Christians and politics

There has been some talk in the blogosphere that the reason United Future's vote went down and Christian Heritage and Destiny's vote was non-existent was because some groups such as the Maxim Institute were campaigning that Christian parties were history- and that includes United Future.

It is a fact that most Christian leaders in this country do not support Christian parties. That includes the Exclusive Brethren, Maxim, Vision NZ and many church denominations.

While I do think Christian parties are history in NZ in terms of getting into Parliament, United Future is not a pro-Christian party any more than Labour is an anti-Christian party, and Maxim never claimed that it was. I wouldn’t be surprised if the folks at Maxim encouraged their supporters to vote for a party that was likely to get more than five percent of the threshhold, encouraging voters to make their vote count. I am aware that many church leaders encouraged people to vote for parties that were likely to make the threshhold . Perhaps that contributed to the reduction of the "wasted vote". Perhaps the "wasted vote" can now be attributed, in great part, to those who vote for the Aotearoa Legalize Cannabis Party.

I am not aware of any churches/Christian leaders apart from within CHNZ and Destiny who either campaigned or publically supported a Christian party. Why would they? Privately, many discouraged Christian party support.

If anyone believes that a Christian party will gain parliamentary representation in New Zealand, they are deluded and they don’t understand New Zealand politics.