Bill Berkowitz

OAKLAND, California, Sep 12 2005 (IPS) — A little bit of U.S. “traditional family values politics” is shaking up the upcoming elections in New Zealand.

A secretive Evangelical Protestant Christian church that contributed to U.S. Pres. George W. Bush’s re-election campaign in November 2004, and whose members are forbidden to vote, has injected itself into the general election scheduled for Sep. 17.

The future of New Zealand’s military, the ban on nuclear ships and the country’s relationship with the U.S. are all at stake in the poll.

The church, which some have called a “cult”, is being charged by both the Green and Labour Parties with spending more than 500,000 dollars funding an anti-government leaflet campaign and supporting the conservative National Party.

According to published reports, the Exclusive Brethren are responsible for the distribution of a series of pamphlets claiming that New Zealand has undergone a severe moral decline under Prime Minister Helen Clark’s Labour Party, and promoting the National Party, under the leadership of Dr. Don Brash.

“While the picture is continuing to emerge, at this stage we know that a group of seven Exclusive Brethren businessmen are admitting to using 500,000 dollars of their own money to fund the nationwide distribution of a group of pamphlets attacking the government of Helen Clark,” Alastair Thompson, a co-editor of Scoop.Co.NZ, told IPS in an email interview.

“Each of the pamphlets issued so far has been issued under the cover of a front organisation and none of them refer to the involvement of the Exclusive Brethren Church,” said Thompson.

“The men involved publicly claim that the church is not involved and that it is a personal initiative by them. However, there is evidence emerging that an instruction has been given to congregation members to assist in National’s campaign and that Exclusive Brethren members have been involved in the erection and maintenance of hoardings.”

The war in Iraq appears to be among the issues raised during the campaign. Evidently, Brash has said that he would have done what Pres. Bush did, while Clark opposes the war.

This is not the group’s first intervention in New Zealand’s politics, Thompson pointed out.

“In April of this year, the group was involved in an effort to change New Zealand’s defence policy,” he said.

According to Scoop.co.nz, a pamphlet entitled “A Wake-Up Call for New Zealanders” was widely distributed, following two half-page advertisements in major newspapers that advocated building up the New Zealand military, repealing the ban on nuclear ships, and developing closer relations with the U.S.

“Despite their conscientious objector status and non-voting principles, this campaign originated with the Exclusive Brethren, and echoed policies advocated by the National Party before the beginning of the election campaign,” Scoop noted.

Other recent pamphlets were aimed at portraying the ruling Labour government as anti-family and out of touch with traditional family values.

Two, titled “The Green Delusion” and “Healthcare, Who Cares?”, warned voters that the Green Party planned to “Disarm our forces,” “Decriminalise illegal drugs,” and “Create ‘rainbow’ communities”.

According to GayYNZ.com, the Greens were “waiting to hear back after complaining to the Chief Electoral Officer that the leaflets breach the Electorate Act”.

On Sep. 7, the New Zealand Labour Party issued a press release fingering “seven businessmen who à [as] members of the Exclusive Brethren Church admitted they were responsible for the leaflet campaign”.

It release said a former member of the Exclusive Brethren acknowledged “the church has been visiting National Party MPs to discuss election issues, and we have reports of Brethren Church members helping the National Party to erect hoardings and to carry out telephone canvassing”.

What is the Exclusive Brethren, and why are they seeking to influence New Zealand politics?

The group first arrived in New Zealand in 1853, and may have as many as 2,000 members in the country. It has a long list of forbidden activities, including watching television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers or fiction, using computers, the internet or mobile phones, remarrying after divorce, going to college, running for political office, voting in elections or serving in the armed forces.

It also does not allow members to socialise with outsiders, prohibiting members from living in the same apartment building as outsiders or even sharing a driveway with non-members.

It also forbids members from visiting other churches, joining any other religious organization, joining a trade union, joining a professional association or joining any group that includes people outside the Exclusive Brethren.

“Their belief is that they cannot be holy unless they’re exclusive or cut out from the world of evil,” Massey University associate professor of religion Peter Lineham told one local reporter. He also pointed out that the “world of evil” included anyone outside off the Exclusive Brethren religion. Non-members are called “worldlies”.

While the Exclusive Brethren have no ordained clergy, the group does have a leader who “is regarded as a person of inherent moral power”. They advocate very simple worship with no ritual and no particular form of services, and women may not preach or even pray aloud.

As with many other groups on the Religious Right, the Exclusive Brethren believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, that people are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ, and that Christ will return soon.

While the Exclusive Brethren generally eschew political involvement, the group did play a role in the U.S. presidential election campaign in 2004, when, according to Wikipedia, the Exclusive Brethren “held prayer meetings and donated money” to Pres. Bush’s re-election campaign.

An Exclusive Brethren committee in Florida raised 530,000 dollars for the reelection of Bush and to elect Republican Mel Martinez to the U.S. Senate. According to a Federal Elections Commission report, 377,262 dollars of this amount came from one donor, Bruce Hazel, from England. The FEC report said that none of the Exclusive Brethren-raised money came from inside of the state.

Unlike its more successful involvement in Florida’s election, the Exclusive Brethren’s New Zealand pamphleteering may have done more to hurt the National Party’s chances than help it.

After denying knowledge of who was behind the pamphlets during a radio interview on Sep. 6, two days later on Auckland’s Radio BFM, the National Party’s Brash confirmed that he had met with the Exclusive Brethren and that he knew about the pamphlet campaign.

“I knew they were going to issue some pamphlets attacking the government. And I said ‘that’s tremendous’ – I’m delighted about that because the government is lousy and should be changed,” Brash said.

“As of 10am this morning [Sep. 9] its intervention has been stunningly disastrous for the National Party,” Alastair Thompson told IPS. “The National Party’s leader, Don Brash, now appears to be a lame duck candidate for Prime Minister thanks to his flip-flopping over whether he knew about the pamphlet campaign.”

*Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement. His WorkingForChange column “Conservative Watch” documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories and defeats of the U.S. Right.