Tapu Misa's Herald rant in review (23 May 2011)

Origanl Article from the NZ Herald.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10727378

I pulled apart a Garth George article a few months back, now it's Tapu Misa's turn. Why do Christians think that just because they put it in print it must be true.

My Comments in Italics



Tapu Misa writes that the agnostic PM's support is at risk as the Budget makes Government priorities crystal clear.

Some Christians I know who voted for National in the last election because they liked the look of John Key and disliked Helen Clark and her godless gay-loving feminist anti-smacking family-unfriendly Labour Party have changed their minds.

Tapu has said Family Un-freindly with out explaining, she was correct on the other points, but then throws this in, this is standard tactic that if you use some true facts, you can sneak in a false one

A few were under the impression that Key was a believer. He isn't (unless he's undergone a recent conversion), but it was an easy mistake to make given that Key was said to attend church regularly, had been endorsed by a couple of popular Christians (Michael Jones and Va'aiga Tuigamala), and was hard to pin down on the subject.

For example, he'd told one journalist in 2006: "If you're asking me if I'm religious it depends how you define religion. I look at religion as doing the right thing ... I go to church a lot with the kids, but I wouldn't describe it as something that I ... I'm not a heavy believer; my mother was Jewish which technically makes me Jewish ... I probably see it in a slightly more relaxed way."

Which is a very roundabout way of saying Key is an agnostic.

But it's easy to see why he was the darling of conservative Christians. Unlike Don Brash, who'd left two broken families in his wake, and Helen Clark who, despite her own solid marriage, was seen to stand for a raft of supposedly anti-family social policies, including the legalisation of prostitution, civil unions and Sue Bradford's child discipline law, Key was seen as the embodiment of family values: he was a devoted husband and father who had voted against the civil union bill.

Sorry Tapu, prostitution, civil unions, and anti smacking is not anti-family. It may be in your Christian opinion, but really it is not.

And even if he wasn't a Christian, as National Party member and Catholic Terry Dunleavy told the Sunday Star-Times in 2007, "I believe John Key in his life and his values reflects much more openly and strongly the Christian values that I hold. He's still married to the same woman. There's no question about his morality or his dedication to family life."

I am not sure what having the same wife has to with anything, it is well known that non-believers have the lowest devorce rates in the US, and I am results would be similar here in NZ

But is the love affair over? Weeks after getting so much love at Christian music festival Parachute this year, Key was pictured at the Big Gay Out, arm in arm with a semi-naked (male) organiser, talking of the possible return of an annual gay and lesbian mardi gras many thought they'd seen the last of 10 years ago when the debt-ridden Hero parade was cancelled. It felt like betrayal for some.

He is a politician, he will grovel up to anyone.

The Christian family is a very broad church, and I've never understood the preoccupation with homosexuality.


A mark in your favour Tapu. Great Stuff, except in your Bible God calls Homosexuality and abomination, so that could explain the Christian preoccupation with homosexuality.

Last month, the Young Conservatives of America urged other conservatives to stop using the word "gay", which they described as "a left-wing socio-political construct designed to create grounds for fundamental rights [based on] whimsical capricious desires". They favoured a return to words like "sodomy".

This was ironic, as Jay Michaelson pointed out in the Huffington Post, "because 'sodomy' in the Bible has nothing to do with homosexuality. It wasn't until the Medieval period that the word was even invented - as a legal classification for sins of Catholic priests - and in the Bible itself, the sin of Sodom has to do with inhospitality and greed, not sex".

He argued that homosexual rape was the means, not the essence of Sodom's wickedness, which as the prophet Ezekiel declared (16:49) was actually "pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness ... neither did [Sodom] strengthen the hand of the poor and needy".

That seems an apt commentary of our times. The real Sodomites are the increasingly distant and indifferent rich.

While I could agree, it's Bullshit none the less. You have identified a problem demographic, but to call them Sodomites is just plain stupid.

Jesus focused on poverty and justice and helping "the least of these". Yet many Christians seem inclined to see morality in narrow terms. But what is more destructive to family values - the lack of a living wage, or the legalisation of same-sex marriages?

American religious leaders fasted in protest this year at proposed Budget cuts in the United States.

Pointing to the immorality of a Budget that would slash spending on programmes for the poor while increasing military spending and adding unnecessary billions to the deficit by extending Bush-era tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 per cent of Americans, they argued that budgets weren't just about numbers but moral statements reflecting a nation's values.


This is reason to avoid letting religion get to strong a hold in politics here.

Budgets "reveal our priorities, who and what is important, and who and what are not", said the Rev Jim Wallis, one of the fast's organisers.

It's not a question of whether we should reduce deficits, but how we reduce them that matters. "It's about choices."

Indeed - and thanks to the Budget the choices and priorities of our own Government are crystal clear. Borrowing so the top income earners in the country continue to get generous tax cuts they don't need. Chipping into Working for Families assistance for households earning as little as $35,000 a year. Tinkering with KiwiSaver, despite the need to encourage more saving.


Curing poverty with "Working for Families" is like trying to kill an ant with a shot gun, you waste a lot of lead where it is not needed.

Expecting a billion dollars worth of unspecified cuts in the public sector over the next four years. And flogging off parts of strategic assets, the money from which has already been "banked".

Is this what we want? Come November, the choice will be ours.

Completely unsure what any of this has to do with being Christian.

"USA, One Nation Under God"

I saw the news tonight with Barack Obama's speech re Osama bin Laden. While on one hand, yes, it's a good thing they have stopped this nut. But then to go and invoke the Christian God thing, has that not totally bought into Osama bin Laden's Jihad?

My stomach sank when I saw this, I am sure I could hear Matt Dillahunty swear from here in Auckland New Zealand. The McCarthy era nuts have a lot to answer for, but it is time for America to grow up and get rid of God from their nation, the way the founding fathers wanted it. Or is it the fact an election is coming up, and it's an easy voter winner for Barack?

I thought it was great the way he avoided the Christian thing when in Turkey a few years back, but to now do this, was a huge mistake. All I could say was "what a wanker".

While what I think means nothing, my opinion of Barack Obama has plummeted.