JUDITH COLLINS GOES TO CHURCH, LEIGHTON BAKER GOES TO COURT

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Judith Collins praying - as she has a perfect right, in fact a duty to do, no less than anyone else who was created by God. But this pic and umpteen dozen others like it have whipped both the social and mainstream media into a frenzy. 

Her prayer got her a lot of publicity. She was snapped by NZ Herald. By newshub. By TvNZ. By Stuff. The dailyblog. By newstalkzb. By rnz.

They say any publicity is good publicity, but I would suggest that this publicity was, at best, ill-considered. The thought does cross one's mind that Mrs Wong Tung (to give the Leader of the National Party her married name) realises how many potential votes from true Christians bled out of National the moment she cast her vote for the noxious Abortion Legislation Bill, and that this is an attempt to get them back. 

"Collins won’t confirm it but, from the outside, her emphasising of faith appears to be part of a broader strategy to claim votes from minor parties – particularly those to which National supporters may have strayed," Stuff said sourly, without deigning to enlighten readers as to the names of those 'minor parties' which are apparently beneath Stuff's notice, as they are beneath the notice of all the msm. 

For example, New Conservatives, who are now polling equal to NZ First (but still not invited to the minor parties' debate which includes NZ First, so New Conservatives Leader Leighton Baker is taking TVNZ to court).

New Conservative is preparing a legal challenge over the publicly-owned TVNZ’s right to pick and choose which political parties get election coverage in their televised debate planned for 8th October. New Conservative’s action is a last resort, taken after several attempts to discuss the issue with TVNZ executives.

New Conservative is the 5th highest polling party, equal now to NZ First and rising, an established, committed political option, and is standing candidates in all 72 electorates, including the Maori seats (only matched in seat numbers by Labour). 

https://www.newconservative.org.nz/2020/10/05/new-conservative-challenges-tvnz-to-honour-fairness-free-speech-democracy/

'In recent weeks, Collins' references to her religion have notably increased", some rag reports. She's claimed, in both televised leaders' debates, to be "a Christian and a feminist" - which is an oxymoron if ever I saw one, but never mind that for the moment. 

Collins says she prays every day, and we believe her, and thank God for that, and pray for her repentance, healing and conversion, as we need to ask that of God for everyone. 

One could observe that one does not normally go into a church to pray with seven or so cameramen, and assorted reporters. And - if one is a woman - without one's handbag. Who was holding it for her? But the polling booth just happened to be at a church, St Thomas Church in Tāmaki, and the vicar just happened to invite her to enter the church and pray, and she did. And all the cameramen and photographers followed, as they would. The vicar could hardly deny them a sorely-needed opportunity to beg the Almighty for forgiveness, specifically for their sins of omission, specifically for omitting to give coverage to the New Conservatives Party, now could he? 

The ever-so-sincere Winston Peters has tweeted: "Matthew 6: 5-6. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others ... But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”

Ever the opportunist (suddenly, with the nearness of the election, the memory of the Abortion Legislation Act, and their dismal polling, National and NZ First both alike have discovered Christianity) Winsome Winston (who, like Collins, voted for the Abortion Legislation Bill) quoted chapter and verse again, with "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" (Mt 22:21), pontificating that Jesus Christ was advocating separation of Church and State. 

What the actual pontiffs have actually repeatedly pontificated is that "separation of Church and State, of the kind that we have in all of the liberal democracies of the world, has been consistently and repeatedly denounced. In the Syllabus of Errors, for example, Pope Pius IX condemned as false the proposition that, "In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship." 

And before Mr Peters can say, but what about Vatican II, let me say that the Second Vatican Council in Dignitatis Humanae insisted that it left untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ." So that separation of Church and State was the last thing Christ intended.

Thus the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men. To use the words of Our immortal predecessor, Pope Leo XIII: “His empire includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all those who are outside the Christian faith; so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.” 

Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society.

If, therefore, the rulers of nations wish to preserve their authority, to promote and increase the prosperity of their countries, they will not neglect the public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ. What We said at the beginning of Our Pontificate concerning the decline of public authority, and the lack of respect for the same, is equally true at the present day. “With God and Jesus Christ,” we said, “excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation.” https://onepeterfive.com/just-hearts-true-social-kingship-christ/

"National leader Judith Collins spoke to her maker (sic) before casting her ballot, but refused to share what was discussed," Radio NZ snidely remarked.https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/427576/election-2020-judith-collins-prays-before-casting-advance-vote.

"Collins won’t confirm it but, from the outside, her emphasising of faith appears to be part of a broader strategy to claim votes from minor parties – particularly those to which National supporters may have strayed," commented Stuff, without deigning to enlighten readers as to the names of those 'minor parties' which are beneath Stuff's notice. For example, New Conservatives.

Having declared herself a Christian and a feminist, Collins confirmed she voted on Sunday for National and the National Tāmaki candidate Simon O’Connor (who opposed the Abortion Legislation Act and deserves every Tāmaki voter's tick). But then she says she voted for the End of Life Choice Act. 

So one wag commented that she was in the wrong part of the church; she should have been in the confessional. But the church where Judith prayed doesn't have a confessional; it was Anglican. Well of course: as we know, the Anglican Church is the NZ National Party at prayer. And I'd hazard a guess that Anglicans are much more likely than Catholics to vote for the End of Life Choice Act. 

What's more interesting about the pic of Judith at prayer than the state of her conscience - which is her own business, and we must assume that she is praying in good faith - is the church itself. 

St Thomas' looks fairly new, but it looks like a church inside - and I bet it looks like a church outside, instead of vulgarly resembling a supermarket or a municipal outfit, exuding the ego of its architect and/or its architect's employer, the parish priest.

It has kneelers - and if I know my Anglicans, they'll be padded. There's more kneeling going on in Anglican churches these days than in Catholic. It has hymn books, which would indicate it does not have that sad adjunct adorning the sanctuaries of Catholic churches, the obtrusive OHP screen with greeting-card images distracting the 'community' from the re-enactment of their Saviour's bloody and agonising death on Calvary, especially when the wrong pic goes up, accompanied with the wrong musak and congregational titters if it proves excessively inappropriate, like the sudden blast from a pipe band I once experienced, compelling me to teach myself to play the organ. 

It has sanctuary rails, which denote a sanctuary, something which in Catholic churches now exists only in name, as 'special ministers of the Eucharist', mostly middle-aged women in pants, romp around whispering and squirting hand sanitiser in the sacred space where once only priests and priests-in-waiting (altar boys) were admitted. 

An Anglican church has a sanctuary only because once upon a time, before the so-called Reformation, it was a sanctuary for the Real Presence. Now, when all the Judith Collinses have gone home or to the hustings, in an Anglican church there's nobody there. 

Jesus Christ, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, is down the road, around the corner, on far less valuable real estate, in the Catholic church.

So why does an Anglican church, inside and out, now look more Catholic than the Catholic?