Commie Pervert Geek Girl, Oct 2004
Originally published in Express

"Everything in God, nothing outside God, nothing against God." A slogan that I suspect most members of the Destiny Church would be happy to stand behind. But replace "God" with "the State", and you get the motto of Mussolini, father of fascism.

And conflating God and State is precisely what Destiny wants to do. As both a church and a political party, they want to give the will of God - as interpreted by Brian Tamaki - legal force. Destiny holds up the church as the ultimate authority, an institution that takes precedence over the needs of individual members. It is highly elitist and fundamentally undemocratic; the members don't get to vote on how the Word of God should be interpreted.

Their politics are nationalist and extremely right-wing. They are also strongly racist, despite the large proportion of Maori in the church, with an immigration policy of tight border controls focused on "preserving New Zealand's culture". They also want to expand both the military and police, and harshly enforce their conservative laws.

There is no room for dissenting views within the church, and their own web site boasts that Tamaki wants to *impose* "the realities of the gospel" on the rest of New Zealand. Freedom of religion or expression would not exist if Destiny ran the country.

It's not just the superficial trappings of black shirts, regimented marching, and shouting with outstretched arms from Destiny's rally at parliament that scream fascism.

Comparisons between Destiny and the fascists of last century are often written off as wild exaggerations, but are they really? The Nazis didn't *begin* by sending millions to be killed in concentration camps - that came much later. We need to learn the lessons of history to avoid repeating it.

New Zealand's open fascists, the National Front, certainly see an ally in Destiny, and the church had no problem with the fascists' banners being displayed throughout their rally. A cruder and smaller operation than Destiny, the National Front has been linked to a range of violent offences against people and property, the desecration of Jewish graves receiving the most publicity.

The National Front is becoming increasingly active. Their recent plans to offer "security patrols" to reassure the elderly and vulnerable is especially worrying. As nothing but a small group of thugs, they're of little concern, but activity like this could help them develop a degree of public acceptance.

As always, the important question is - why? What attracts people to these hate-filled right-wing groups? And as is often the case, a big part of the answer is poverty and insecurity. People who live in fear and deprivation are easy prey to groups who claim to have a way out.

Though the idea of New Zealand's Blackshirts gaining real power is laughable at the moment, we can't afford to be complacent. We need to give the people real explanations for their problems rather than scapegoats on whom to take out frustration, and real solutions, now.

If we wait till the possibility of a fascist New Zealand becomes a serious threat, we will have left it too late.