The Charities Commission is to start an assessment of the charitable status of Destiny Church after receiving a formal complaint from a member of the public. Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki An assessment is an initial process the Commission undertakes to decide if a formal investigation is required. The complaint, one of 16 it is understood the Commission has received, follows a televised sermon by Destiny's self-appointed leader Brian Tamaki slamming gays as being the cause of the disastrous Christchurch earthquakes. The bizarre claim was characterised as hate speech by many whilst others, including politicians from across the political spectrum, ridiculed Tamaki. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Peter Dunn said he personally felt Destiny should be paying tax. A petition calling on the government to strip Destiny of its tax-free charitable status for inciting hatred of a section of the community has already amassed 120,000 signatures. Trying to calm the public backlash Tamaki tried to back-pedal in a radio interview, claiming that he had not singled out glbti people but had been speaking of sinners in general. However, in the sermon he primarily targeted past MP for Christchurch Central Tim Barnett's spearheading of the Civil Unions legislation as a reason the 'earth convulsed... and spewed itself up.'
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 25th November 2016 - 7:22pm