Gordon Copeland MP In the National Library, I sat down and perused two books by the dreary duet of the newly formed Future New Zealand party, Gordon Copeland MP and parliamentary wannabe Larry Baldock. Copeland's Faith That Works (1988) was more entertaining. With the odd exception like Bernard Moran, whose wife Annetta is a fundamentalist, the New Zealand Catholic Right keeps much to itself, in outfits like Family Life International and Right to Life New Zealand. Copeland is still dedicated to conservative Catholic/fundamentalist co-belligerency, though. Why is this? Well, Copeland was born Pentecostal in 1936, and only converted to Catholicism in 1972. With that background, he's had a long period of collaboration with fundamentalists over issues like the "March for Jesus" in 1972, and assisted former UFNZ colleague Bernie Ogilvy to establish Youth With A Mission that same year. He is a great spanking fan, enthusiastically advocating it for child rearing for over three pages. Surprisingly, the book is almost free of conservative Christian moralising, but full of Pentecostal/charismatic Catholic spirituality and gobbledegook. For example, Copeland spotted a topless woman near a swimming pool in Bangkok, and was beset by spiritual beings in his hotel room. He rebuked them, probably because they were making fun of someone who could wear polyester in that climate. "Eastern mysticism" and Maori spirituality are the product of "demonic entities" (although to be fair to Gordon, he does acknowledge past colonial injustices in this country too). Rationalism is the flipside of this "great deception", while "Satan is a reality" and we are all "enslaved by sin." (I suppose we should be grateful he didn't enthusiastically use the word 'bondage' like other Pentecostals).' Larry Baldock tries to convince the rest of us that he's not a fundamentalist fanatic obsessed with enforcing sectarian fundamentalist 'morality' on us non-believers. Thus, he provided reading notes, prologues and epilogues for Stephen Monsma, a centrist US evangelical politician, to try and convince us not all fundamentalists are hardcore rightwingers. Problem is, Laz ends up in a trap of his own making. Reading this now is great fun, given Baldock's acrimonious split with UFNZ. UFNZ 'was not' fundamentalist, and could not be said to represent the wider Christian community. Monsma makes some useful points by pointing out that while moralist politics are prescriptive, social justice politics are broadly based coalition activities that are more pluralistic. Baldock tries to make an argument out that campaigning against decriminalisation of sex work was therefore reliant on 'social justice.' Nope. While some conservative feminists thought so, the feminist movement was divided over that issue, and some more progressive feminists strongly supported decriminalisation because retention of criminal status might have maintained levels of assault and homicide against sex workers. Baldock finishes the book by rabbiting on about the divinely ordained nature of heterosexual marriage and conservative straight gender role playing in fundamentalist couples. And ironically, while Monsma devoted most of his original book to social justice issues, Baldock ends with outright lies from Bush's 'welfare reform and families' spokesperson Wade Horn, about how administration benefit slashing and matrimania has not endangered women's lives through forcing them to remain in abusive marriages, and how money is not being wasted on useless fundamentalist 'marriage promotion' schemes. Finally, he provides a list of "Christian" organisations. Of these, only Amnesty International, World Vision and End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism could be said to pursue social justice causes. The others are the usual Christian Right anti-justice pack of anti-abortion fanatics, pro-censorship zealots, homophobes, religious sectarians and other wretched hard right 'true believers.' Less than dynamic? The duet only have a year left in Parliament, for let us which be truly grateful. Recommended: Gordon Copeland: Faith That Works: Lower Hutt: Barnabas Christian Trust: 1988. Larry Baldock and Stephen Monsma: Pursuing Justice in A Sinful World: Auckland: Lifeway Trust: 2005. Craig Young - 5th June 2007