When I had a look at Destiny Church's "Enough is Enough" lineup, something interesting caught my eye. There appears to be a US Christian Right linkage to the forthcoming escapade. Reverend Tavale Mataia looks somewhat innocuous, and is associated with Auckland's Abundant Life Church, where he is noted as a Samoan Pentecostal minister of some time. Okay, so why should we be concerned about this grandfatherly Samoan minister? Because of his past associations. In 1986, Rev.Mataia attended something called the International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam. One of the featured speakers was one Bill Bright, from "Campus Crusade for Christ." Bright's CCC is responsible for running "ex-gay" adverts in student and other newspapers, as well as Leadership University. According to one US student newspaper article (cited below), this antigay Christian website is littered with articles from the National Association for Research and Treatment of Homosexuality (NARTH) and Exodus, both upfront "ex-gay" groups. To my knowledge, CCC never succeeded in planting one of its subsidiaries on a New Zealand campus, although Mataia is also associated with Promise Keepers New Zealand and Parenting With Confidence's Ian Grant. It looks indirect, but given modern communication technology, how can we be sure that this predatory US Christian Right organisation restricted its contacts with Rev.Mataia to the eighties? Or that it isn't informing Destiny New Zealand's current antigay crusade? Craig Young - 17th August 2004