Media Release
8 November 2007

Anglican Church Should Wait Like The Rest Of Us

The Anglican Church should stay out of politics if they are not prepared to wait for the facts and are prepared to blindly back one side because of their race, says Winston Peters.

Mr Peters was responding to the outrageous stand that the Anglican Church is taking in supporting a Maori Anglican leader who has not waited to hear the evidence in the police raids across the country, not just in Ruatoki, and have rushed to judgement because some of those arrested are Maori.

“The fact is that sadly there are people prepared to do bad things, very bad things in our society and that is why we need anti-terrorism legislation. The fact that some of those who do bad things happen to have brown skin does not make the law discriminatory – the law is colour blind.

“People of all complexions were arrested, but the way the Anglican Church and others bleat on you would think it was an anti - Maori conspiracy.

“Ironically, we don’t hear the Anglican Church supporting those with a paler complexion in their action – just the Maori. Now that is discriminatory.

“It is little wonder that the numbers in the Anglican Church are dwindling if this is the type of nonsense they are prepared to countenance.

“The Anglican Church, like everybody else, should be backing the police to uphold the law. They have made the arrests and now they must deliver on that. Using divisive victim-mentality thinking to condemn police actions simply undermines the rule of law in our country and that is not the role of any responsible church,” concluded Mr Peters.

ENDS

© Scoop Media