Abstract
The 2019 Christchurch Mosque attacks brought the threat of terrorism home to the shores of New Zealand. That this attack was committed against Muslims by a right-wing extremist in a historically Christian culture was shocking but not perhaps surprising. When in 2022 there was a large Christian presence at the ultimately violent Parliament grounds occupation protest, a sense that extremist activity could arise from Christian ideology in a New Zealand context became a more serious consideration. The risk that this growing discontent amongst Christians in New Zealand presents to potential radicalisation towards extremist activity is poorly understood.
This thesis aims to identify the underlying theological and cultural factors that can lead to or mitigate against extremism and radicalisation towards extremism within the Christian church in Aotearoa – New Zealand, and to provide practical means by which church and community leaders can protect against this risk. Using Reflexive Thematic Analysis I analysed sermons and social media from two of the country’s most outspoken church leaders: Peter Mortlock of City Impact Church and Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church. Themes from this data included unexamined hubris, blame of “the other”, conflation of truth and opinion; which itself was divided into the sub themes of misapplied scripture and the promulgation of misinformation, and a call to bold action.
Examining these themes in light of current extremism literature I found that while neither Mortlock nor Tamaki met the threshold of extremism, there is still a risk, particularly with Tamaki, of inadvertent radicalisation towards extremist activity. In the wider church this risk can be mitigated in a number of ways including handling scripture well, embracing interfaith dialogue and action, providing welcoming church communities, ongoing theological education, opposing conspiracy theorism and improving leadership models.