If it’s 18 years since Brian Tamaki marched his posturing homophobes down Lambton Quay, then that would make it 18 years since I was writing a book about the prospects for our brave little nation entitled Civil War and Other Optimistic Predictions.
For authorial purposes I stood and watched their Bri-Curious parade, then went and interviewed the man, the myth, the Reverend. Accompanied of course by Hannah, the brains of the outfit, never mind all that patriarchal posturing.
The following Sunday I was there for a meandering three hour sermon that name-checked various wrongdoers and demons. The congregation would come alive at the denunciation of addictions and their peddlers. But the political stuff? Yeah nah. The political stuff was the drum solo people politely applauded.
