Overcoming threats to the bicultural journey of the NZ Church 

This is a very difficult topic to write about.

• I pray for grace from readers – knowing that even some words used here might mean different things to different people.
• Please trust my intent – and if a division is somehow placed between us because of what you think is said here – please be in touch so we can discuss that.
• I believe this point to be important  (you can decide).

The last few months I have seen evidences of  ‘critical race theory’ (CRT) appearing even in the narratives of TV shows and sitcoms. This is similar to the involvement of an actor as a  homosexual in sitcoms across the prior 20 to 30 years – to normalise homosexuality in the public view. The point is, the language of CRT wasn’t in these shows one year ago.

I predict that public perspectives on various things related to race are going to change quite quickly in our nation – as people are working to engineer this kind of change. The result will be an increase, not decrease, the level of racial tension and division. Younger people will believe what they’re told to – while more widely read older people will see that it’s a ‘narrative’.

Ironically, this racial division will be fed by people presenting themselves as being against racism. Those with a knowledge of politics and history will understand the term, ‘useful idiot’. It refers to a person or group rallied by a leader to a cause they believe in – not at all because the leader believes in their cause, but instead because their efforts are useful to the leader in view of a secondary objective. When that objective is achieved, the ‘useful idiots’ can be discarded. The Brownshirts (search ‘night of the along knives’) are a classic example in history. It is an idea openly discussed, and leveraged, in various political circles.

A complication: So it is noted, there are a variety of motivations people might have for supporting ideas or words used in connection with CRT. Some people’s motivations will therefore be good – even where their vocabulary seems to suggest otherwise, because they will be unaware of the political dynamics that are in play. The complication is therefore that we can’t judge people by the words they use – and we’ll also have to give grace to people who judge us because they’ve believed a one-sided message (or narrative) given by a school teacher, or similar authority figure . This is going to be a minefield for misunderstanding – and I predict that the growth of division it causes at pace will turn many away from a bicultural journey.

Of note, the land issues addressed by the Waitangi Tribunal over the past 40 years were the easy ones. The Governance issues that we are now heading into are the difficult ones, which some might choose to politicise for other reasons.

————Governance issues?————

This is a side note, but necessary if we are to understand something of the issues involved.

How much self-Governance should an Iwi rightly have, according to Te Tiriti? Article 2 of Te Tiriti promised Māori the ‘continued possession of their lands, villages and treasures’, while the complete Government of the whole land was given by Māori to the British Crown (Article 1). We all can work out quite easily what ‘lands’ (including ‘villages’) referred to. But what were their ‘treasures’? For example, surely their treasures included their language and culture – even though that wasn’t yet articulated in 1840 (when the Treaty was signed)? If true, then, Government soul have (ideally) created various necessary by-laws in the years that followed, to define what the Treaty meant, as various issues arose. But that didn’t happen! Had it happened, I suggest that Māori would most certainly have been given rights to the education of their own children – and in Te Reo Māori if they so chose.  (As it is in our history, Māori schools were closed down by the Government – contrary to the will of the missionaries, and by the 1890s a Māori student would be punished with the cane for use of a word in Te Reo).  Now extrapolate this thought out, and you’ll see that our nation has a variety of very difficult questions and conversation ahead. Had a just process been followed, what might ‘treasures’ have legitimately included over time?  

• There is a lot to this ‘Governance’ conversation.
• There is also plenty of possibility for abuses – with the potential of things being claimed that are not fair, and perspectives held that are the result of ‘revisionist histories’ and biased on the way we think, ‘reading back onto the Treaty’ things are are more reflective of modern values and thinking that of the reality of the agreement. It’s going to be genuinely difficult.

————————————————-

My point is:

• I believe our bicultural journey is unfortunately being leveraged by some who are clever, for unrelated things. A righteous goal is being leveraged for an unrighteous cause – and the danger is that some will abandon the righteous goal as a result.

To protect this journey I suggest we’re going to need to be aware of these tensions, and to learn how to very specifically navigate and counteract them with story, relationship and truth. (Or to identify some issues on which we will simply need to go silent – because we can’t control the outcomes, and something greater is at stake – like the work of the the gospel!).

This will especially involve care with our words – as some words will become politically charged to some audiences, depending on who is feeding their thinking.

Younger people will be particularly difficult to navigate this with – as public media and education may shape their thinking in a narrow way.

Those who have emigrated here from nation’s that suffered under Communism, or dictatorships, may on the other hand react against all things ‘bicultural’ – not because they are racist, but because the can see the manipulative media tactics, because they’ve been through this before. (I’ve discovered and investigated this matter – and the above is true of some people who others would have assumed to be ‘racist’).

As examples, the terms ‘white shame’ and ‘white guilt’ are politically charged – as they immediately imply a judgement based on the colour of a person’s skin – which is, by definition, racism. Yet those using the terms think they are standing for justice.

• Tragically, an effort to build bicultural partnership that includes insulting a group on the basis of their skin colour is unavoidably doomed to fail
• …quite apart from the reality that most Māori hare at least half Pākehā  – so its not as if anyone is ‘genetically innocent’ (morally superior). (And every one of us will have ancestors who have done great wrongs to some other people group).
• And some Pākehā are very informed and understanding of things Māori – and have advocated significantly for them, while they’ll suffer a form of discrimination for their skin colour.
• For the Christian, our systems of law and justice are clear on the fact that a child shall not be held responsible for the sins of their parents. (This comes from the Bible).  It’s very simple.

• This single statement significantly resolves the above matter for the Christian.

Engaging conversations with younger ones will take wisdom.

• Rather than working to impart shame, we must impart understanding.
• Rather than bringing judgement and division, we must build bridges, and enable collaboration.

Telling stories is something we an all do, that can help this process.

Proverbs says,  “Blessed is the man who can hold one thing and one hand without letting go of what is in the other.” (Ecclesiastes 7:18)

I’ll illustrate with a contrast between how two different churches engaged differently on this bicultural journey:

A pastor in a church of a couple of hundred took a few years before he even started saying ‘Kia ora’ at the start of a church service. He wasn’t personally very exposed to things-Māori, and there were very few Māori in the congregation. To have forced the journey would have lacked authenticity – and might have felt like tokenism. But what he did do was expose the staff to things-Māori, especially including hearing the stories of history which brought a growing appreciation of the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The culture of this church continues to change – but slowly. I’m suggesting this is wise.

For the contrast – in another related local church the pastor was Māori. The suggestion to him was to not try to change the culture to ‘be bicultural’ – but instead to simply release himself to be more freely who is as a Māori when leading in his church. Six months later the number of Māori attending his congregation had increased significantly, and even some Pākehā when leading the service were praying Karakia in Te Reo, or giving a benediction in Te Reo, at their own choosing. The matter wasn’t discussed or encouraged. It happened naturally.

To note it, these two churches are friends and both took the same journey, with the same exposure to the same encouragements, at the same time. The difference in outcome related to the different dynamics of their congregations – and I suggest the way these two different pastors led their two different congregations was good and wise!

When a journey through change is forced it can cause damage – even where motive are good.

Leadership through change is always leadership through change!

DAVE MANN. Dave is a creative communicator with a vision to see an understanding of the Christian faith continuing, and also being valued, in the public square in Aotearoa-New Zealand. He has innovated numerous conversational resources for churches, and recently coordinated a 5th nationwide multimedia Easter project purposed to help open conversation between church and non-church people about Christianity take place, including regarding the specifically Christian origins of many of our nation’s most treasured values. Dave is the author of various books and booklets including “Because we care”, “That Leaders might last”, “The Elephant in the Room”, and available for free on this site: “The What and How of Youth and Young Adult ministry”. Married  to Heather, they have four young boys and reside in Tauranga, New Zealand.