The Christian Nationalism of Alfred Ngaro and NewZeal
There is more to the ideology of Ngaro's party than just Christian values
In June 2023, Pastor Peter Morlock of the City Impact Church, an evangelical congregation, held a ‘Christian Summit on the state of the nation’ to bring together the various Christian political parties (as well as a handful of current and former National Party MPs). Brian and Hannah Tamaki, the leaders of Destiny Church and its political wing Vision New Zealand attended; as did Leighton Baker, the former leader of the New Conservatives who now leads his own “Leighton Baker Party”; the current New Conservative leader Helen Houghton; and the leaders of the overtly Christian ONE Party.
Following the summit, the ONE Party rebranded as NewZeal, with a new leader- former National Party MP (2011-2020) Alfred Ngaro. Ngaro had attended the City Impact summit, but had raised the possibility of leading a new Christian party as early as 2019. Speaking with John Cowan on Newstalk ZB following the announcement of the new party, Ngaro talked about how he believes the values of the National Party have moved away from the values he holds. He cites the ban on conversion therapy and “non-binary gender identity that came through the department of internal affairs” as examples, labelling himself a centrist conservative.
“I want to be really clear, this is a political party, right? It’s like anyone, if you own a business, right? And you’re a Christian, it doesn’t make your business a Christian business, it makes it a business that’s run by someone that has a certain set of values, it’s a business that you’d want all people to come. This political party is not just for Christians, I’m a Christian [with] my values that I have, but it’s a party for all New Zealanders, and I’ve always said that and that’s really important”
This is a common way for Christian politicians to speak to broad audiences in this largely secular country, highlighting the importance of their faith, but stressing their ability to govern on behalf of everyone. The way Ngaro speaks to audiences of evangelicals though makes for a stark contrast.
“I’ll tell you this: We need to be a nation of believers that aren’t afraid” he told the crowd assembled at the June Christian summit “are you willing to be broken and burnt? Because that’s the army that God is looking for.” He spoke about what is known as Seven Mountains Dominionism.
“You know we talk about seven mountains not as a theology, but as a strategy, but what are we doing there? How are we going to take those, right? It's time now to preach that the space between the temple and the palace is not meant to be a divide. When Solomon was rebuilding it, he was doing it because God said, the place of governance, that Temple, is the place of worship, they’re not not meant to be separated! So to the pastors and the Preachers and the theologians in our church, get your theology right!”
The audience applauded these remarks.
“You need to stand up in your places and your realms of influence and do what you need to do, [be the] voice of moral values and in our nation as well. That's what we need, that’s what our people need”
So what is seven mountains dominionism?
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