New Zealand: Church leader blames porn, abortion and gay rights for cyclone that devastated country

A church leader in New Zealand has blamed Cyclone Gabrielle, which caused widespread devastation across the North Island, on the wrath of God.

Self-styled ‘apostle’ Brian Tamaki said last month’s deadly weather struck his country because of pornography, abortion and gay rights.

While delivering a sermon, the Destiny Church founder admitted to doing online research into the pornography habits of those impacted by the extreme weather.

Citing statistics he found on Pornhub, he said some of the cities hit by the cyclone – Gisborne and Hastings – have the ‘highest number of porn watchers in the country’.

‘Don’t hate me for this,’ Tamaki said. ‘I see the perversion that is linked to bad weather. So I hopped on [to the Pornhub website]’ he told his followers. He claimed he was ‘shocked’ by his discovery, but insisted: ‘By the way, I don’t watch porn.’

‘That city in there, Hastings and Gisborne, has the highest number of porn watchers in the country and it’s one of the biggest averages per capita in the world,’ he said, according to a report on Tamaki’s sermon in the New Zealand Herald.

‘And they’re the biggest watchers on the porn site of gay porn. I know! And I closed it and thought, I can’t do this in church, I can’t say this publicly.’

Despite that, he continued his search so that ‘people can see the truth’. ‘Please, stop watching porn, New Zealand. It’s getting us in trouble,’ he pleaded.

The Destiny Church is a fundamentalist Christian pentecostalist movement, headquartered in Auckland, and is politically aligned with the far-right.

It was founded in 1998, and has since grown notorious through its position against gay rights, its patriarchal views, and its calls for a return to biblical conservative family values, in an otherwise generally liberal-minded country.

The church – which at one point had up to 5,000 members – has been labelled as a cult by some news outlets in the country. 

Tamaki was slammed for his comments, and also mocked. 

Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz said his comments were ‘laughable’, the New Zealand Herald reported, as well as ‘disappointing’ and ‘unhelpful’.

‘We have families struggling after losing their homes and their livelihoods and a much-loved community member lost his life,’ she said. ‘In true Kiwi style, the rest of NZ have mucked in and supported us every step of the way.’

Stoltz said the church leader was wasting his time ‘researching’ on Pornhub, and instead said she would be happy to send him details about where he could donate towards charity efforts helping in the recovery of the storm-struck regions.

Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand’s North Island on February 12 and battered roads and bridges, left tens of thousands without power across an area that makes up a third of the country. 

At least 11 people were killed, and police are still searching for 4 missing people.

More than 6,000 were missing in the immediate aftermath of the storm with communications disrupted in many areas, but that number has fallen in the wake of recovery efforts. A national state of emergency, only the third declared in the country’s history, will continue in cyclone-hit regions.

Severe weather again hit the North Island on Friday, with heavy rain prompting more evacuations in Hawke’s Bay, one of the regions hardest-hit by Gabrielle. 

Storms triggered flash floods and evacuation warnings in and around Auckland, the nation’s largest city with a population of around 1.6 million. 

Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand’s North Island on February 12 and battered roads and bridges, left tens of thousands without power across an area that makes up a third of the country. Police are still searching for 4 missing people

The Waiohiki bridge over the Tutaekuri River is washed away on February 14, 2023 in Napier, New Zealand, as the nation is battered by Cyclone Gabrielle

The Herald noted that Tamaki had made similar comments in 2016, when he blamed both the Kaikoura earthquake – which happened that year – and the earlier devastating 2011 Christchurch earthquake on ‘gays, sinners, and murderers’.

His comments were labelled as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘pathetic’ by officials at the time.

Former Prime Minister John Key said at the time: ‘The facts of life are New Zealand is a seismically prone country, with a number of very well identified fault lines.

‘We’ve been a bit unlucky I think, clearly those plates are moving around a bit. It’s nothing to do with people’s sexuality. I mean, it’s just madness.’