5.40PM: A spokesperson for Destiny Church says reports that its leader, Brian Tamaki, has had a change of heart towards homosexuals are based on historically false reporting of the preacher's positions on gays. Brian Tamaki In today's Sunday Star Times preview of a documentary to be screened on TV3 this Thursday, the paper says that Tamaki has "adopted a greater openness and cites conversations he has had with airline cabin stewards as proof." Tamaki's strident anti-gay stance has included highly choreographed street marches in Wellington and Auckland against the 2004 Civil Unions bill, and criticism of the influence of homosexuals on society. Responding to GayNZ.com's query as to whether opposition to gays and homosexuality is a thing of the past, Destiny's Janine Cardno says Tamaki has not made any new statements and that any reports of a changed attitude are purely aimed at promoting the broadcast of the documentary. Cardno says Tamaki has always maintained that he "has never disliked or hated people... he's been misrepresented in the past, he's not the person he's made out to be." She questions not only the implications in the Sunday Star Times piece but its timing as well. "That documentary was filmed three years ago, it was finished eighteen months ago, and I question why it is being screened now, when they know that he is out of the country on sabbatical."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 13th July 2008 - 5:39pm