Brian Tamaki a Bishop!

[Hitcher]

The Vicar of Welly

Live dangerously. Promote yourself to Bishop. I'd pay $55 to watch somebody kiss your ring...

[idb]

Tamiki sold himself short. Surprised he didn't call himself Pope.

That's next Saturday night, 7.30pm, tickets $95.00 and selling fast.
Available through Ticketek or the booking office at the Aotea Centre.

[Big Dave]

I don't see what the big who-ha is about,

What religion is he the head of?

[Sutage]

What religion is he the head of?

Naziism by the sound of it

[MrMelon]

Next we'll see he's appointed himself pope, and then possibly god.

[Virago]

What religion is he the head of?

Destiny Church NZ.

They've just launched their own political party too. Aiming it at the maori vote, they are contesting all the maori seats. Interestingly though, they have aligned themselves with National, who want to abolish the maori seats.

They also want to cut taxes, but impose a tithing rule on their own church members. The poor get poorer, but the church gets richer..... .

These guys are dangerous, wanting to impose laws based on their own interpretation of the bible.

[Big Dave]

Destiny Church NZ.

They've just launched their own political party too. Aiming it at the maori vote, they are contesting all the maori seats. Interestingly though, they have aligned themselves with National, who want to abolish the maori seats.

They also want to cut taxes, but impose a tithing rule on their own church members. The poor get poorer, but the church gets richer..... .

These guys are dangerous, wanting to impose laws based on their own interpretation of the bible.

thanks - but see my earlier post - i meant 'who is the big 'who-ha'? - like in the flintstone's 'grand poohbah'.

you had to be there.....

[Jackrat]

One of the drivers I work with moved from the BOP to AK to be closer to the leach tamaki.He now struggles to pay his rent an feed his family while he gives part of his wages to this fraud.
Some people are just to stupid for words.
I see on his web site a section on how to cast out demons,he should be bloody carefull none of his drones don't apply it to him again

[Virago]

thanks - but see my earlier post - i meant 'who is the big 'who-ha'? - like in the flintstone's 'grand poohbah'.

you had to be there.....

Ah, read the earlier posts first? :slap:

[jaybee180]

........ and sex with tall, blue eyed brunettes,


Shit - does that mean that redheads are out? Coz then I can't join! BUGGA!

[The Preacher]

Destiny Church NZ.

They've just launched their own political party too. Aiming it at the maori vote, they are contesting all the maori seats. Interestingly though, they have aligned themselves with National, who want to abolish the maori seats.

Actually they have announced 42 candiates covering all seats

[Big Dave]

........ and sex with tall, blue eyed brunettes,


Shit - does that mean that redheads are out? Coz then I can't join! BUGGA!

I perceive the establishment of diverse sects within the cult.
Like protestants and catholics.
If he's a she - then you are the foundation member of the 'fantasy sect' and a private audience with 'the cardinal' is always available - if he's a he, then you have no place in part 3 of this damn religion.

[Ms Piggy]

Choice turnout for The Chosen, 19 June 2005
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3318440a10,00.html

Sarah Stuart took a pew at yesterday's ordination of Bishop Brian Tamaki after talking to him and his wife, Pastor Hannah, about faith, fishing and road rage.

It is 20 minutes into the ordination of Bishop Brian Tamaki, in a stadium snug with ballgowns, bling and snakeskin shoes.

The first tithing has already been called for (eftpos available), the kapa haka group has chanted about "evil doers" and "perilous times" and the shop has been doing a roaring trade in Bibles commemorating the day ($95-$125). Within minutes of the former forestry worker being handed his new gold staff and Destiny Church ceremonial cloak, the DVD of the two-hour extravaganza will be on sale for $25.

Suddenly the giant screen above a stage filled with lights, choirs and a rock band beams a close-up of Bishop Brian on stage, his hands clasped, a tiny beatific smile playing across that deep tan.

"Man, that man is handsome," a young Pacific Islander in sharp suit and tie says from the row behind. The Tamaki empire couldn't agree more.

"Brian's a very attractive man and that's half the problem," his wife, Pastor Hannah Tamaki, newly blonde and with considerable bling of her own, said earlier. "He looks too good, dresses well, has got a house, a beautiful boat. People think a man of God shouldn't look like that."

Bishop Brian, 47, "humble" and "deeply honoured" by the office his church is bestowing upon him, is only too mindful of his image issues. "I'm aware that I'm rewriting, reshaping the face of religion," he said before the ceremony. "God has allowed me to . . . rescript some wrong traditional religious thoughts."

So if that means gold and diamond cross cufflinks for the ordination, if it means a new Destiny Church line of clothes (Integrity Man) and constant queries about his hair ("People ask him 'What product do you use, pastor?"' Hannah reveals), then that is God's will. Bishop Brian is being ordained by God, he says, because he is a man chosen for this time in history.

"I've changed a whole culture of people's dress in my generation." He preaches good dress sense because when Christ enters your life, it should change your external world too. So here we are in the week-old TelstraClear Pacific Stadium in Manukau City, 2000-plus, $55-a-ticket paying Destiny believers singing and dancing, pictures of the celebration beaming out live on the internet.

In the style of Scientology (Tom Cruise) and Kabbalah (Madonna), Destiny has its stars. Well, Bull Allen is supposed to be here somewhere and the Maori Queen was asked but pulled out at the last minute. Willie Jackson was invited on Friday, calling the bishop on his cellphone which rings to Smoke on the Water.

It is the seventh anniversary of the Destiny movement in Auckland, 26 years since Bishop Brian left his Pall Malls and Lion beer to become a born-again Christian. Last night the Destiny political party launched its election campaign which the bishop predicts will see them win more than 5 per cent of the vote and "squeeze a few candidates in".

Despite the political ambition, the mantle of bishop seems to be weighing on Bishop Brian. This weekend it was a more self-effacing man who asked for wisdom and knowledge from God as his forehead was rubbed with oil.

Unlike the old, flashy, Harley-riding Pastor Brian, Bishop Brian claims to be naturally shy, to dislike the posse of bodyguards. He doesn't much like the flashing lights at his church events, but his young followers do, and he says the image of him leading Destiny Church marches on his motorbike was simply a matter of timing. "I was running late and the bike was quicker."

He admits he was a "terrible" preacher when he established his first church in Te Awamutu; a slight dyslexia and a lack of education meant he stumbled over his words. "But I bought a thesaurus and a dictionary and I went to Bible college." Interestingly, says Bishop Brian, other religious leaders have also had trouble speaking. Moses and Jeremiah, for example. "It's a common problem."

Bishop Brian loves a biblical analogy. His journey to this new ordination is like David's journey smoting bears and lions before he reached Goliath. Even the concrete stadium, site of his ordination, looks like "Noah's Ark".

Quick as he is to quote a verse, Bishop Brian is less sure of the spiritual leaders he admires. Jesus Christ, sure. Martin Luther King is "inspirational". "Help me Hannah," he says.

"Billy Graham?" she offers.

Ah yes. "His integrity is intact. That's what I want to do at the end of my days, be a Christian statesman who arrived there his character intact."

Hannah's also helpful on the demons the bishop must fight. "Road rage," she says. "The temptation to go fishing when he should be at a meeting." "T-bone steak," the bishop adds. And shopping. "He's worse than me," says Hannah.

And therein lies the problem for New Zealand's newest bishop. His overt affluence is built on the tithing of his 7000-strong, predominantly Maori and Pacific Island congregation. How does that fit with a Christian message?

"Selflessness has nothing to do with the abundance of your possessions," he says. "Mother Teresa chooses poverty - that's her call . . . There is nothing wrong or evil about possessions, it's the heart conditioned towards those possessions (that is evil)."

After glowing speeches from his evangelical friends, a videoed message from his "spiritual father", Bishop Eddie Long of the New Birth Church in the US, and a lot of sparkly gospel singing, the new Bishop Brian holds a press conference. He wants the whole nation to know God, and his mission, he says, is to restore credibility to the Church. Of his critics who say it is simply arrogance to ordain yourself a bishop of your Church? Well, it's done with God's authority and he had to be brave about it.

"This, I believe, is the first time a Pentecostal movement has accepted, finally, the bishop role," he says. "They have been talking about it for a number of years but no one had the courage to say . . . when it fits, wear it."

And so he does, in cloak and staff and cufflinks. There is no bishop's mitre. Perhaps it would ruin the hair.

[Big Dave]

Actually they have announced 42 candiates covering all seats

I've seen some of those 'candidates' - some of them have arses that would need 3 seats.

[What?]

I think Brian Tamaki is inspirational. In fact, I'm thinking of starting a whole new religion in which Robert Plant will be the messiah (he foresaw the Internet when he wrote the words "...many times I've wondered how much there is to know..."
Obviously, the net itself will be the deity here, and as decent servers cost money, the devotees will have to donate 25% of their income to the church. Should be very lucrative.
Any of you guys want to be a bishop?