The National MP and the religious sect
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10:40 pm, April 20th, 2025 - 19 comments
Categories: david seymour, Media, national, religion, Social issues -
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Ilam MP Hamish Campbell has been in the news recently.
There was a OneNews report suggesting that he was a member of the Two by Two Christian sect.
The Sect is being investigated by the FBI and New Zealand Police for historical sex abuse allegations.
Support group Brave Truth Australia New Zealand has stated that it has been told about 50 perpetrators living in New Zealand.
There is no suggestion that Campbell is implicated in this but it appears that he has been less than fulsome in his response to initial questioning.
He said to One News “I have an association through my family. I’ve also been a scientist for the last 20 years, so I have quite a broad view socially liberal.”
This would appear to have downplayed his role.
From Anna Leask at the Herald:
National MP Hamish Campbell has been accused of downplaying his “connection” to a secretive religious movement under investigation by the FBI and New Zealand police over allegations of sexual abuse, the Herald can reveal.
Multiple sources have claimed that Campbell is an “elder” in the Two by Twos ministry and, over the years, has been responsible for hosting many weekly Bible meetings at his private home in Christchurch.
And despite last week saying, “My connection to the organisation has been through family”, yesterday, he admitted to the Herald, in response to a series of questions,that he is, in fact, a member.
“I am a member of a small Christian group who meet in people’s homes on Sundays rather than go to church. I have hosted a small number of meetings at my home,” Campbell said.
“I consider my faith personal, but it’s something I’ve grown up with. It’s a part of my life, but my views on the world are informed by the fact I’m socially liberal and the 20 years I’ve spent working in scientific research.”
There is quite a difference between having an association through family and being an elder.
To be frank however at this stage all this appears to be is some overly crafted language used in a PR response.
I have done a bit of research into Hamish in the past couple of days.
In his maiden speech he said this:
I recently read some words of a notable New Zealand anthropologist, Dame Anne Salmond. She said, “There are people in the middle ground who want things to be successful, tranquil, productive, creative. I would say most Kiwis are in that frame, but that’s getting splintered and it feels dangerous.” I think those are very accurate and sombre words. We all live on these clusters of islands in the middle of the South Pacific—we had no choice who we were born, or what we were born. We only have one shot at this life, and we need to ensure everyone can play their cards to the best of their abilities.
These are not the words of a culture war warrior. And referring to Anne Salmond who has some really progressive views appears to be an attempt to reach across the aisle.
Interestingly for a devout Christian he chose to affirm rather than swear on the bible when he took the oath of allegiance. This represents a world view of more fundamentalist christians that holds the bible in the highest esteem.
Otherwise he seems to spend a great deal of time moving that debates be closed or giving very short speeches and commending bills to the House. As far as I can tell he has not said “woke” once.
He has a background in science and working for charities. He gives the impression of being a decent human being, albeit with overly conservative views.
In the absence of any further damaging releases of information I think we should accept him as being a well intentioned deeply Christian person. Being a member of a sect against which allegations of sexual abuse have been made does not preclude him from being a politician. Otherwise Catholics would never hold public office.
Sure there is a level of concern at the degree of christian belief that he and many others have. This is a matter that is relevant and should be considered. But for now I don’t think there should be a witch hunt.
If a witch hunt is appropriate then Tim Jago and Act should be the subject. Maintaining name suppression for so long places the Justice System in ridicule. And fancy offering an employment lawyer when the complaint was first raised with the party. It is clear that David Seymour and Act did not want the complaint dealt with appropriately. They wanted it hidden.
And they did not even have the decency of being embarrassed when the matter was finally made public.
At this stage and subject to what may be disclosed in the future the only sin that Hamish Campbell appears to have committed is being overly Christian and following bad PR device.
Seymour and Act on the other hand …
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I don't come to The Standard to read comments that are logical, balanced, even-handed and wreak of fairness.
Agreed. Kiwiblog is the place to go for the irrational!
Reek?
Ta I am more and more strongly believing that we should fight the important fights and ignore the noise. The right is very good at the noise. Looking through Hamish's speeches I thought he was trying to do his best according to his world view. It is not a world view that I share and is very problematic but he is not Shane Jones or David Seymour …
I thought your post was excellent Micky. I was hoping to convey that while at the same time chucking in a bit of humour.
There are some brilliant contributors to TS. But this site deals with such serious and weighty matters that some humour is crucial.
It’s weird though how his first reaction is to downplay his role in his community. I assume 2×2 has the same “don’t lie” rule as all other Christian denominations and Campbell’s deflections don’t stand up to that imho. This looks like the typical squirming of a politician in trouble.
Plus there are people who have good reason to despise the concentration of people from small religious communities in positions of power. There’s Luxon, Simeon Brown, Brian Tamaki, and now this.
Do you think that small religious communities are worse than large ones?
That’s like the smallest of the issues, but anyway
While we all know about the Catholic Church, smaller organisations tend to have strong "we’re right, everyone else is wrong" lines. There’s also often abuse of all kinds happening in the small ones.
Not to knock every single member, some don’t know any better or don’t know the way out.
These people here are in positions of power though, so higher standards apply
I can't find much detail about Luxon's religion, but Simeon Brown's religious community is about 100 million people. How larger would you prefer it to be?
Ah Baptist — I was under a different impression. Hasn’t helped his compassion or maturity or "I know better" attitude
Anyway my points stand, and they can apply independent of size
This is also where you stop whatabouting
Then why did you specify small religious communities, in your original comment?
How about we talk about the dishonesty and the abuse instead? Who sent you here anyway?
Upper Room is the name. Apparently formerly so, but short of joining there’s no realistic way of checking
Downplaying his involvement is just Political Messaging 101: when you’re linked to a group with a chequered past, the first move is always to create distance and start managing the message. In this case, it's barely plausible: but it's still the best option.
It remains to be seen how deeply Hamish Campbell is involved—or complicit—in the more troubling claims being made about 2×2. Until we have evidence to the contrary, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Even if I struggle to comprehend how he squares his faith with representing an ideologically dead and morally hollow party whose values run totally counter to the kind of justice, mercy, and radical solidarity Jesus preached.
It’s also kind of refreshing to see the left extending some measured grace here—especially when people like Tamatha Paul are being dragged for associating with a group that wants to defund the police and radically rethink criminal justice. You know, things Jesus probably would’ve supported too.
That's fair Mickey.
I think it's useful to distinguish between religious belief at a personal level and the behaviour of religious institutions. The former we might regard as a universal human phenomenon that we see in people with very different politics, and some sort of religious 'sensibility' just seems to be part of our evolutionary inheritance. Religious institutions on the other hand can commit all the same errors and crimes as non-religious institutions. So, we shouldn't let our justified suspicion about the latter corrupt our understanding of the former. Some people on the left seem to be in danger of doing that.
I'd have a couple of general caveats though – and these may or may not be true in any particular case. First, that highly idiosyncratic and literal readings of Scripture can lead to some odd and dangerous conclusions that are not so much "overly Christian" (in Mickey's words) but rather heretical and post-Christian. And second, that sects and cults which emphasise secrecy must raise the question of whether they were established for the very purpose of financial and sexual exploitation, with the religious aspect providing a veil of protection to perpetrators.
Ta the best examples are comparing Pope Francis and Donald Trump. One of them I could stand with and applaud what they are trying to achieve, the other is, using catholic terms, an abomination.
Christianity is a wide church …
Nice one micky. The problem here is him not being completely honest. But it's not like he's the only MP being given bad PR advice.
It irks to see lefties going after him so soon after the far right going after Green MP Ben Doyle on nothing more than insinuation and SM inflammation. Not only does it undermine our values, but swing voters are unlikely to trust hypocrites.
Many have had bad encounters with religious sects, and feel distaste. Perhaps he fudged because of negative reactions?
Each person has their view of things spiritual, and what has happened in the USA does not confirm it is occurring here.
The Left need to group together and present some unifying ideas for the election, and resist baits laid about, which use energy for little gain imo
Yes, agree with you Mickey. He's probably a generally nice chap.
All religious groups seem to get sexual abuse popping up, for some it seems epidemic, others sporadic. Whether this is higher than general population, I have no idea. So do schools, sports teams and all sorts. I guess we all enter closed communities at our peril.
This church’s response (ABC programme on this screened here https://thebravetruthaunz.org/) sound remarkably like the NZ government’s response to the abuse of countless kids in its care, which really puts all MPs in a bit of a bind. “Over 100 prominent NZ societal leaders covered up decades of child sex abuse".
Poor wee man. I guess the reporting is pretty biased and titillates the readership – – secretive sect, and the like. Are they secretive? Do we actually have a clue?