Need of a new generation of Māori apologists and academics

Why might we need a new generation of Māori evangelists, apologists and academics?

This YouTube video gave me awareness of a new Victoria University of Wellington study on indigenous people’s rejecting Christianity. Click here for the video.

• Those involved included Sara Rahmani, Peter Adds and Rebekah Senanayake – with Sara participating in the creation of the above summary video.

Comment:

Their study revealed that some of the growing portion of Māori who are religiously identifying as ‘nones’ (no religion) in our New Zealand census are doing so not as a religious position, but rather as a cultural statement.

Their religious position is part of a wider pushing-back against an understanding they have developed related to colonial oppression. This is causing them to think a rejection of Christianity is needed to better affirm their Māori identity. Their chosen religious identification isn’t therefore so much a religious position as a political one.

Regarding polytheism

The video articulates how the polytheistic worldview of Māori saw the divine, human and natural worlds as connected. About 70 different gods descended from Ranginui (the Sky Father) and Papatūanuku (the Earth Mother) to oversee different areas of life. Humans are also descended from these great gods of the sky and land. The spiritual and the natural are intertwined.

I note that this way of thinking is common to most of our ancient ancestors, globally speaking. It isn’t unique. We are wise to remember this – because the cultural shift we are within is, therefore, also not unique.

Regarding wrong-doing

However, what has to be accepted (negatively) is that our government, through the late 1800s and early 20th century, did much to erase Māori culture and tradition.

Their actions, however, were not undertaken out of a vendetta against Māori, but more so out of ignorance. As the European population exploded – by 1880 becoming ten times that of Māori – the Māori language was removed from education. Education regarding Māori ancestry, culture, traditions and beliefs was also removed.

It wasn’t just land that was being progressively lost as new presumptive laws were passed – like the Public Works Act of 1925; histories related to Māori cultural identity were also being erased. No matter the reason, it was wrong.

The tragedy of what is happening, I suggest, lies in the prejudice being reflected – targeted specifically, unjustly and incorrectly against the Christian faith.

The very same trend is in play in our own times regarding the Christian origins of many of our nation’s most treasured and beneficial values. This present prejudice is, without doubt, connected to the same trend among Māori, leading to this increase in the ‘nones’. Christianity is being used as a scapegoat.

The study revealed that decisions are being made against the Christian religion on the basis of a bias against Christianity, arising from a perception that Christianity was party to the colonisation of Māori. Christianity is thereby seen as a ‘tool’, and its embrace as contrary to Māori cultural identity.

What stood out to me was the timeframe involved. Some who had taken this position had done so on the basis of things learned in just the past five years. This points not only to the power of storytelling, but also to our present failure, as New Zealanders and Christians, to tell our own cultural story – because the claim that Christianity caused colonisation is unfair at best, and in reality, destructive to the common good.

Some have chosen ‘no religion’ for fear of being judged or rejected by family members who are becoming entrenched in the anti-Christian narrative. Few people anywhere on Earth have the moral fortitude to stand for something they believe to be true when it contrasts with the popular consensus of their primary community. This isn’t a rational choice so much as a cultural one, based on perceptions others are giving them.

An idea I’ve written about elsewhere, regarding the perceived present renaissance around Māori Atua, is that it is actually being led by white men and women as a subset of the ‘virtue-signalling’ subculture on the far left. That is to say, a religious synergy exists between anti-Christian liberal academics and those now embracing the worship of Māori Atua. It is also a trend that is both funded and led; none of this is happening in a vacuum.

Toward an application

It seems clear to me that we are in great need of courageous and competent Māori apologists (‘evangelists’ / ‘academics’), who can engage through storytelling to bring balance to the narratives being propagated.

It is through an ignorance of history, not a knowledge of history, that Christianity is being rejected – I have written elsewhere on this. The irony is particularly striking given the disrespect this shows to many of our nation’s greatest Christian heroes, who were Māori chiefs.

Without doubt, a concurrent critique can be levelled against many European immigrants of that era who believed themselves Christian. They chose the wrong side of history, following culture in the same way many of those currently turning against Christianity are likewise doing. No excuses are acceptable; the colonial overreach of our history was significant and wrong.

However, regarding a correct relationship between religion, rationality and culture – spokespeople are needed. A belief in human rationality and free will aligns specifically with belief in a single Creator God – not with polytheism or atheism. A study of the natural world similarly points toward the existence of an extraordinarily intelligent Creator of our world – even while some attempt rational arguments to claim accidents create complexity and design. These points aren’t a matter of culture. The pursuit of true religion sits above culture, not underneath it/ It is a quest that calls equally to all who live upon this amazing planet. All people, irrespective of culture, are equal in their call to seek and pursue what is true, good and right!

The subjugation of this endeavour in the name of culture is therefore a great shame – and worse. It is something that should be challenged. All human beings have equally been given intellect, while equally living within a world that exhibits an intelligence and design ability far above our own. To say different does our humanity a disservice.

The distortions of history being used to reach a contrary conclusion therefore need addressing. Christianity has become the cultural scapegoat.

To put this in spiritual language – for those who believe in a spiritual realm: surely the devil himself is at work in the way this history is being distorted.

We need a new generation of Māori evangelists, apologists and academics, who can research and tell the story.

Looking forwards: Further engagement from some of our leading Christian Māori with Sara Rahmani, Peter adds, Rebekah Senanayake – who behind this study – might have benefit, and certainly would be interesting.

Concluding statements

The distortions of history that are shaping current thinking need addressing. From the Christian perspective, only then will Christ be seen for who he is.

As one positive by-product, the intensity of some interracial tension could be helped to subside. Some of this division isn’t necessary. However, imbalances need addressing first – with the telling of our history is the chief mechanism for that.

May God raise up more voices to tell His story within our history, with discernment, so that any popular narrative that is untrue might find its needed balance.