Eliora
Senior Pastor Glen Taka, of the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship, made me smile last week. Yes, he/they broke the rules, but he has made it clear that he and his group are not going to be part of the “team of 5 million” who are enamoured of every word that comes out of Hipkins’s mouth. It seems Hipkins is not Pastor Glen’s source of truth. Trump is.
Simon Collins writes in the Herald, 10 September, “Embattled Church Pleads for Compassion, not Condemnation”.
Taka said he was tested for Covid 6 times. Asked about Hipkins’ comment, he turned it around and said: ‘What would Trump say?”
That sounds like an exasperated parting shot.
New Zealanders watch as Hipkins, bestie Ardern and Bloomfield deal with this group of fundamental Christians and the new cluster of COVID-19 among them. Hipkins and co have their work cut out and they know it. They have come up against a wall of faith and belief that will be very difficult to break down. They can disperse a prayer meeting by sending in the police, but the MREF are not sheep blindly following Ardern’s Government. Hipkins very quickly will have become aware that they do not believe that he is their source of truth.
Hipkins resorted to the usual laying down of the law and the Labour leaders’ political chicanery, blaming others for misinformation about COVID-19. The real source of misinformation in New Zealand is that kiwis believed the borders were being monitored and we were safe from this virus. New Zealanders now know that was not true.
Winston Peters knows it is not true and publicly called out Hipkins and co, saying the virus came into the country across the borders. The virus appeared in Auckland and this fellowship has come in for criticism, vicious in some cases, for catching the virus. Hipkins can say what he likes, but Kiwis know there is only one way it arrived in the country and it happened on his watch.
The real transgressors are not the pastors or their fellowship attendees. The fault is to be laid at Hipkins and Ardern’s feet for not keeping our borders safe.
No doubt, the good people at the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship will be praying the following, as they sit out their two weeks in isolation.
“…Forgive us our trespasses and as we forgive those (Hipkins and co) who trespass against us…,”
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