The Brethren

Okay lets see if I have the chain of events right.

Around a couple of years ago the Exclusive Brethren decided that the Government was bad/evil etc. Now they don’t vote themselves as they believe God chooses the Government, not men. But obviously decided they needed to send God a message.

In an aside, it reminds me of the joke about the Rabbi who keeps complaining to God that he never wins Lotto. Finally after weeks of complaining God retorts back to the Rabbi that it would help if he met him half way and actually purchased a ticket 🙂

So having decided to help God out, they met with MPs from every party, and they realised that the only alternative to the current Government is a National-led Government.

Now personally if I was Exclusive Brethren, I’m not sure how much of an improvement my God would regard PM Don Brash who supports civil unions, gay adoption, a drinking age of 18 and prostitution law reform. But God moves in mysterious ways!

But they decided it would be an improvement. So they met Don Brash and said we want to get rid of the Government. Excellent I am sure would be the reply. And they said we are planning to do some pamphlets. Again Excellent would be the reply. I’ve never heard of an MP discouraging a group from campaigning against their opponents.

As far as I know from statements made, the pamphlets were not designed then, were not shown at the meeting or even discussed in detail. So hence when these pamphlets appeared, it was not known whether they were the pamphlets mentioned by the EB, even though it was of course possible.

One can debate whether one should have said, “I don’t know who put these out, but it may be the Exclusive Brethren as they mentioned they were planning pamphlets of some sort” but making an allegation like that could set off a firestorm. Again one could also debate whether one should have told the EB “Oh if you do pamphlets make sure you are upfront about producing them” but then you have the situation of National then being seen to have actively advised them.

So to a large degree whatever one did, you risked being caught up in a messy situation. It really would have been desirable for the EB to have announced upfront they were producing the pamphlets because they don’t like the Government.

The NZ Herald has a roundup of the situation here and the editorial has some good advice for the EB, National, Labour and the Greens.