Lindsay Mitchell: New Zealand - No Longer a Secular State
December 1, 2022
Yet a recent meeting of state-employed health professionals with no Māori people in attendance still featured the obligatory karakia delivered by a non-Māori female. When asked why, the answer received was, “Their belief in equity.” Was a Christian or any other prayer offered? No. So much for equity.
Just as people balk at the imposition of mythology to explain matters of science, there will be those discomfited by the routine practise of karakia (especially given the diversity of cultures and beliefs of those working within the New Zealand health system, which is almost entirely publicly run).
The solution is not to start offering sops to every other religious belief that exists in New Zealand. To put it crudely - two wrongs do not make a right.
The answer is to re-establish the traditional and necessary secularism of the state.