John MacDonald: Do politicians' religious beliefs matter to you?

If the MP for Ilam, Hamish Campbell, thinks he’s going to get away with not saying anything more about his involvement with this underground religious group, then he’s dreaming.   It doesn’t have an official name, but it’s known as the “Two By Twos” and it’s being investigated by the FBI and the police for child abuse.   One of its former ministers here in New Zealand has admitted 55 child sex abuse charges over three decades against young boys and, from what I’ve seen, there are about 2,500 members in New Zealand.   It’s being reported that Hamish Campbell has hosted study meetings at his home in Christchurch – but he’s neither confirming nor denying that.   The thing about the home meetings is that the group doesn’t have official buildings, and so they meet in people’s houses.    An interesting thing is this Christian organisation doesn’t celebrate Christmas and Easter. And it separates itself from other Christian denominations. It’s been around for a while too – it was founded in Ireland in 1897 and has been in New Zealand for about 120 years.   Hamish Campbell has put out a statement, but he’s going to need to do more than that. And then, once he’s at least confirmed that he’s involved and answers a few other basic questions, he should be left alone.  Because if we’re going to condemn Hamish Campbell for being involved with a religious group accused of abusing kids, then you may as well write off any politician connected to the Catholic Church, for example. Because I don’t think it matters what religious beliefs MPs hold.   I’ve never been bothered about Christopher Luxon being an Evangelical Protestant. I don’t care about Simeon Brown being Baptist. And I think my lack of concern about that has been shown to be pretty well-founded.   I haven’t seen any evidence that Luxon and Brown’s religious beliefs are determining their political decision-making.   So here’s what Hamish Campbell has said so far. You might have seen him on the news on TV being approached outside Parliament. He closed the door on the reporter, though, when she asked him about hosting study meetings at his home in Christchurch.   After that report on the news, he sent our newsroom a statement, pretty much reiterating what he said on TV, but still saying nothing about hosting gatherings at his place.   But he says he fully supports the guy who’s calling the group out for abusing kids and that the police are the best people to investigate it. But here’s the bit that shows that Hamish Campbell thinks he doesn’t need to say anything more about it.   In his statement, he says: “My wife and I are non-denominational Christians but my faith is separate from my role as a politician.”   Campbell is a regular guest on Newstalk ZB’s Politics Friday. He’s a very smart guy, worked for about 20 years as a scientist, and he’s a nice guy. He’s not going to set the political world on fire, but nothing about him comes across as particularly creepy or weird.    Getting a straight answer out of him can be a challenge. Which is why, when I saw him on the news last night, I thought he was true to form. But that’s not serving him well on this occasion.   He needs to front up, confirm he’s involved, confirm whether he has meetings at his place or not, and confirm how much he knows about the abuse allegations. Then the people of Ilam can decide how much of an issue this is.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.