The founder of Christianity told a wealthy young man who wanted to know what he needed to do to atone that “It will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
It seemed a strange hyperbole, but many theologians believe that the needle Jesus was speaking of was the “needle gate,” an after-hours entrance found in the walls surrounding Jerusalem. A camel could only enter after stripping off any saddles and packs and crawling through on its knees. The “saddles and packs” are presumably the rich man’s worldly goods that need to be discarded.
I was going to start this column by writing “Poor old Brian Tamaki.” But of course Mr Tamaki is neither old nor poor. Thanks to the generosity of his various adoring congregations he apparently lives in a mansion and owns expensive cars, a couple of motorbikes and a luxury launch.
All the trappings of a 21st century wealthy young man; beware then Brian, the eye of the needle.
Last week he earned the ire of the wider public when he suggested earthquakes were caused by gays, murderers and sinners. “The land actually speaks to God. It spews itself up after a while, that’s natural disasters because nature was never intended to carry the bondage of our iniquity,” he was reported as saying.
I say “poor old Brian” because he inadvertently made these comments at a Sunday evening service just hours before the devastating Kaikoura tremor. Had the quake not occurred we might never have heard about the narrow-minded utterances which he no doubt makes on a regular basis.
Later he hit out at the media for sensationalising the sermon and tried to back-track on Radio Live saying it wasn’t just gay people who were being punished for their sins, but adulterers, child-abusers and anybody indulging in “extra-sexual behaviour.”
There were immediate calls to have Destiny’s tax-free status examined and the Charities Services confirmed it will analyse the church’s dealings and see if it is guilty of breaching the Charities Act.
Blaming God for all the things that go wrong in our lives is not new and I suspect many indulge these thoughts even if they don’t say so publically. Priests, Preachers, Parsons and Pastors avoid hellfire and brimstone sermons in this modern age though the “fear of the Almighty” rhetoric seems to be lucrative for Mr Tamaki and can be underwritten by scripture.
There are advantages to accepting the churches rulings of resisting indulgence. With the oft-quoted 23rd psalm even atheists and agnostics will know believers expect to lie down among green pastures and quiet waters, have lifelong goodness and mercy, tables laden with food, and a cup that overflows. But too much of a good thing would be frowned upon.
The modern day equivalent of a camel could be Mr Tamaki’s $35,000 Harley-Davidson motorbike, side-saddles and all. A fair bit of shedding might be needed for the controversial Auckland evangelist to reach the Promised Land.
I’m presuming he will do so with gay abandon.
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