Opinion of an outsider.

[zactommo]

I live in little old New Zealand, and there has been a lot of national media attention on a particular church, and some of their practises recently.

There seems to be a divided opinion as to weather its just a media beat up on Christians again, or weather they raise genuine concerns about problems with this church (I’m leaning towards genuine concerns at the moment, but certainly haven't made my mind up)

So I thought it would be interesting to get the opinion of some people who have had no knowledge of all of this previously; sort of an objective view on the situation:

Here are the links to a couple of the current affairs stories:

http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/cult-church-speak-brian-tamaki-3101061/video

CMN Player - YouTube - Brian Tamaki Goes Mad! Thinks he is...

[tedanderson]

The media has the ability to sensationalize anything by taking it out of context. For all we know there could be more to the story that would cause it to make more sense but also make it less interesting. Secondly I try to look at it from the perspective of "what if".. considering what if this was completely true. Then I have to ask if this is really something that would warrant my concern with all of the other horrible things going on in this world.

There was a similar situation in the U.S. a couple of years ago where ABC's 20/20 attacked a few of the more prominent pastors who have a great deal of personal wealth as well as very wealthy churches. They were criticized under the assumption that the donations were being used to finance their lavish lifestyles.

So they showed a short clip where a pastor said, "I have a 25 room mansion, 7 luxury cars, a fleet of private jet planes, and two vacation homes in the Bahamas!" and because they showed only that short part of the video, anyone who saw the story would immediately think that this pastor was bragging and boasting about what he does with the congregation's money. Not long after the story aired, the pastor defended himself by releasing the unedited 10-minute clip of his sermon which proved the contrary.

[amd25]

He sounds like he is the kingdom now beliefs see below.

http://www.gotquestions.org/kingdom-now.html

[zactommo]

That kingdom now stuff does sound very much like this church; thats for the useful links.

I guess where I stand at the moment is this: in that first item: http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/cult-church-speak-brian-tamaki-3101061/video
The director of cult watch raises some very valid points about the structure of the church, ones which have been raised many times in the passed, and it seems like he competely ignored those questions; as he has done many times in the past.
If the church would give the public a straight answer about why there is no accountability for pastor Brian, and why he has absolute power within the church, I think my mind would be at rest on this issue.

[Esoteric]

It is hard to tell without seeing the whole video. I could take some clips from my church's service and edit them into something pretty horrifying if I tried.

That being said, if they have nothing to hide why not answer the questions?

Mike

[voyager529]

I think that some of the clips were taken out of context (my youth group also sells T-Shirts, as Christians we are engaging in spiritual warfare, etc.). I think that like most news stories, there was a whole lot that was left on the cutting room floor.

In a broader sense, I think that this news story yields two related issues, neither of which are a surprise. First, people are not doing their own study of the Bible. If his congregation were actively studying their Bibles and getting to know the heart of God, Matthew 7:15 would start to come to mind. At the very least, some congregates would start to defect.

Second, one must wonder how many of the congregates are following a PERSON as opposed to GOD HIMSELF. Men are fallible, as we are all imperfect, which is why we need to follow Christ directly. If the story is accurate despite its sensationalism (i.e. a pastor of an extremely large church is using the Bible as a means of fooling his congregation into serving his own selfish desires), then he's going to have PLENTY to answer for when he stands before the throne.

Joey