The story behind Hannah Tamaki's bid for the Maori Women’s Welfare League presidency

There has been a lot of coverage about Destiny Church pastor Hannah Tamaki’s bid to be the president of the Maori Women’s Welfare League (MMWL), which at the end of May had 2850 members.

This post outlines that payments for 921 new MWWL subscriptions were paid through a Destiny Church- affiliated taxpayer-funded Urban Maori Authority, in a failed attempt to get the maximum votes for Hannah Tamaki’s presidency bid.

The 10 branches were formed just hours before several Maori MPs were asked for Whanau Ora funding at the same conference - for the very fund that the MMWL subscriptions were subsequently paid from.

Tamaki’s mother was a member of the MWWL, and Tamaki herself is not only a member but is the president of the Wahine Toa branch. This branch is one of three affiliated to Destiny church through its Urban Maori Authority, Te Runanga A Iwi O Te Oranga Ake. This UMA was given $850,000 for government contracts for social services, but the funding has now dried up.

As the Church cannot secure contracts for social services, Tamaki probably decided that becoming president of the MWWL may do the trick and secure contracts, but she needed the votes. There were 1100 women at Destiny’s annual conference on 4 June, and 921 of them - including Winston Peters' mother sister - were signed up to the League through 10 different newly formed branches all at the same time. All had between 91-93 members. A branch has to have 91 financial members to secure the maximum of 10 votes for the Presidency – so 90 extra votes for Tamaki out of 430 votes. A branch of 90 has just 5 votes, and a branch of 10, 1 vote.

However all membership fees, totalling more than $9200, were paid by one inter-bank transfer by Destiny Church – through Te Oranga Ake, who got their funding from the taxpayer. It appears however that all members were invoiced and have apparently paid their MMWL fees to Destiny Church.

So it was clear that this Destiny conference setup was done to stack votes for Hannah Tamaki’s presidency bid by well over 25 per cent , just as it was clear that Maori MPs were invited to the same conference on the same day to secure Whanau Ora funding.

However none of the 10 MMWL branches were financial as at 30 June, the date the ballot papers were sent out for the presidency, missing Tamaki’s name. Tamaki took the League to court as her name was removed, and it was revealed that the 10 branches subscriptions were paid from 1 July 2011. So while members in the new branches cannot vote, the three financial members affiliated to Destiny church can – and the court has decided that Tamaki’s name will be on the ballot paper, one of eight candidates.

Tamaki has pledged to resign from her pastoral role at Destiny should she win, and also to donate her entire presidential salary to the league.

Can we have some more money?

Like many I was a bit uneasy about many Maori MPs appearing at the recent Destiny Church conference. Like most MPs, they are after votes in election year.

But the fact is that Brian Tamaki and Richard Lewis were using this conference to get these MPs - all Maori – as a front to get funding – including Whanau Ora funding - from the government. This is because of 300 applications, they’ve only succeeded twice. But in 2009 the MSD gave the trust $355,000 – and the trust then declared $70,000 net profit.

Brian Tamaki is a founding trustee, and Lewis is a current trustee on the Te Runanga A Iwi O Te Oranga Ake Urban Maori Authority (UMA), but last year on Campbell Live Lewis said that the Maori Authority was not really a Destiny Church trust, but “an entirely separate entity and set of trustees”. Yet half its trustees control the money on Destiny churches throughout the country, and it is registered to the Destiny Church’s head office.

Destiny Church in Auckland shares one trustee on the UMA,Destiny Christchurch shares two, Destiny Hamilton and Rotorua, two each (the same two people, Peter and Jean Hunt).

Jean Hunt is actually a trustee of two thirds of the Destiny church trusts – as well as the Urban Maori Authority, the Destiny International Trust, and the trust set up for Destiny’s school, the Te Roto Taone Nui Trust – a trust which has filted money back into Destiny Church via “cost of service provision”, despite being bulk funded through the Ministry of Education - and WINZ.

The income of the Urban Maori Authority is also made up of Government grants, of which most are spent on wages. As of its return to the Charities commission in October last year, the Trust had more than $70,000 of tax-payer money in the bank earning interest but they were given $850,000 for a Community Max scheme that cost the taxpayer more than $ 200 each week for each person worked with. But all except $10,000 was spent on wages, ACC,and KiwiSaver payments..

But the money is not coming in fast enough for Destiny to employ their unemployed church workers on schemes – of which ten percent of the salaries would be ploughed back into church tithes. That's because Community Max is finished.

Paula Bennett is a Maori, and the Minister for Social Development, responsible for funding social services. Why wasn’t she invited, laid hands on and prayed for? Is it because she is the MP for Waitakere, a non-Maori electorate – or weren’t women invited?

GOVERNMENT FUNDING OF DESTINY CHURCH SERVICES 2009-11 ( as released to TV3)

Community Max: $681,843 (Ministry of Social Development - mentoring - Auckland)
Community Max: $74,353 (MSD - mentoring - Bay of Plenty)
Community Max: $57,553 (MSD - mentoring - Northland)
Community Max: $36,419 (MSD - mentoring - Waikato)
Community response: $10,000 (Holiday breakaway programme)
Kindergarten: $419,916 (Ministry of Education - Early Childhood Education)
Destiny School: $266,313 (ministry of Education - private school funding)

TOTAL: $1,546,397

Brian Tamaki's spiritual father may be rather dodgy?

Atlanta Bishop and Preacher Eddie Long is Brian Tamaki's spiritual father. Tamaki is well known as Bishop of Destiny Church. Long believes that God can "deliver" homosexuals and teaches on prosperity,a belief that God provides material prosperity for those he favors.

In 2008, Destiny Church had a conference and Eddie Long was there. He took a guy from his church to Auckland with him for his 18th birthday and attended the conference. Robinson, in a lawsuit, [PDF] has alleged that Long used his imfluence and church money to engage in sexual misconduct with him while in New Zealand , and another has claimed similar activity in the US. Long is now facing two lawsuits.

The pastor took one plaintiff, Anthony Flagg, 21, on overnight trips to a half-dozen American cities in recent years, Flagg's lawsuit [PDF] alleges.

"Long shared a bedroom and engaged in intimate sexual contact with plaintiff Flagg including kissing, massaging, masturbating of plaintiff Flagg by defendant Long and oral sexual contact," the suit says.

Long took the other plaintiff, Maurice Murray Robinson, 20, to Auckland, New Zealand, in October 2008 for his 19th birthday and engaged in oral sex with him, Robinson's suit alleges.

"Following the New Zealand Trip, Defendant Long regularly engaged in sexual touching, and other sexual acts with Plaintiff Robinson," Robinson's suit alleges.

At this stage it is a lawsuit, and he is innocent until proven guilty, but it is also not a good look, and his church has not denied it to the media despite repeatedly being asked to in the past two weeks.

Eddie Long is now a trending topic on Twitter. That didn't take long. His church website is here, but it is unavailable to view. He tweets here.

Giving money

A Catholic Bishop, an Anglican Vicar and Brian Tamaki are discussing tithing. They draw a circle in chalk on the pavement below them.

The Catholic Bishop says: “We should take the money and throw it in the air, and whatever lands inside the circle, we give to God.”

The Anglican Vicar says: “No, we should throw it in the air and whatever lands outside the circle we give to God.”

Brian Tamaki says: “No, we throw it in the air; whatever God wants, He keeps!”

(stolen from Kiwiblog comments)

Destiny Church,MoMENtum and The Cult

TVNZ must have a sense of humour.The other day I spotted the irony that that TV2 programme The Cult, was advertised alongside a well written piece on the Destiny Church [see below], written in the wake of the MoMENtum meeting, the meeting where 700 followers pledged their allegiance to God Brian Tamaki.

As it happens, Momentum is the name of a cult - in fact it is the name of the cult in the TV show The Cult. "Momentum, in an effort to avoid problems, forms a 'council' of longest serving members." Not sure if they have 700 or not.

Ha, there's even a person in New Zealand chapter of The Cult called Hannah, the same name as Brian Tamaki's wife. She's in love with the cult leader, who is charming, articulate but ultimately delusional.According the website:

Hannah is in love with Edward, who genuinely believes in what he preaches...He has already started to reinterpret the Momentum belief systems to suit his own ends...He truly believes he is special.

Is this where Destiny Church got the the idea of MoMENtum from?

More on the busy busy cult of Brian

Garth George did really have one big scoop. But TV3 were also on the case on the cult of Brian. Cultwatch has upgraded Destiny's rating from caution to danger. Destiny was featured on Campbell Live last night [you can see that online here].Campbell Live had a plant in last weekend's Destiny conference, but, despite Destiny's claims that they have an open door policy, they wouldn't let TV3 reporter David Farrier in.

[ Update:This has now been confirmed by TV3 news boss Mark Jennings]

Now Destiny is claiming the story was grossly inaccurate without specifying what parts are inaccurate, even when asked. I spoke to Destiny's Janine Cardno today and asked her for just one inaccuracy. She said she was too busy to do that - but said she had a "whole list" So, at her request I have asked for that list. Also Destiny hasn't even given one thought as to whether to take the programme to the Broadcasting Standards Authority - Cardno said they were too busy to do that, too.

I suggest you also check out MacDoctor's excellent post on the cult of Brian. He says it well and fairly.

It is obvious from what we see of the contents of this covenant, that members are not encouraged to do anything except accept the words of Tamaki. I suspect that, if God calls a Destiny church member to do something great for Him outside of Tamaki’s ambit, He is going to have to speak very loudly indeed. This covenant is probably the most restrictive, crushing thing I have ever seen.

What Brian Tamaki has created here is not a church, but a personality cult centered around him. Check out the Close Up interview of him here and count how many times he mentions himself and his achievements. How many times does he mention Jesus Christ? Once.

Well done. Here's Living Colour.

God is not happy with Brian Tamaki

I had a chat to God today and he told me that he is not happy with Brian Tamaki. Not happy at all. God told me that Tamaki is an arrogant prick, who leads a cult, not a church.

And God is, as usual, right.

Tamaki, you see, is the "spiritual father " of the Destiny Church, and about 700 male members of the church are his "spiritual sons".All swore a "covenant oath" of loyalty and obedience, pledging their allegiance to Tamaki and were given a "covenant ring" to wear on their right hands and have to follow instructions in a document called Protocols and Requirements Between Spiritual Father & His Spiritual Sons. These men in all conversation always have to speak of Mr Tamaki in a favourable and positive light; and in formal and/or public occasions, they will always address him and his wife, Hannah, first in acknowledgments and addresses at meetings "as a sign of respect to the father of the movement". At meetings, they are told to bring Bible, pen, paper or laptop to note down Mr Tamaki's sermons which "shows how highly you value the Word of God from Bishop's mouth".

I think the fact that it comes out of Bishop's mouth is more important to his followers than whether it is the "word of God" or not. And yes, they call him Bishop, not "the Bishop". Furthermore

any "son" is honoured either by the church or secularly, he is to mention his "mentors and role models" - Mr and Mrs Tamaki - "because Bishop is one of God's best-known representatives in our country"

No he's not. He is not God's representative. He is merely the best known cult leader in our country.

Under "Conduct Towards Bishop", the "sons" are told that "Bishop is the tangible expression of God", so they need to understand how to properly approach their man of God "to protect the anointing and not transgress this special relationship". They are always to be respectful and honourable in Mr Tamaki's presence. "Even though he is very sociable and open - remember who he is!" They must never be "in his face" and must protect him from outsiders who attempt to do that.

Tamaki is putting himself above God. Now even if you don't believe in God I'm sure - if you are not one of the brainwashed Tamaki followers - you can see that this is arrogant prickery.

Destiny Church is no longer a church - it is officially a cult, and it is about time other church leaders spoke out against this cult. The NZ Cult List may do well to upgrade Destiny's rating from "caution" to "danger".

Read more about this topic here.

Take me down to the Destiny City, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty

The leader of Destiny Church says plans are underway to create a self-contained "Destiny City" for its followers in the middle of South Auckland.

Plans for the city include a 5000-seat church, maraes, medical centres and schools - eliminating the need for residents to ever leave.

"Every child of every member of this church will never go to a state school again," Brian Tamaki said.

At the church's 10th anniversary celebrations, he urged the church's 7000-plus members to sell their homes and move to his city "for the purpose of God".

Which God? Not one I've heard of, anyway.

In 2003 Tamaki told his followers: "I predict in the next five years, by the time we hit our 10th anniversary - and I don't say this lightly - that we will be ruling the nation."