Destiny's children on a mission

Brian Tamaki

They think New Zealand is going to hell in a handcart. Homosexual behaviour is an abomination. Sex before marriage is a sin. The husband is the leader; the wife is there to support him. Their kids choose abstinence over safe sex.

They are fundamentalist Christians. The Bible is the word of God, followed to the letter. They believe the time of the Rapture is near - when the trumpet will sound and those who believe in God will be lifted into the clouds, leaving the rest of us to eternal damnation.

Until then they're on a mission to turn New Zealand away from its sinful ways and towards righteousness and the way of the Lord. They must spread the good news. This is their destiny. They are Destiny Church.

They come from far and wide to partake of the vision of the church's founders Brian Tamaki and wife Hannah. Maori couple Brian and Aroha Dahm left their whanau and marae. Pakeha couple Russell and Heather Bond left the Auckland City Elim church. Soon-to-be-married Chinese couple Ryan Young and Belinda Su were both looking for a "home church" when they moved from Napier to Auckland to begin tertiary studies. Murray and Yvonne Walters came to the church via different paths and found each other - he from the early days (1993) when Destiny was Lake City Church in Rotorua. And she on returning home and looking for an evangelical church like the one she attended in the United States.

All of the Destiny members the Herald interviewed appeared kind, considerate, nice people. But there was something else - a passion, some might say a rigidity, of belief. With Destiny people there is no compromise. These are old-fashioned beliefs but as far as Destiny folk are concerned, they're living in a new enlightenment.

There is unity in what they say, of religious dogma passed down and parroted. These are people following a simple path.

We are Pastor Brian's loyal foot soldiers.  Talk to any Destiny member and they'll soon be speaking in adoring tones about their beloved pastor. "Pastor Brian is a visionary man and it's really exciting belonging to a church that's having a direction and changing lives," says Heather Bond. "Pastor Brian and Pastor Hannah are awesome role models," says Belinda Su.

For some, the road to Destiny was fraught. "I prayed that we would find a good man who would be a role model for us and also for our family," says Brian Dahm, 38, who moved to Destiny with wife Aroha, 36, and three children from Wellington two years ago.

Both were Christians heavily involved in the activities of their marae. The move was a wrench. "It's a loss in that you're taking your gifts and your talents and your time away from the tribe," says Aroha, now a lecturer at WelTec. "But I wasn't going to lose my children to drugs and alcohol and become a young grandmother. Those things were definitely a possibility in the community we were living in."

Their youngest daughter, 7, attends Destiny School and their son, 15, and eldest daughter, 17, attend a Destiny Youth Development Centre once a week and the weekly "D-shock" youth church service on Fridays.

"We're in the slipstream where Pastor Brian has already been," says Brian, who works as a supervisor for Sky TV contractors.

Yvonne Walters said people - especially homosexuals - have got the wrong idea about Brian Tamaki. "Pastor Brian is very loving. Some people have this perception he hates them. But he loves them. He just doesn't like the behaviour. He's trying to make it right for them." Husband Murray chimes in: "He's a very graceful man - very gracious."

We are hard-line. Destiny's teachings are from an ancient biblical school. "Love thy neighbour" comes second to "take a stand". There is black and there is white. "When you start talking about compromising in certain areas then you create this grey where confusion occurs," says Ryan Young.

Do they see homosexuals as evil? "You've got to separate the person and the action," says Brian Dahm. "If they are in a homosexual lifestyle, their lifestyle is an abomination. It's not acceptable."

Murray and Yvonne Walters, celebrating the birth of their second son Levi, preach the same Tamaki sermon. "It's not natural for two men to be having sex together," says Murray, who works in the aluminium joinery industry and plays the guitar and sings at Destiny's Sunday services.

And tolerance? "Yes, there's love and forgiveness and acceptance. That's the message of Christianity," says Russell Bond. "But we do not have to tolerate what is not good because God has laid the rules down."

Russell Bond said people choose a lifestyle contrary to the word of God at their peril - not necessarily in this life, but in eternity to come. "Having said that, Aids has clearly proven that it comes from such activities as homosexuality, so maybe in the body they're getting penalised now."

The hard-line message includes no drinking, no smoking and no sex before marriage. "Virginity is something that people haven't heard of for a very long time," says Belinda, an auditor, who along with Ryan, an osteopath, were some of the first of Destiny's youth to take the abstinence programme and subsequent pledge last year. "It's about knowing who you are as a person and respecting and seeing your gift of virginity as something precious to be given only to one special person."

She explains the symbolism of her abstinence ring. "The diamond represents the person that God has got for you, your destiny, the person you are going to marry. And the arrow represents yourself on track going forward to meet your destiny."

Destiny's women also know their place. "My destiny is to support him [Murray] and to see his gifts come to the fullest that they can."

We are blessed. Destiny members tithe 10 per cent of their earnings to the church. They also give "offerings" above the 10 per cent each week. "The fruit of that, is that we've been blessed," says Heather Bond. "It's amazing; our lives have just taken a huge curve upwards."

The Bonds joined the church seven years ago. Living in Remuera and being Pakeha they're unusual in a church that is mainly brown - comprising mostly Maori and Pacific Islanders. Both their sons are married and have become pastors in the church. Their daughter also attends. Heather is known as "the pastor maker".

Husband Russell, who runs his own, successful business, explains the logic of tithing: "Kingdom economy is totally different from the economy in this world. In this world people gather, collect, save and then spend, but Kingdom economy is sowing and reaping. Many verses in the Bible talk about sowing and you will get back in increased measure." He says not to tithe is robbing from God. But isn't the money really going to Brian Tamaki? "Yes I see that he's got more than two shirts on his back. But I want my man blessed. The Bible talks about prosperity, about receiving in abundance and I want to be under a man who is living example of that philosophy," says Russell who also lives well.

He owns a Harley Davidson motorcycle and helped formed "Riders for Destiny", a motorcycle club within the church. "Yes we have a nice house and we drive nice cars and we've got some toys. And we've had beach houses and we've had 40ft yachts. Praise the Lord. It doesn't rule my life."

Harleys are popular in the church. There are about eight in Auckland, including one owned by Pastor Brian, and two or three in each of Destiny's Rotorua, Tauranga and Taranaki churches.

Wealth is not only okay in Destiny, it's to be flaunted because it's a measure of the blessing God has bestowed on the man. At youth pastor Caine Warren's house the display is unapologetically ostentatious - mock Greek columns, marble entrance and white leather couches.

"The word is very clear. 'Do not muzzle the ox who is treading out the grain'," says Brian Dahm enigmatically. "It's very biblical that the preacher, the man who is doing all the work should be rewarded accordingly."

We are spreading the good news . Brian Tamaki motivates his flock with an updated take on hellfire and brimstone preaching. He warns of a terrible hell, not just in the after-life, but right here and now in New Zealand.

The fear is very real for Heather. "I've got four little grandchildren and I don't want them going to schools and getting taught by lesbian or homosexual teachers and being told that two mummies sleeping together is lovely and fine and acceptable." Yvonne is concerned about legalised prostitution: "If I had a little girl, I don't want someone from that industry coming up to them after school saying, 'Come and work for me'." Husband Murray agrees: "Pastor Brian says if you open the door a little, [as for example with the Civil Union Bill] who knows what happens? In 10 years it's wide open."

The good news is that sinners can be saved and Destiny is showing how. Hence the "Enough is Enough" march in Wellington last year, the formation of the Destiny political party, and the "Defend the Legacy" march next month up Queen St. Destiny people believe many others share their concerns and will want to vote for their party at the next election. They draw most of their support from other evangelical and pentecostal churches, many of which were also at the Enough is Enough march. Rough estimates suggest there are as many as 300,000 conservative Christians in New Zealand. How many of them would rally around a Destiny Church banner remains uncertain.

But for Destiny people, numbering 6000 "committed members", there is no question. "We want to change this nation. We feel it's really getting out of control with the direction it's going with secular humanism," says Heather. "The greatest purpose in life is to spread the good news and the truth of Jesus - not Allah or Buddha or all the false religions," says Murray.

Yvonne quotes scripture. "The government should be upon his shoulders." Murray explains: "When the people of God are in government and rule and have power and lordship then He rules." Quite what the rules will be is not clear - other than they will be God's laws, which will not be good news for homosexuals.

Belinda, like many Destiny members, is unconcerned at the protest reaction to last year's Enough is Enough march. "Maybe people were a bit scared of seeing so many people in agreement and all standing for the same thing. I suppose we were kind of like an army. But it was a peaceful march. It was very disciplined and I think that's what scared a lot of people."

Similarly, Brian Dahm makes no apologies for the aggressiveness seen in Destiny's kapa haka group at both Wellington and Waitangi. "On a spiritual level the haka is our way of proclaiming to the spirit realm. It needs to be aggressive because it is a challenge to the moral decay of our society. The challenge is against what is coming at us. It is a battle against Satan."

You can't argue with a Christian. There is a circular logic in what the people of Destiny say. They have an answer for everything because God is on their side. How do they know that? Because the Bible says so. "We believe the Bible is the word of God," says Russell. "We believe it is infallible. We believe it is without error. We stand by it." But doesn't it come down to interpretation? "Some of it needs no interpretation at all, it is very clear. You'd have to be thick in the head not to understand what the Bible says about homosexuality."

"Inside as a human being I know it's wrong too. Nature knows it's wrong. Nature knows that the human race would die out if 100 per cent believed it was acceptable."

Destiny people are unshakeable in their conviction. "We're men of God," says Murray. "It takes a lot of guts to be men of God, to stand up and show people you are strong."

For Aroha the conviction is tinged with sadness. "I've sacrificed a tribal vision for a godly calling. I always believed that I'd be amongst my people, but God's call is higher."

For Russell there is no choice. "We've all heard what the word of God says. If we reject that, then eternally we are separated from God. That's a place called hell, actually."