Religion in New Zealand
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Religion in New Zealand was originally dominated by Māori religion in the days before the European colonization. Missionaries including Samuel Marsden then converted most Māori to Christianity, which remains the dominant religion in New Zealand to this day. However, many other religions have become established as well due to immigration and dispersal of culture. Notably, the country has become much more secular in recent times, with roughly a third of New Zealanders—whether atheist, agnostic or simply apatheist— claiming no religion at all. Currently just over half of New Zealanders identify with a religion, based on the results of the 2006 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings.
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[edit] Māori religion
Māori enthusiastically adopted Christianity in the early 19th century, and to this day, Christian prayer (karakia) is the expected way to begin and end Māori public gatherings of many kinds. Prayers are also made at the beginning of new projects, personal journeys, and endeavours. Traditional Māori religion, that is, the pre-European belief system of the Māori, was little modified in its essentials from that of their tropical Eastern Polynesian homeland, conceiving of everything, including natural elements and all living things as connected by common descent through whakapapa or genealogy. Accordingly, all things were thought of as possessing a life force or mauri. As an illustration of this concept of connectedness through genealogy, consider a few of the major gods of pre-contact times: Tangaroa was the god of the ocean and the ancestor or origin of all fish; Tāne was the god of the forest and the origin of all birds; and Rongo was the god of peaceful activities and agriculture and the ancestor of cultivated plants. In some ways, however, the modern religious practices of the Māori can be seen as utilising Christian practice to satisfy traditional cultural imperatives. In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, new religions arose, combining various aspects of Christianity with traditional and non-traditional Māori philosophies. These include the influential Ratana church.
[edit] Christianity
After the arrival of large numbers of European immigrants, most of whom were British, Christianity became the major religion of the country, with the Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian churches all establishing themselves strongly. The arrival of other groups of immigrants did little to change this, as Pacific Islanders and other primarily Christian ethnic groups dominated immigration until the 1970s.
[edit] Census results
Christianity Other religions No religion
- Further information: Demographics of New Zealand#Religions (2001 Census)
The population increased 7.8% from the last census in 2001. The most notable trend in religion over that time is the 26.17% increase in the number of people indicating no religion.
[edit] Fastest increases
Mirroring the recent immigration trends to New Zealand, immigrant religions increased fastest between the census, Hindu by 61.9% to 24,690, Islam by 53% to 12,516 and Buddhist by 25.8% to 52,392. Others that increased faster than the general population include the Pentecostal type religions (Elim, Assemblies of God), Baptist, Latter-day Saints and New Age.
[edit] Mainstream religion trends
Those religions not keeping pace with the population increase were the mainstream religions. Anglicans fell by 29,868 and Presbyterian decreased by 30,102. While Catholic numbers increased by 22,797, this was less than the total population increase. Compare this with numbers in 1901, where 42% of people identified with the Church of England, 23% with Presbyterian, and only 14% with Catholic. At this time only 1 in 30 people did not identify with any religion.
[edit] Ranking by number in each category
The most numerous religious are Anglican, with 554,925 members; Catholics are next with 508,812 and Presbyterians third with 401,445. The only other religion above 100,000 members is Methodist. One third of the population answered the census as no religion. Additionally, roughly 240,000 objected to answering.
[edit] Jedi religion
- Further information: Jedi census phenomenon
Over 53,000 people listed themselves as Jedi in New Zealand's 2001 census, encouraged by an informal email campaign. New Zealand had the highest per capita population of reported Jedi in the world that year, with 1.5% marking "Jedi" as their religion. Also, the city of Dunedin (a university town) had the highest population of reported Jedi per capita.[1] Statistics New Zealand treated Jedi responses as "Answer understood, but will not be counted". If the Jedi response had been accepted as valid, this would have been the second largest religion in New Zealand.
There was a dramatic fall in the number of New Zealand Jedi five years later, with some 20,000 people giving this as their religion in the 2006 census.[2]
[edit] In culture
Although New Zealand is a largely secular country, religion finds a place in many cultural traditions. Major Christian events like Christmas and Easter are celebrated by religious and non-religious alike, as in many countries around the world. The country's national anthem, God Defend New Zealand, is strongly Christian in both name and lyrics. There has been occasional controversy over the degree of separation of church and state, for example the practice of prayer and religious instruction at school assemblies.[3]
[edit] In politics
- Further information: Christian politics in New Zealand
Religion does not usually play a major part in the politics of New Zealand, and most New Zealanders consider politicians' religious beliefs (or lack thereof) to be irrelevant.[4] Neither of the two main political parties, Labour and National, have a strong association with religion, and their current leaders, Helen Clark[5] and John Key,[6] are both agnostic.
However, when religion does play a part, it is often controversial. Most debate centers around the subject of Christian politics in New Zealand. There have been and still are various explicitly Christian parties, such as the now defunct Christian Democrat and Christian Heritage, and the politically active Destiny New Zealand. Other parties, such as United Future, are more implicitly Christian or at least have Christian values at their foundation. Religious parties have tended to only receive a small percentage of the vote, with Labour and National generally being the main players. Religious issues have sometimes arisen in mainstream politics however, one example being the actions of the Exclusive Brethren in a controversial affair involving the National party and its former leader Don Brash in the 2005 election.[7]
In 2007, the government created controversy by announcing the National Statement on Religious Diversity. The statement was controversial because its first clause states "New Zealand has no official or established religion." Opponents of the statement argue New Zealand's head of state Queen Elizabeth II is the supreme governor of the Church of England (although not in Her Majesty's capacity as Queen of New Zealand). Brian Tamaki, leader of the Destiny Church stated: "That [Christianity] is the chosen religion of the Head of the Commonwealth. For us to depart from that, don't you think that that is bordering on creating some type of treason, religious treason anyhow?"[8] However, a poll of 501 New Zealanders by Research New Zealand in June 2007 found that 58% of respondents did not think Christianity should be New Zealand's official religion.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Perrott, Alan (2002-08-31). Jedi Order lures 53,000 disciples. New Zealand Herald. Retrieved on 2006-04-05.
- ^ The fate of the Jedi. No Right Turn (2006-12-08). Retrieved on 2007-09-16. “A story in the Dominion-Post has the answer: '... census general manager Nancy McBeth told The Dominion Post there were more than 20,200 followers of the force - down from 54,000 in 2001.'”
- ^ Maxim Institute: Prayer in Schools. Retrieved on 2007-09-17.
- ^ Brian Colless and Peter Donovan, 'Editor's Introduction', in Brian Colless and Peter Donovan, eds, Religion in New Zealand Society, 2nd edition, Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1985, p.10
- ^ New Zealand Herald (16 March 2004). Insults get personal between Clark and Brash. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
- ^ Key describes himself as "not a heavy believer" and doesn't "believe in life after death", though has not explicitly described himself as agnostic or anything else as such. See Ruth Berry (25 November 2006). Will the real John Key step forward. New Zealand Herald. Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
- ^ Kiong, Errol. "Sect members behind political pamphlets", New Zealand Herald, 2005-09-17. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
- ^ Collins, Simon. Denying state religion like treason, says Brian Tamaki - New Zealand Herald February 17 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
- ^ Research New Zealand (17 June 2007). Limited Support for Christianity as Official Religion. Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
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