would rule New Zealand by 2008. Instead, it would end up receiving just 0.62% of the party vote at the 2005 general election and was subsequently deregistered in 2007.
It is unclear whether Tamaki himself will be a candidate this time around although he did say in his statement today that, “it is a privilege and a responsibility to seek to represent the New Zealand People.”
Tamaki has a long history of anti-gay rhetoric which most recently included saying ‘cry baby gays’ will go to hell, when defending Israel Folau.
In late 2016, during a sermon at his church, Tamaki said “sexual perversion” and “homosexuality” were to blame for natural disasters.
Tamaki had previously also blamed a gay priest and the people of Christchurch for the devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 which killed 185 people.
