The second of the Ten Commandments could hardly be clearer: Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image.
And yet, in their open letter to the nation’s legislators, these 440 clerics have made it equally clear that, by their adoration of te Tiriti o Waitangi, idolatry is precisely what they are guilty of.
Worse still, by publicly bowing down before te Tiriti, and serving it so aggressively, they have called down upon their heads the wrath of a self-confessed "Jealous God", whose punishments extend — even unto the fourth generation.
Then again, citing the Old Testament probably cuts little ice with these Christians.
They do, after all, introduce their attack on Act New Zealand leader David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill with a quote from the Gospel of Matthew: "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God."
Counselling men and women to use their power to silence the voices of others smacks more of violence and repression than peace-making.
Certainly, David Seymour’s epistolary assailants have given him cause to seek solace in the ninth beatitude: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
For Christ’s sake? Who among the 440 clerics would aver that David Seymour’s Bill is infused with Christian purpose?
Not many, if any. Which is disappointing, since the Act leader would appear to have a firmer theological grasp of the issues at stake in this matter than the professors of theology who signed on to the open letter.
"I am not a religious person," David Seymour tweeted.
"However, I do have an enormous respect for the core Christian principle of imago Dei — we are each made in the image of God. I like it because it automatically means we all have equal dignity. It is one of the foundations of liberal democracy and whether you are Christian or not, you have to be grateful for the freedom and dignity that idea has given us."
Well, yes, it does, and we should.
The idea that each soul approaches the throne of God naked and alone, no longer cloaked in the pretentions of class, or race, or gender, but only in the artistry of the Creator’s hand is, perhaps, why the carpenter from Nazareth warned us: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
A beam in the eye of 440 clerics? Surely not?
But what else are we to call a letter which so clearly divides the people of New Zealand into sheep and goats — an exercise in separation considered by most Christians to be the privilege of Jehovah alone.
The letter’s depiction of te Tiriti as a "sacred covenant" is also troubling. No deities of any kind are invoked, or included, in the Treaty’s text.
It was a document made on earth, by men, and in the nature of all man-made things its meaning has proved as difficult to pin down as quicksilver.
Is it really such an awful sin to ask the voters of New Zealand to validate, or repudiate, David Seymour’s attempt to define the essence of te Tiriti o Waitangi?
After all, God leads us through history towards the future, not the past. It is surely blasphemy to suggest that he has forever bound New Zealanders’ imaginations to the confused deliberations of February 6, 1840.
Is a referendum really so unthinkable?
After all, as another wise cleric (not one of the 440) memorably declared: "Vox populi, vox Dei" — The voice the people is the voice of God.
■ Chris Trotter is an Auckland writer and commentator.
