Ukraine, Co-Governance and Brian Tamaki

Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
Ukraine, Co-Governance and Brian Tamaki
Monday 11th April 2022

Unimaginable Atrocities

POV. What happened in Bucha in Ukraine last week is beyond belief. These revelations create new challenges for the West. How will Western Nations respond? How will NZ respond? Will the countries that have presented a largely unified front for the last six weeks stick together, or will there be cracks in the facade? It is hard to understand why 24 countries voted against the resolution to ‘remove Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council’ and, can you believe it, 58 countries abstained including South Africa. Here is an insightful 7 minute interview with Helen Clark, former Administrator of the UN Development Programme and of course our former PM.

Let Us Pray. Dear Heavenly Father we ask you today to please intervene in the war between Russia and Ukraine. You can thwart the plans of the enemy. Please do that now. You can confuse the strategies of the aggressor. Please do that now. You can cause the nations of the world to rise up and in a powerful display of unity and stand against the invader. Please do that now. You can give Ukraine and it’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, unusual wisdom and help that comes from above. Please do that now. This we pray in the Victorious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Co-Governance

The current conversations about the new health reforms, Three Waters and He Puapua are very interesting to say the least. The theme of co-Governance are central to these discussions. Here is a useful explainer about He Puapua in case you missed it. It makes an important distinction about equality and equity, a key idea of the report. Yesterday’s Q & A programme spent about 30 minutes on this topic.

“There’s a difference between equality and equity. The George Washington University of Public Health offers this definition: Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognises that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.”

POV. I am still thinking this all through. On the one hand I believe we haven’t stayed faithful to principles of the Treaty of Waitangi on many fronts and that must be addressed. On the other hand I am a strong believer in the fundamental principles of democracy and I worry about different people having different political rights.

I’d be interested in what you think. Just hit reply and fire off a short email. Thanks

Brian Tamaki. Did you see this? Brian Tamaki calls on his followers to ‘lease their vote’ to a new political movement. He then goes on to say that if he had his way he would outlaw all other religions except Christianity in NZ.

Brian I applaud your passion but I worry about how you are expressing it. Would you like to have a chat?

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.