by James Jacob Prasch
August 2004

Some years ago in the company of the late evangelist Barry Smith I spoke at the predominantly Maori. church of Brian Tamaki , in Rotorua, NZ .

At that time I warned against going the way of the American and South African tele-evangelist money preachers. My warnings were needless to say unheeded.

Now Brian Tamaki has imitated Australia 's Andrew Evans and John Lewis in seeking political office in a down under version of American tele-evangelist and ecumenical false prophet and scandal guru Pat Robertson.

No one doubts Christians should be salt and light and bring a moral influence to government and stand on moral issues such as abortion and same sex marriage. Politics however cannot change society in a godly direction. Only the gospel can. But to gain votes from other religions, the gospel must be politically compromised. This has become so bad that former Evangelicals like J I Packer and Chuck Colson endorsed Roman Catholic Peter Kreeft's book 'Ecumenical Jihad' calling for ecumenical union not only with Rome, but with Islam to morally redeem society.

In America this has not worked well. Billy Graham, by his own admission, discredited himself when he endorsed Nixon, only for the corruption of Nixon to come to light in the Watergate scandal. The false prophetic predictions of a political nature combined with the African business venture scandal that nearly saw Robertson indicted and his sale of a Christian broadcasting ministry which was begun with the contributions of 700 Christians, to Rupert Murdoch for $100 million pocketed by Robertson and his son has not helped either the Christian church or America .

To gain political momentum and support, the gospel must be compromised. Thus Robertson signed Chuck Colson's 'Evangelicals and Catholics Together' betrayal (effectively agreeing not to evangelise Roman Catholics). Bush/Reagan supporter Jerry Falwell went even further, calling Korean cult leader and convicted felon, Sun Yung Moon, an "Unsung hero" despite Moon claiming to be 'Lord of The Second Advent" (the returned Christ)and his late wife as 'The Holy Spirit'. Only backslidden false prophets pay homage to anti christs. On the political left, Rev. Jesse Jackson was caught using funds raised for his charity 'Rainbow Coalition" to help poor blacks to pay a lucrative salary to the mother of the child he secretly sired out of wedlock in an adulterous relationship. Not much of an example and role model to Black American youth with two out of three American Blacks now being born out of wedlock.

On the political left similarly, in an interview in the presence of thousands of Evangelical pastors, Bill Hybels failed to challenge then president Bill Clinton over Clinton's twice vetoing the congressional ban on partial birth abortion. After September 11th, Hybels invited a Moslem cleric to his pulpit to explain Islam. Back on the political right, George Bush, whose administration is beholden to oil interests, calls ‚   Saudi Arabia and the Wahab regime of The House of Saud that beheads Christians and funds the Islamic extremism that breeds support for terror ' our friends", and has called for Israel to give up some of its God given land in order to placate the Saudi butchers at the behest of the oil conglomerates, and calls Islam 'a religion of peace' and says 'allah is the same God as the one worshipped by Christians and Jews.

We live in an age of political prostitution of the church.

This has been amplified by the growth of the unbiblical doctrines of post millennial dominion theology and calvinistic reconstructionism. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. The ugly history of radical unionist too often politics unable to distinguish between hatred of Catholicism and hatred of Catholics is the very legacy ‚   of Northern Irish political
protestantism.

This trend now has arrived in Australia and New Zealand . While I do respect Australia Prime Minister John Howard, Australian Politicians are seeking the endorsement of money preacher Brian Houston of the Hill Song hype artistry.

As Andrew Evans and John Lewis go from being pulpit politicians to just plain politicians, we must ask how such men can be trusted or respected as capable of restoring integrity to government when they failed to uphold integrity in the church with their promulgation of money preachers and deceptions such as the Toronto con?

Brian Tamaki leads an August 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH' march on New Zealand's capital opposing same sex marriage, but if he believes in the sanctity of marriage, how does he justify his bringing Elim's serial adulterer and Toronto Experience promoter, Ian Bilby (who is divorced and now with a new wife) into ministry again? The bible states The Lord's ministers are to be above reproach - not serial adulterers. If Bilby really repented, why did he remarry unbiblically and why , since he is not above public reproach, stay out of ministry? Why does Brian Tamaki defy God's standards in the church but think he can make a difference in upholding morality in the political spectrum.

Moriel urges prayer for our political leaders and would like to see Christians bringing a moral influence into government, but not at the expense of its first mission which is to evangelise and make disciples.

Moreover, how can the Evangelical church be an instrument of bringing righteousness into government when its own leaders with these political ambitions not only tolerate, but propagate unrighteousness in what is suppose to be The Body of Christ? In other words, looking at the actions of men like Andrew Evans and Brian Tamaki: 'Is it about righteousness or is it about using naive and undiscerning Christians to get political power"?

Indeed: "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"!