The self-styled ‘Apostle’ of the Destiny Church made the comments just days after the storm hit, dedicating a sermon to the topic and zeroing in on Pornhub statistics showing that Gisborne and Hastings have the “highest number of porn watchers in the country”.
The meandering sermon, which covered STDs (Sexually Transmitted Demon), the Baal in globalism, and some cod meteorology from Tamaki discussing the storm’s path, at its core blamed what Tamaki termed “perversion” for Cyclone Gabrielle hitting New Zealand.
After referencing abortion law and last month’s Pride celebrations, Tamaki eventually shared the results of his online pornography research with the faithful.
“Don’t hate me for this,” Tamaki said. “I see the perversion that is linked to bad weather. So I hopped on.”
Tamaki prefaced the results of his investigation by telling his followers: “By the way, I don’t watch porn”.
He claimed to have searched “porn in New Zealand and was “shocked by what I found”.
“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.
“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.”
But he did, saying that it was necessary so that “people can see the truth”.
“Please, stop watching porn, New Zealand. It’s getting us in trouble,” he pleaded.
Tamaki’s comments were described as “laughable” by Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz.
Stoltz told The Spinoff that the remarks were “disappointing, unhelpful and laughable”.
“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 told The Spinoff that Tamaki was wasting his time with his “research” and offered to send him details of where he could donate to help relief efforts.
“I suggest Brian stop wasting his time ‘researching’ Pornhub, and instead join the rest of New Zealand who have donated time, energy and money to help us get back on our feet. I can flick him our Disaster Relief Fund bank details if he reaches out. We’ll get back to work now thanks.”
Tamaki trod a similar path in 2016 when he blamed the Kaikoura earthquake that year and the devastating 2011 Christchurch earthquake on “gays, sinners, and murderers”.
His comments were labelled “ridiculous” by John Key, while the mayor of Kaikoura called them “pathetic”.
“Look, you always get people coming out with these stupid statements,” Key said.
“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.”
