Conservative Christians regroup for God and country

Conservative Christians are regrouping for next year's election, as new polling reveals a significant pool of potential Christian voters. Ruth Laugesen reports.
RESEARCH DOCUMENT

Bob McCoskrie is the likeable, plain-speaking face of Family First, who helped lead the country in three minutes of silence for tortured child Nia Glassie on Wednesday.

Less well known is that McCoskrie is a former Radio Rhema broadcaster with a plan to turn pro-family, Christian messages into a force at next year's election.

Working with other pro-family groups, McCoskrie says he will launch "Vote for Family", a project to expose the voting records of all 121 sitting MPs on key moral issues such as the prostitution legalisation bill, the civil union bill and the anti-smacking bill.

"We're looking at some of the bills we think have weakened families. It tells a story just on the research we've done already, McCoskrie says.

"We'll be releasing it next year. We're keeping the gun loaded."

McCoskrie comes from the increasingly energetic Christian right, who have worked hard since the rise of MMP to find their political voice. His website will allow voters to reward or punish candidates based on their voting record on key issues, and he won't say which party is likely to come out on top.

Last election the secretive Exclusive Brethren famously helped botch National's campaign by trying to smuggle their pro-National message out through anonymous advertising.

This time around Christians on the right are regrouping in the hope of a less disastrous result.

And their voice, while muted so far, may have greater potential than the pundits have recognised.

New polling by the Sunday Star-Times has found 15 per cent of voters say they would be likely to support a new party based on Christian moral values at the next election, with 6 per cent of that group saying they are "almost certain" to vote for such a party.

The poll also found that the appeal of broader Christian-based policies goes well beyond the hardcore that would support a Christian party. One-third of those surveyed said they wanted to see the main political parties in New Zealand adopt policies "that more closely reflect traditional Christian values".

Of that group, 13 per cent said they strongly supported such policies.

Soft voters unsure who they would vote for next election, who made up 14 per cent of the poll, were those most likely to say they were interested in Christian policies or a Christian party.

While Christian values range across the political spectrum - from Jesus' message of social justice on the left through to the ardent Old Testament moralism of the far right - it is the Christian right that has been most politically active because of its frustration over what is currently on offer.

In 2002 National leader Don Brash tried to snare conservative Christian votes with his opposition to the Civil Union bill and with his attack on Helen Clark's approach to marriage.

This coming election, National leader John Key is signalling a more detached relationship with the right-wing Christian vote. He incurred the wrath of Family First and other Christian groups by riding to the rescue of Sue Bradford's anti-smacking bill.

And he says National is a broad-based party that develops policy on secular lines. However he says the principles the party was founded on were Christian values such as "the strong principles of family and good values and respect for the community".

Key is an agnostic, and has said it is "impossible to know" if God exists. He says the Exclusive Brethren's involvement last election was "damaging, in so much as it wasn't transparent".

"In so far that there is an unacceptable breakdown of that transparency, I think it was not healthy for the National Party. Frankly, I have no relationship with the Exclusive Brethren and as leader I intend to have no relationship," Key says.

He says he has never met McCoskrie that he knows of, but that New Zealanders will support his organisation's right to have a say "as long as people understand who they are".

Unlike Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who is campaigning on a strong pro-family, pro-marriage platform, Key doesn't think marriage necessarily provides a superior environment for raising kids to defacto relationships.

"I think for a lot of couples, a defacto relationship makes sense at a certain stage in their relationship, and for a great many that will evolve into a formalised marriage as we know it. But for some it never will, and it's whatever suits the particular couple," he says.

"We have friends in pretty much every range of potential definition of a family you like, and they've all proven they can have great outcomes," he says. "I think loving parents and the traditional family unit is probably the best institution that we have in one regard, but I'm not going to be overly judgemental. Families come in all shapes and sizes in New Zealand."

Key doesn't think government policies should support the institution of marriage per se, but that National does want to support the family unit. That means economic policies that ensure families have a sound financial base, and housing affordability so couples can buy their own home.

Labour Party president Mike Williams says he is not surprised by the poll's findings of a significant potential pool of Christian voters, given that the Christian Coalition nearly crossed the 5 per cent threshold with 4.3 per cent of the vote in 1996.

However he says Labour already speaks to the one-third of voters who say they want to see traditional Christian values picked up by the major parties, and always has. Labour leader Michael Joseph Savage used to describe Labour's policies as "applied Christianity".

These days, says Williams, the party doesn't use the word Christian, but "it's social justice, looking after the outcasts in society, supporting families, all of those things that National gives lip service to but doesn't actually do."

Ahead of the 2008 election, several potential Christian parties are emerging. Leading the pack is defecting United Future MP Gordon Copeland, who plans to launch Future New Zealand in November with co-leader Larry Baldock.

Another player is Destiny New Zealand, which got a minuscule vote last election. Leader Richard Lewis says he wants to talk to Copeland about combining forces to form a "broad Christian-based vehicle" before Christmas, and that his party does not want to stand against Future New Zealand and split the Christian vote.

While independent MP Taito Phillip Field has his own ambitions for a Pacific Christian political party, 14 bribery and corruption-related charges stand in his way.

McCoskrie's own blunt assessment is that it will be "an uphill battle" for Copeland to make it across the punishing 5 per cent threshold, because of concern by voters their vote may be wasted.

He says any Christian party will get a narrow vote only, whereas a party that was "pro-family, pro the role of parents, some of the traditional values, you would probably get an even stronger reaction".

He says pro-life and pro-family groups will gather for a New Zealand Forum on the Family in October, at which they will develop plans for election year.

Family First has no plans to run candidates and they have no links with an Australian Christian-based political party called Family First. McCoskrie's organisation "is a voice for family, it's not a voice for Christianity but you're right, people involved in it have a Christian background".

The organisation's website promotes marriage and the traditional family unit. It also says men and women are equally to blame for domestic violence and that schoolgirls should not be vaccinated with a cervical cancer vaccine because it could be unsafe for a child's moral character.

McCoskrie says the most worrying obstacle they face is Labour's proposed new electoral laws, that would put a $60,000 cap on how much they could spend in the leadup to the next election. That would severely limit their ability to advertise, distribute brochures and speak out.

"We want to encourage good open robust debate in New Zealand. Political correctness has stifled that a little bit," he says.

"What we're starting to tap into... there are many people out there who may not be regular church attenders who are concerned about the moral breakdown, they're concerned about standards in the media in terms of violence and sexual content, they're concerned about violence in the community, they're concerned about the breakdown of marriages."

RELIGION IN POLITICS

We asked members of four different congregations whether mainstream political parties should reflect traditional Christian values more closely in their policies, and whether they would consider voting for a Christian party at the next election.

Aimee Walker, 25, Elim Church, Auckland

"I'd like to see more Christian values affecting current political policies, particularly in regard to marriage and family and the importance we give it. These days we don't really differentiate between people who want to make a commitment and those who don't. "Statistics on child abuse, where children are with their biological parents, is so much lower," Walker says. "I disagreed with the prostitution bill, not just as a Christian, but as a woman. It was a sad day when we legalised women being used in an industry like that."

Walker voted United Future in 2002. However she would now vote National, saying she can relate to both John Key and Bill English.

"I struggle to relate to Helen Clark because we don't see much of her private persona," she says.

Walker says she would be unlikely to vote for a Christian political party, because she thinks a party needs to have a broader platform than purely a Christian perspective.

Richard Willis, 58, Lower Hutt Baptist Church

Willis says too many Christians are preoccupied by a narrow range of ethical and moral issues, such as abortion and homosexuality, which do not reflect the breadth of the Bible's message.

"Jesus talked far more about poverty and injustice and feeding the hungry," he says. Willis says he votes for parties that address social justice and poverty, although he won't say which ones.

"On the anti-smacking bill, I found the idea of Bishop Tamaki and a whole lot of other right-wing Christians protesting abhorrent. For me, Sue Bradford's bill was incredibly well-motivated, because if it's not the role of government to protect the weakest members of society, I don't know what is." He says Christians are a minority who should not try to impose their moral views on the rest of the population through legislation.

He would be unlikely to vote for a Christian party "because it would be more likely to be a morally conservative party that would try and impose their view through legislation".

Titilia Fihaki, 65, Wesleyan Methodist Church, Auckland

"I would support any party that would uphold Christian values. Recently parliament passed the anti-smacking bill. I was against the passing of that bill. By doing that we are causing damage to family life. It will cause hatred within the heart of the family."

She voted Labour in 2002, despite being unhappy with the heavy support Labour MPs gave to the civil union bill and the decriminalisation of prostitution.

Would she consider voting for a Christian party in 2008? "I would, but these days some people are just using that to get into politics. I look for people that I know personally and think I could trust," she says. She doesn't think she'd vote for independent MP Phillip Field if he started a Christian-based party. And she continues to support Labour, despite the anti-smacking bill.

"They seem to understand our way better, the island people, they take time to come here. We are very, very happy in many ways with health, education and many other areas."

Terry Dunleavy, 78, Catholic Church, Auckland

Dunleavey is a National Party member unmoved by former leader Don Brash's efforts to reach out to the Christian vote. Dunleavy thinks the new National leader John Key is more in step with Christian values. "I believe John Key in his life and his values reflects much more openly and strongly the Christian values that I hold. He's still married to the same woman. There's no question about his morality or his dedication to family life," says Dunleavy.

"We have seen the degradation of the sanctity of family life and the place of families as the bedrock of our society. I realise that this is as much a moral and a general societal issue as it is of law, but the law in recent years has tended to reduce the standing of marriage," he says.

Dunleavy says he would not vote for a Christian party, as there would be too much risk it would be a wasted vote if the party did not make the 5 per cent threshold.

- © Fairfax NZ News