Guest Post: John Stringer
October 28th, 2011 at 7:00 am by David FarrarA guest post by John Stringer. John is indirectly responsible for my parliamentary involvement as I was hired on a four month temporary contract to replace him in 1996. I left eight years later!
The Parson’s Nose
A Conservative Column that ain’t Chicken.Electoral Hedgehogs and CCCP (NZ).
The October registering of the new Conservative Party of New Zealand 50 days out from the 2011 general election is neither conservative nor new.
Colin Craig’s Conservative Party, forming the unfortunate acronym CCCP (Russian for USSR), is radical rather than conservative, because the party proposes to contest the sixth MMP election with less than six weeks to go.
It is not new, because in 1996 the then Right-of-Centre party – founded by disgruntled National MP and now Eastern European Ross Meurant joined by disgruntled National MP and anti-pornography campaigner Trevor Rogers – rebranded itself as the New Zealand Conservative Party. Ironically, this was in response to then Prime Minister Jim’s Bolger’s sacking of Meurant as Undersecretary for Agriculture due to a conflict-of-interest involving a CCCP-owned bank registered in Vanuatu.
Colin Craig’s NZ foray is an extension of the rise of politicised conservatism in America. Sarah Palin, Rick Perry and the Tea Party movement are all significant political players in the 2012 GOP runoff for the 45th President of the United States against arch liberal Barack Obama.
CCCP NZ is the latest Christian/conservative hedgehog on the electoral super highway. Christians were among the earliest newbies to organise for the first MMP election in 1996.
Christian Heritage (later – bemusingly – “Christian Heritage Graham Capill Party,” its leader now a convicted paedophile freshly out on bail) were among the first, working as a political party/cum lobby group from 1989 under FPP. Their particular brand of narrow Dutch Reform conservatism based on Reformed Church theology and perhaps cloistered around a narrow segment of Dutch society from our mother namesake Zeeland, was joined by National MP Graeme Lee who formed the “United Party,” later re-branded “Christian Democrats” (after the successful German MMP party), a more New Zealand-friendly model. These two were forced into a shotgun marriage by Christian leaders as the “Christian Coalition” that fought a credible first MMP campaign but missed the 5% threshold.
Earlier, Peter Dunne, a de facto National MP in Ohariu-Belmont where the Nats refrained from standing, formed his “Future NZ” party later stealing Lee’s old name “United New Zealand Party.” Ironically, the failed Christian Democrats then adopted Dunne’s cast-off “Future NZ Party.”
Perhaps to avoid further confusion, the two fused in 2000 as the “United Future NZ Party,” later “United Party.” In 2003 ‘Bishop’ Brian Tamaki founded the political wing of his church franchise “Destiny New Zealand,” Christian Heritage wasted away, and United birthed two stillborns: Kiwi Party and Family Party.
But if constant renaming is symptomatic of political minnows trying to expand themselves like electoral puffer fish, their vote results are somewhat deflating. The best chance a dedicated conservative political party has had in NZ was the Christian Coalition campaign in 1996, achieving upward of 9% poll results on the East Coast of the North Island and more votes than the Maori seats combined. But there it has climaxed, and NZ conservative politics collapsed like a CCCP wall in Berlin.
John Stringer is an ex-Anglican pastor from Christchurch, has spent 25 years in NZ politics including a stint with the Conservative Party, London, and lost his home, business, car and job in the 22/2 earthquake.
There has been a varied history of “Christian” parties trying to get into Parliament. As John says, the CCCP is around the ninth to try.
Related posts:
- Guest Post: HOBBIT #1: An Unexpected Journey , Review – John Stringer.
- Future NZ
- What if we abolished the 5% threshold?
- A new acronym
October 28th, 2011 at 7:58 am
Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.
Vote:Whenever religious people go looking for political power in the name of the almighty it is a recipe for the ego to take over and pretend to be the voice of God.
And that tends to end badly.
October 28th, 2011 at 8:34 am
I tend to agree that ‘Christian’ parties are too problematic. They attract the siege-mentality Christians, not the middle-of-the-road Christians; they’re a massive target for the illiberal media; they’re often naïve; and they don’t appreciate the separation of Church and State (in the true sense, not the atheist sense).
Better to be involved in a big party like National and graft away where you can. For example, the current Deputy Prime Minister is a conservative practicing Christian.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 8:40 am
Politics is downstream of culture. Bill English knows that. Not sure that Colin Craig does.
And the Catholic Church knows that, and thus is comfortable with the seperation of Church and state when she considers her evangelical mission.
Younger churchers – and their members – that are less steepped in history don’t appreciate this. This partly explains their desire to grab hold of temporal power.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 8:47 am
I would tend to agree East Wellington with your thoughts. Christianity allows for a separation of church and state in the intended sense — the Pope is not the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister is not the Pope. However the church would influence the state and provide moral guidance to the State without being the state. In fact this does happen today. The Prime Minister to this day meets with Christian leaders of the main denominations to discuss various matters such as social policy etc.
The only difficulty is that even the National party which has many Christians in its ranks, has become very wishy-washy. Labour, which in its heyday was a party of applied Christianity, is now dominated by radical feminists and homosexual lobbyists. So it is very difficult for a Christian to know where to vote?
Some people might have been drawn to the Act party but Don Brash, maybe in an attempt to gain the hippie vote, has decided to put out a clarion call to legalise marijuana. Hardly the stuff to attract most Christians, whether of the right or the left politically.
I guess we need to continue to be “salt and light” in all of the political parties. Labour does care for the poor, so that is something Christians can agree on as important. National does believe in freedom of the individual, which is something we can agree on. The Greens want to care for the earth, which Christians would say is God’s creation and so we do need to look after properly.
So I would say that we need to be a positive influence in the various political parties. And obviously there are things that we would oppose. Radical homosexuality and euthanasia for examples would be a couple of anti-God issues that we need to vigourously oppose in all political forums. But there are many issues we can agree on and promote in good conscience.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 9:08 am
It’s all a bit of a moot point really. Chances of CCCP getting more than 1% of the vote? I’d bet against that.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 9:25 am
Not bail, but parole.
Also, I’m pretty sure it was named “The Christian Heritage Party – Graham Capill Party Leader”.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 9:33 am
“It’s all a bit of a moot point really. Chances of CCCP getting more than 1% of the vote? I’d bet against that.”
I am pretty sure you are right. Does anyone beleive that they have any better chance of Colin winning Rodney? I would think if it was a real possibility the MSM would pay for a random poll as they have done for independents in the past.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 9:49 am
Its not true that United birthed the Family Party – that was birthed through Destiny church and the only link United Future had to the Family Party was Paul Adams, a former UF MP. Paul joined the party due to his links with the Destiny crowd, not his former association with United Future. It was named the Family Party to attract votes from Christians who did not like the name Destiny.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 9:54 am
A Conservative Christian party entering parliament would be one of the few things that could make me consider voting Labour.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 10:58 am
On of the best wiki images I’ve seen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ChristianPoliticsNZ.png
Colin Craig is desparately keen to play down the Christian dimension of the party (particularly his own quite fundamentalist views) and is also going for the Populist/Nationalist slant – his platform has a lot of similarities with Winston Peters – minus the racism.
Oh and not too sure what the point of the ‘CCCP’ was supposed to be getting at – irrelevent trivia of the worst kind. Especially given that there is not a ‘C’ or ‘P’ in the Russian acronym – it’s just the Cyrillic alphabet letters for SSSR
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 11:00 am
Scott says:
Some people might have been drawn to the Act party but Don Brash, maybe in an attempt to gain the hippie vote, has decided to put out a clarion call to legalise marijuana. Hardly the stuff to attract most Christians, whether of the right or the left politically.
Get fucked (or go watch some porn), Don Brash called for a discussion on the decriminalisation of marijuana because he believes in it, not because he wants to pander to hippies or compromise because some religious bigots think it’s God’s own will that marijuana should remain taboo. In fact, any party that wishes to attract Christians will only end up having retarded policies.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
“Get fucked (or go watch some porn), Don Brash called for a discussion on the decriminalisation of marijuana because he believes in it, not because he wants to pander to hippies or compromise because some religious bigots think it’s God’s own will that marijuana should remain taboo. In fact, any party that wishes to attract Christians will only end up having retarded policies.”
Courage wolf — is there a prize for the most abusive anti-Christian blogger? Because you would take it nine times out of 10. And that is saying something because you do have some competition.
Actually you do need help — I mean seriously. Ask yourself why do you always react with fury and venom and vitriol? Spiritually — you need help. I don’t say that to be mean to you. But there is something in you that rages against things of God. You need to pray and ask for help. I cannot believe that you will have any peace until you do. Again I am not saying this to be mean to you. I’m saying this out of kindness.
Vote:– Scott
October 28th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Hardly. Obama is Clinton redux with a dose of Dubya added to the mix, and definitely hails from the right wing of the Democrats.
Vote:October 28th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Presume for this instance that God is real. Will praying change the fact that my dead family and friends who did not believe in Him are in Hell, supposedly for all eternity in suffering?
Ironic to be talking about fury and venom, when the rage I express is via keyboard – whereas the vengeance taken out on once living human beings by an authoritarian ‘God’ is much harsher and crueler with very ‘real’ and everlasting implications.
If someone kidnapped and tortured your wife and kids, would you be able to find peace by praying to me? And they would probably kill them at the end of it. According to Jesus, those who are unsaved are with the worm in the pit, where their teeth do not stop gnashing and where the fire does not burn out.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2013:42&version=NIV
If say we replace this figurative ‘God’ with a dictator in a third world country. Would you still act as this dictator’s apologist and ask the people who hate him to pray to him and ask for peace? It would be ridiculous. Then you know what it’s like from my perspective.
Vote:October 29th, 2011 at 1:16 am
Scott – The delusions that live within that head of yours about the imaginary sky father really need to stop. It’s quite embarrassing. Your beliefs are of far greater hatred and distain of the non-believers than anything myself, Courage Wolf or any of the other realists on this blog have ever said to you and your ilk.
Parliament does not need the type of person like Colin Craig inflicting our ears with his closed minded “god knows best” ideology claptrap. We get enough of the same statist drivvle from the left with the “state knows best” rubbish. They are all one and the same and we should be encouraging them out of politics not electing them.
Vote:October 29th, 2011 at 8:05 am
Yes it is true that that there was a short lived Conservative party in the 90′s but as to the Christian party connection I am sure he is drawing a bit of a long bow. Is John saying they are the same if not similar to Christian heritage and the Christian Coliaition?
Hmmm, I am pretty sure the Conservative party said they weren’t a Christian party due to the lack of them saying that they are a Christian party unlike say Christian coalition or Christian heritage. Maybe Colin was a member of these parties? He said that he has never joined a political party so he is either liar (not very Christian) or he is not connected to these parties. However maybe it is the Conservative party membership to which John is referring to?
I am sure they do have Christian members. In fact 50% of New Zealanders say they are Christian. So I am sure it is hard to form a political party in New Zealand without at least a couple of pesky Christians. Gosh, in our democratic society we have to represent all the minorities….
If that is the definition of a Christian party then Labour and National must be fundamentalist(I thinks the word used in this context means people with extreme views for which I disagree with and don’t need to explain why) Christian parties….(David Cunliff & Bill English to name a couple).
I heard that Colin doesn’t even attend a church….
It seems one doesn’t need to be Christian to be a Conservative or a Conservative to be Christian…
It seems the “ninth run” needs a fact check but then again it is just an opinion piece.
Vote:October 29th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
I can confirm that Colin is a Christian and has spoken at various Church and Church youth group events. He does not attend Church because, as most Pharisees (i.e. Christian leaders or people like Lee01), he doesn’t like tithes and offerings and prefers to store up treasures for himself here on Earth. He is against homosexuality because he believes it to be unnatural. Other than his retarded views on the existence of sky fairies I’ve met him and he’s a nice person. But still retarded.
Vote:October 31st, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Courage wolf what you are saying is that he disagrees with you that makes him retarded.
That is a strong argument and very tolerant of you. My understanding of a definition of a “retard” was a person with impaired thinking/mental illness. If you can’t put up a strong argument against a person’s views does that mean you have impaired thinking?
I am sure your a nice person after all you said yourself that you attend church services…
Vote:March 3rd, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Christian Heritage Graham Capill Leader Party
Vote:March 27th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
David you didnt’ say why John took those four months off.
John weren’t you a political consultant for Graeme Lee/Christian Democrats/Christian Coalition in 1996? It seems that you views have changed markedly since then.
Vote: