(Images TVNZ website)
It's Easter Sunday, the day memorialised by most Pacific and other christians around the globe as the 3rd day that Jesus the son of God conquered death by his resurrection following his crucificion. I awoke to a discussion on the TVNZ Tagata Pasifika programme on the relevance of religion to Pacific people, given the declining number of Pacific youth and young families now opting for the charismatic style of praise and worship instead of attending the traditionally based church groups such as the Presbyterian, Catholic and Methodist sects. So stop - is that reflective of the growing irrelevance of religion. Not really or so I thought. In fact it only reinforced the shift not decline in religious experiences. The rest of the programme involved a facilitated discussion led by Adrian Stevanon with a select panel of 2 traditional church ministers, one charismatic church attendee and Radio NZ Pacific issues reporter Richard Pamatatau trying to validate the notion that spirituality could be anything other than compliance with christian religious doctrine.
What a shambles the programmes was!!! Adrian Stevanon did not have an intelligent grasp of the definiton of religion. It became progressively worse as the panelists voiced their own definitions of religion and Stevanon failed to extract the differences and limited the discussion to a narrowly driven understanding of religion being church attendance. What might have been a lively and informed discussion that had the potential to influence positive attitudinal changes on the religious and social front for many of our Pacific families fell flat.
It has become common place to expect the usual lack of informed understanding by most conservative journalists when facilitating debates on TV1's Close Up or TV3's John Campbell involving christian based ideology and practice on subjects such as child discipline, abortion or the now popular tithing issues. On issues of the economy the media have become financially savvy and ask pertinent questions, if its about Treaty issues, certainly there will be no tom foolery over the significance of taonga. But on issues of Biblical concern the christian community is subjected to a shallow unresearched journalistic treatment of Biblical scriptural material that is often misquoted and misunderstood. Couple that with those invited by the media who lack the depth and scholarship of Biblical tenets and principles like the guests on TVNZ Tagata Pasifika today. Tithing had different meanings to everyone on the panel and Stevanon failed to identify that.
What was learned from today's Tagata Pasifika episode? What was Tagata Pasifika's social responsibility in reporting upon the religious topic? For me -it was to explore the truth. The truth is uncovered when journalists equip themselves with an understanding of the issues at hand. Religion is such an integral part of NZ Pacific settler history and it deserved to be handled with care and integrity. Rather than presuming religion is only about going to church, the first question ought to have been - what is the definition of religion for NZ Pacific people of today? Is there one single definition?
The responsibility for Pacific journalists to address Pacific issues with reverence for research of the complexities inherent within Pacific communities is fundamental to ensuring we are perceived honestly and respectfully by the wider community. Tagata Pasifika need only remind itself that it wasn't long ago when attempts to cut it's viewing time was once a reality.
