By Rebecca Wright
Seven hundred Destiny Church men have undertaken an oath pledging their allegiance to Bishop Brian Tamaki, making them his spiritual sons.
To his critics, Brian Tamaki is a fundamentalist whose brand of Christianity springs from the dark ages. But to his supporters he is Bishop Brian and as of Sunday, he is now their king.
Andrew, who did not want his real name or identity known, went to Destiny Church undercover to witness a special event just for men.
He joined 700 others, all of whom paid $30 to attend this covenant oath ceremony, but who were encouraged to spend much more than that.
Then it was the main event, the ceremony itself.
The swearing of an oath followed, which includes some of the following rules to live by
- Always speak of Bishop Brian in a favourable and positive light
- When Bishop is speaking all others stop.
- Never openly disagree with Bishop in front of others.
- If seated with Bishop at a table wait until he has started eating before you do.
- In a sign of love and respect for Bishop surprise him with gifts.
Mark Vrankovich of Cultwatch says he is seeing a distinctive change in Tamaki’s preaching .
“You control relationships, you indoctrinate them and over time if you have a group that praise one man and he starts drifting into strange practices, the whole group will go with him,” he says.
Tamaki refused to be interviewed by 3 News but did appear on TV One’s Close Up.
“If we are a cult then the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Baptists and the Pentecostals are all cults as well, because we have the same orthodox tenets of belief,” says Tamaki.
Vrankovich says it is not the beliefs that are concerning, rather it is the practices of the church which are the problem.
3 News