DESTINY CHURCH AGAINST NZ HERALD

The NZ Herald published an article on 21 Mach 2024, headlined Creator of library Drag Queen Rainbow Readings is a former member of Brian Tamaki’s Destiny Church.

The story reported that Sunita Torrance, who created the Rainbow Storytime readings which were shut down under protest threats by Brian Tamaki supporters, was a former Destiny Church member. The story said Ms Torrance was angered by the abuse and threats from Brian Tamaki’s team which forced the cancellation of a Rotorua reading.

The NZ Herald reported Ms Torrance saying she grew up the in the church, was brought up as part of the Destiny Church whānau and attended with her mum about 20 years ago.

Destiny Church complained it was inaccurate to report Ms Torrance was a member of the church. While she may have casually attended one service, she was never a member.

Destiny Church said its database goes back to 2002 and it had no record of someone called Sunita or Torrance and none of the pastors had any recollection of seeing this person in their churches. The NZ Herald should have also reported Hannah Tamaki’s comment to the reporter that she was not aware of or had ever met this individual.

To support its claim, the Destiny Church also referred to an interview with Sean Plunket on The Platform in which Ms Torrance admitted she was not a tithed member of the Destiny Church but attended for about three months and then on occasions when she came back to Auckland from Sydney.

The NZ Herald stood by its story, saying it accepted Sunita Torrance attended the church with her family more than 20 years ago, and that she was a casual member who attended services for several months. Hannah Tamaki’s statement was not included as it was vague as to whether Ms Torrance was a church member.

The Media Council considers this to be a bit of a semantic argument over what it means to be a church member. Sunita Torrance said she regularly attended the church with her mother 20 some years ago. Although she was not tithed, she considered herself a member. On that basis she could rightly claim to be a member of the congregation.

Destiny Church, which clearly did not want to be associated with Sunita Torrance because of her activities as a drag queen, took a narrower view. The church said Ms Torrance was not a member in any formal sense and there was no record of her name on the church’s database. The church does not say what information it records on those who attend its services so little stands on that. The Media Council  says it is also hardly surprising that pastors or other senior church figures in such a large and active church do not remember somebody who said they attended  services two decades ago.

The word “member” when applied to a church does not necessarily mean a person who is in any way formally on a register of members, or overwise recorded with formality. Dictionary definitions include a religious person who attends Church regularly, and it has not been shown that it was inaccurate for Ms Torrance to say that she attended the church with her family and later more occasionally. 

The Media Council can find nothing to determine the issue either way and nothing to support a complaint that the NZ Herald’s reporting was in breach of Principle (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance.

There were no grounds to proceed.