...or is it more like Australia?
2007-12-05 17:04:28 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Yes, we have Destiny Church and the Exclusive Brethren. Destiny Church tried to get a political party into Parliament but failed miserably. Then the leader of Destiny Church, Brian Tamaki, tried to have New Zealand declared a Christian country. The Government basically said "in your dreams, we're secular." New Zealand's Prime Minister won't even let the royal family say Grace at state dinners when they come to New Zealand.
So basically, while there will always be religious nuts around, they will never gather support in New Zealand, because New Zealand is a largely left wing country that is big on freedom of religion and separation of church and state (and unlike in the US, where they say it and don't mean it, in New Zealand it actually happens).
The Australian government is actually a lot more fundamentalist than the New Zealand government, even after the recent change from right-wing Liberal to somewhat left of centre Labour they still oppose gay marriage under the guise of traditionalism. (New Zealand legalised civil unions 3 years ago.)
The Liberal party, in trying to get one over on them, have cobbled together some lame speech that gays should have property rights, visitation rights and tax rights, basically everything the heteros have except marriage and adoption. Because that's a total removal of discrimination. /sarcasm
The new Liberal leader still insists that "marriage is between a man and a woman"....because it's always been that way, and that makes it right! Like it was right back when it wasn't interracial.
2007-12-06 17:27:40 · answer #1 · answered by ardanienalmondite 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
New Zealand is more like the Sydney suburb of Bondi than it is like Australia.
They import their peanuts and export a few hard nuts. As for religious nuts.... I guess they are like Australia, bro.
2007-12-05 17:46:15 · answer #2 · answered by Icy Gazpacho 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, there is that weird cult of rich guys called The Exclusive Bretheren, but largely NZ is secular, to my understanding.
2007-12-05 17:11:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
We've got the Destiny Church, but that's about it. The whackos do exist here, but they're not in a position of political power like the ones in the US.
2007-12-05 17:10:42 · answer #4 · answered by Scumspawn 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
there are nuts every where but n.z is similar to aust,why do you think we have so many here,years ago they were going to kick n.zs out ,they reckon we would have an extra 2 hours of day light
2007-12-05 17:14:51 · answer #5 · answered by boxhead522000 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are religious nuts in NZ but they're not as 'out there' as those in the US. We don't have a 'bible belt' area either.
2007-12-05 17:07:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Note to self: check out NZ immigration policies...
2007-12-05 18:23:02 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, there are plenty of them here too. They don't tend to be as vocal as their American counterparts though. Overall though, our theists seem to be pretty cool.
Edit: Oh yeah, Destiny Church. Forgot about that lot...
2007-12-05 17:12:05 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
There are some down there.. but on the whole, the Kiwis prefer to live and let live.
2007-12-05 17:06:51 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Spent some time in the bullfighting section, huh?
http://nz.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmiZPQKagLGhADem7BoVWADskBV.;_ylv=3?qid=20071205204010AAvK8bV
2007-12-05 17:11:21 · answer #10 · answered by Darth Cheney 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋