Cult Allegations
Following this pledge, the church was labelled as a cult by several New Zealand media outlets and other observers.
In an interview with TVNZ, Mark Vrankovich of Cultwatch criticised the covenant, saying Mr Tamaki was "taking a kingship position", and
| “ | Within this document we see here the very mechanism by which cults go askew, Christians were sick of being identified with Mr Tamaki and the Destiny Church.
I mean here you have a man who thinks he is a biblical character, in this case King David, and he's building himself an army of mighty men who will do want he wants. I have grave concerns for that, grave concerns. |
” |
In the same interview following the reports of October 2009, Mr Tamaki and Richard Lewis defended the pledge on the basis that it was taken willingly, and simply attempted to set standards and codify established practice within the church. Lewis denied the "cult" claims, noting that church services are open to the public. Tamaki denied the existence of a "cult of personality", saying that he was simply setting a visible example for men to follow; and that the church helps a lot of people from difficult backgrounds.
A competing current affairs programme, "Campbell Live", made use of a covert camera and an unidentified witness to critique church practices and the Momentum conference. The church later issued a response, stating that "a number of comments made by the individual were grossly inaccurate", that the source was not credible, and the report reflected "poor practice".
In a separate report Peter Lineham, associate professor at Massey University, expressed similar concerns but stopped short of using the word 'cult':
| “ | I don’t feel very comfortable about this word cult, because we use ‘cult’ as a sort of slang word to mean something really over the top. The fact is, there is no precise point at which you move to a total rejection of other connections. | ” |
Cult allegations resurfaced in 2010, when Cultwatch accused Tamaki of denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the claims and Tamaki's denial of the cult status generated substantial media coverage.
Read more about this topic: Destiny Church (New Zealand)
Famous quotes containing the word cult:
“By Modernism I mean the positive rejection of the past and the blind belief in the process of change, in novelty for its own sake, in the idea that progress through time equates with cultural progress; in the cult of individuality, originality and self-expression.”
—Dan Cruickshank (b. 1949)