Judy Gill: Blasphemy 2.0

From Waiheke to the Nation — a microcosm of New Zealand’s new Blasphemy Codes in a faux-indigenous eco-religious state

INTRODUCTION

Blasphemy laws were supposedly abolished in 2019, when Section 123 of the Crimes Act 1961 (“blasphemous libel”) was repealed.

Judy Gill: The Real Religious Schools Aren't Christian

STATE SCHOOLS ARE NOW RELIGIOUS — AND ANTI-CHRISTIAN

Let’s drop the pretence: New Zealand’s state schools are no longer secular. They are religious — not in name, but in content, tone, and daily practice.

The belief system being promoted is Te Ao spirituality — grounded in concepts like wairua (spirit), atua (gods), mauri (life force), tapu (sacredness), and daily rituals such as karakia (prayer). These are not limited to cultural appreciation. They are taught as reality — and are now embedded across every subject in the curriculum: science, ecology, maths, English, digital technology, and even PE.

Barrie Davis: The Enlightenment of Colonization

There has been a concerted effort since at least the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 to convince us that ‘the Crown’ and by extension We the people have something to atone for regarding the colonization of New Zealand. That is not the case. Quite obviously, the Maori quality of life was vastly improved by the British.

Nevertheless, the Government – Parliament and the judiciary – have allowed themselves to be wrongfully persuaded by part-Maori elites to avoid democratic process and transfer public sovereignty, assets and funds to tribal corporations which lie outside of the democratic purview.

Caleb Anderson: The fusion of opposites and a new age of darkness

The philosopher Hegel identified a process which later came to be known as thesis, antithesis and synthesis. Basically his idea was that when two seemingly conflicting ideas came up against each other, inherent contradictions could be resolved by the thoughtful incorporation (not fusion) of the best elements of both, potentially producing a better outcome than either idea in isolation.

John Robertson: Te Whāriki, Māori Spirituality, and the Blurring of State and Religion in NZ Education

New Zealand’s national early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, has undergone significant changes — especially since its 2017 update. While intended to reflect a bicultural framework, this curriculum now includes regular and embedded references to Māori spiritual concepts, including:

Dr James Allan: Climate Change Giving Meaning to Life

The religious mindset embraces the belief that there is more to life than the material world of the senses. There are truths that transcend the here and now. Things that give a non-contingent meaning to human existence. This is obvious with the monotheistic religions, and a little less obvious with Buddhism and polytheistic beliefs. Still, the appeal of this sort of belief in transcendent truths is pretty obvious. That means that not all that many people who reject established religions will move over to some sort of David Hume or Bertrand Russell-type sceptical view that what you see is what you get – we are here because of the fortuitous collisions of trillions of atoms, lots of time and even more luck. As Hume famously said, “the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster”.

Clive Bibby: A timeless message for a world in dire need of reconciliation

Unfortunately for true believers, the original Christmas message appears to be lost in this country and around the world as it increasingly fails to resonate in the modern secular society.

While there is more hope for an end to the killing and displacement of millions because of the pursuit of naked self interest by those in control, we as a species still have a long way to go before that hope turns into a lasting peace.

Fraser Macdonald: Why some of Israel’s staunchest support comes from the Pacific Islands

One of the most perplexing yet poorly understood aspects of the international diplomatic response to the ongoing Gaza conflict has been the overwhelmingly pro-Israel orientation of Pacific Island states.

During the voting on two United Nations resolutions (October 27th and December 12th) calling on Israel to reduce the death and suffering of Palestinian civilians, many Pacific countries voted either against the resolution or abstained.

Why would these small island countries, on the other side of the world and with no direct links to Israel, choose to either oppose or not support this essential humanitarian gesture?

Derek Mackie: Religion - Fact or Fantasy? God only knows!

Recent violent events in Israel once again brought the ugly side of extremist religion back onto our screens. One group of humans, who essentially believe in the same God as the others, enacting revenge, driven by hatred and loathing for the religious beliefs and practices of another group. 

This has been a common theme through the ages but in our enlightened times you would hope that this biblical zealotry would have died out, to be replaced by a more civilised and conciliatory approach. 

How did things go so wrong? Well….. 

Michael Johnston: Free speech and the decline of religious war

History is replete with war motivated by religious disagreement. One example is the centuries-long clash between the Catholic and Protestant variants of Christianity.

Religion remains a significant driver of conflict in some parts of the world today. But it seems that Catholics and Protestants, at least, have finally learned to live with one another.

Arguably, most westerners just don’t take religion seriously enough to kill and die for it anymore. But free speech may also have contributed to the truce.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: The desecularisation of NZ government

The first New Zealand Parliament … in 1854 separated church and state more sharply than in the Australian colonies. In rejecting a state church, New Zealand was more secular than its parent societies. 
-  Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand (original emphasis)

Addressing Rurawhe as "Mr Speaker elect" the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern recited a phrase in Te Reo Māori. "Translated it means, 'may the mouthpiece of e hoa, the temple of Rātana support and guide the mouthpiece of the house'."
– 1News 24 August

Well, I for one hope that ‘e hoa’ – or any temple for that matter – doesn’t do anything of the sort.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Collins the Christian designed to win votes

 

Judith Collins can protest all she likes, but those who say she is politicising her faith are on the money.  She absolutely is.

It might be going a bit far to say she orchestrated an opportunity for the media to take photos of her praying, but I think we can say she absolutely spotted that opportunity and seized it. She used it to ram home a message she’d been trying to get out for a week and half.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Do candidates’ religious beliefs matter when appointing senior public figures?

Readers will recall the vigorous discussions centred on Mitt Romney’s religious affiliation back in 2012 – opinion was divided about whether his being a practising Mormon should count or not when casting a vote.

No, of course not, tends to be the standard liberal democratic response. Religion is a private matter. It has nothing to do with whether someone can do the job or not, and that is all that should count.

Richard Dawkins was not so accommodating when he threw in his sixpence worth:

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: ‘People of the Book’, ‘People of No Book’, and the ‘clash of civilisations’

“I think Islam hates us. There's a tremendous hatred… There is an unbelievable hatred of us.” – Donald Trump, 9 March

Islamist extremists certainly hate us. But exactly who is ‘us’? The ‘Christian West’ would be a common answer especially in the US, but it’s not a very satisfactory answer – there was little ‘Christian’ about the twin towers and even less ‘Western’ about the victims of the Lahore atrocity last week.

Matt Ridley from the UK: The rise of humanism

Fifty years ago, after the cracking of the genetic code, Francis Crick was so confident religion would fade that he offered a prize for the best future use for Cambridge’s college chapels. Swimming pools, said the winning entry. 

Today, when terrorists cry “God is great” in both Paris and Bamako as they murder, the joke seems sour. But here’s a thought: that jihadism may be a last spasm — albeit a painful one — of a snake that is being scotched. The humanists are winning, even against Islam.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Pagan gods, nature spirits, totem animals and the secular State

Karl du Fresne’s piquant little piece of last month about stingrays and traditional Maori beliefs struck a chord with me as the subject matter intersects with a social phenomenon I have long been interested in – the resurgence of pagan beliefs in modern society.

The word ‘pagan’ is of uncertain etymology – one theory is that it is a corruption of ‘pai gens’ which is mediaeval French for ‘country folk’. 

Kevin Donnelly: Freedom of religion and faith-based schools

Secular critics argue that religious organisations such as faith-based schools, especially Catholic schools, should not have the right to discriminate in relation to who they enrol and who they employ. Wrong. One of the fundamental rights in any democratic and open society is freedom of religion.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Ritual action and the religious freedom argument

It’s not very often that Jews and Muslims present a united front, but they did so in Germany recently when a court held that the circumcision of baby boys for reasons other than medical was illegal. It’s not very often that Muslims and Christians sing from the same song-sheet either, but they did so in their submissions to the Select Committee on the Marriage Amendment Bill, when both the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ and various Christian groups presented submissions that in some instances would have looked like carbon copies. But we are more accustomed to hearing about Muslims getting in hot water in Western countries over such things as the female veil and forced marriages. And then there were the Sydney riots. Jews too occasionally find themselves falling foul of Western norms, such as the debate over shechita (ritual animal slaughter) in NZ not long ago.

A common defence is that of the freedom of religion. But freedom of religious expression is a qualified right, not an absolute right. It does not confer any right to break the laws of the country in which one lives. As with all rights, clear legal boundaries need to be put around religious freedom. And this is where the basic problem lies: which law is to define those boundaries?