MAXIM INSTITUTEUncivil religion at the end of the rainbow

• Published date: 23 April 2024
• Author: Josiah Brown, communications co-ordinator Maxim Institute is an independent think tank working to promote the dignity of every person in New Zealand by standing for freedom, justice, compassion, and hope.
• Publication title: Northland Age, The

At least two potential hate crimes have been committed in the past few weeks. Police are investigating graffiti vandalism that “on the face of it… is consistent with a hate crime”

Three members of Destiny Church were charged for defacing a rainbow crossing in Gisborne, while police searched a property in Auckland relating to the vandalism of another rainbow crossing on K Rd. Several ministers rightly condemned these incidents as illegitimate and costly expressions of opinion.

Yet a comparable protest occurred at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa last December when activists painted over the English text of the Treaty of Waitangi. Four months later, the exhibit at Te Papa has not been restored or removed. The museum decided to leave it up to encourage honest conversations.

Contrast that with the immediate action taken to repaint or restore the crossings, and one begins to wonder why essentially the same protest action gets different treatment. If painting over a rainbow crossing is a hate crime, what about burning an Israeli flag as was done in Auckland or attacks on a synagogue in Christchurch? Then again, maybe what matters most is not consistency but the cause.

It would even seem that some MPs from Te Pāti Māori and the Green Party approve of protest vandalism, with photos on social media showing members triumphant in front of the defaced exhibit.

Interestingly, one of those same MPs described the K Rd vandalism as “frankly embarrassing”.

Here’s the underlying question: Should the Government in a modern, secular...