ASSIST News Service
PO Box 2126
Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126
e-mail: assistcomm@cs.com
www.assist-ministries.com
www.christianity.com/assistnews
August 25, 2001
CAN CHRISTIAN POLITICAL PARTIES MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
A personal view by Dave Crampton
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND (ANS) -- The Christian Heritage Party in New
Zealand re-branded itself at their triennial convention last week. Despite
being "the highest polling party outside Parliament" at the last
election, they are not happy with their 2.4 percent of the vote, and they aim to
more than double it to get into Parliament at the next election. They say
they'll get to the 5 percent threshold. They said that before the last
election as well.
I don't believe party leader Graham Capill will get into Parliament.
Another party, United Future New Zealand, is also Christian-based and
surely must be taking some of the CHP vote. We'll they've got United
Future leader Peter Dunne in Parliament, and he has been there for some time, so
they've got a foot in the door.
The Christian Heritage Party's new logo is "Christian Heritage - turning
the tide". Capill told the conference that although New Zealand was
built on a Christian foundation, the tide was ebbing away that Christian
heritage. The CHP weren't all that impressed when transsexual Mayor Georgina
Beyer was voted into Parliament at the expense of a born again Christian who was
also standing for election.
But the tide turning slogan is not all that original. A nationwide men's
movement called Promise Keepers, who are currently running annual conferences
for at least 4500 men in the main centers, have a very similar slogan. Publicity
for its "turn the tide" conferences was released ages ago. Maybe
the name similarity is merely coincidental.
Membership of the CHP is made up of born again Christians. Speakers at their
biggest conference don't have to share the faith, though. Women's Refuge head
(and Wellington mayoral candidate) Merepeka Raukawa-Tait spoke at the
conference, focusing on challenges facing family life in New Zealand.
The CHP don't want to be known as a morals party any more- they know it won't
get them into Parliament. They'd rather stick with issues such as
education and health, police, justice and defense. At least that is better than
being known as a moral watchdog and being known for their unsuccessful campaigns
against moral issues and homosexuality.
But according to the Challenge Weekly, a New Zealand weekly Christian paper. Rev
Fred Nile, Australia's equivalent to Graham Capill (except Nile and his wife are
politicians) maintains the devil and the flesh are not so much the political
enemy of the Lord as the Green Party.
"We must knock out the Green Party," Nile told those gathered at the
CHP conference in Auckland. Nile maintains the Greens are anti-God, adding
it was time the CHP showed other people what parties like the Greens stood for.
But it is the Greens who are doing increasingly well in the polls, purely
because more people like them, like what they stand for, and want to vote for
them. It is pretty hard to knock out a party that is polling better than
NZ First, United Future New Zealand, and the Christian Heritage Party combined,
especially when it is the lowest polling of the three that is told to do the
knocking by someone from another country.
It is interesting what the CHP stands for. They want to be part of a
compassionate government - but how compassionate will they be to human rights of
gay couples, sex workers and to those they would call "immoral
people"? The CHP also want freedom of speech - but their manifesto
proclaims that if they had their way there will be no bad language on TV. There
will also be no prostitution, and no working or shopping on Sundays.
The CHP say they are also into unity - and they are, particularly family unity.
However they say they will not "join in any comprehensive coalition, but
would act in ways that ensure stable, responsible government." It
sounds politically irresponsible to me - not really embracing the mixed member
proportional representation (MMP) system or unity at all.
However if they take the line of Fred Nile and "knock out the Green
Party", that sounds like it is more of a direction into the political
wilderness than playing their part in a politically unified government.
But the "re-branding" can only be better for the public image of the
CHP if it loses the moral tag. It remains to be seen whether this turning the
tide will stem the move away from a Christian heritage or ebb away at an
opportunity of a Christian Heritage voice in Parliament.
In the meantime Fred Nile and his cohorts will do well to read their Bibles and
learn that politicians who run our country, even Green ones, are to be respected
as the Christian belief is that it is God who puts the politicians in power.
They can even be prayed for - but they are not there to be knocked out, only
voted out at elections.
______________________________________________________
Dave Crampton lives in Wellington, New Zealand and is the Australasian
correspondent for www.newsroom-online.com,
and the New Zealand reporter for Australian-based CR News. He has also worked
for The Salvation Army as a journalist. You may contact him at davec@globe.net.nz.
Note: A JPEG picture of Dave Crampton is available on request from Dan Wooding
at assistcomm@cs.com.
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