Second chance for fraudsters, dope-growers
This week was the Census, and we were all invited to answer the question, what is your religion? It is likely the results will reveal a continued decline in the proportion of New Zealanders who identify as ‘‘Christian’’, roughly matched by the increase in those who tick ‘‘no religion’’.
Really, the church has only itself to blame. Some strands of Christianity have become so riven by sectarianism and fundamentalism that the rest of the world – and indeed, many Christians – have forgotten what they once stood for.
Donald Trump and his Southern Baptist supporters characterise Islam as the home of radicalism, but there are fringe churches that are more fundamentalist than 99 per cent of Muslims.
There is something refreshing, then, in telling the story today of Father Lio Rotor, who has been readmitted to the Catholic priesthood after years on the outside. He had been defrocked for having an affair with a married woman, his friend’s wife no less.
Few New Zealanders would be the least concerned at the breach of his vows of chastity; to most of us, enforced celibacy is a bizarrely medieval construct.
Most would perceive his greater crime to be hypocrisy: he was a canon lawyer in the church’s matrimonial tribunal, enforcing the church’s laws on marital fidelity.
What we might all welcome is the Catholic Church’s expression of that most fundamental of Christian values, forgiveness. In allowing Rotor’s return, Bishop of Auckland Patrick Dunn reminds us that Christianity was founded on a belief in redemption.
Some might say this shows the Church is moving with the times; others might equally legitimately argue that the Church is going back to its inclusive roots.
It comes after the Canterbury Diocese of the Anglican Church voted last weekend for its priests to be allowed to bless same-sex marriages. Again, a reflection of the doctrine of inclusion preached by the early church, rather than the fire and brimstone of the Old Testament.
For the increasing numbers of New Zealanders who no longer identify with Christianity or any other religion, this raises the question of the place of forgiveness in wider civil society. In the language of the laity, do people deserve a second chance?
This is an opportune moment to come to the defence of our columnist Damien Grant, one of New Zealand’s top liquidators who now finds himself the bete noir of commerce and consumer affairs minister Kris Faafoi’s Insolvency Practitioners Bill. As we report today, Faafoi wants to hound from the industry whose who cannot pass his fit-and-proper person test – potentially requiring that those with criminal convictions must get special dispensation to practise.
As a young man, Grant did jail time for fraud. But since then, he has rebuilt his life and founded a business that employs 15 people.
He is painfully transparent, disclosing his past in his StarTimes column and often when he meets a potential client.
So too the convicted dope growers who are cultivating medicinal cannabis for Hikurangi Hemp – that company should be applauded for supporting their rehabilitation; instead it faces added regulatory scrutiny.
Many of us struggle to trust those who profess to be purer than pure. Revelations of impropriety by fiery preachers like Jimmy Swaggart and politician Dan Johnson – so influential in conservative US politics – show few indeed are squeaky clean.
It’s better to celebrate openness and second chances. As someone wise once said, let he who has not sinned throw the first stone.