One rule for Buddha, another for Jesus
Christian café told to remove signage
Please see the update at the bottom of this article.
A quiet Christian café in Whanganui has found itself targeted by bureaucratic nonsense, exposing a clear and growing double standard in this country.
John 3:16 Coffee to Go, a family-run takeaway coffee bar and Christian retail store, recently posted on Facebook that someone complained to the Whanganui City Council about their shopfront display. The so-called offensive content? A single Bible verse written in their window:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
It is one of the most widely known and peaceful verses in all of scripture. Yet that was enough to prompt the council to step in and demand that the business either alter or remove it. One anonymous complaint is all it takes to start censoring Christian expression in this country.
Now compare that to what was published just yesterday in the New Zealand Herald. A massive 16-metre golden Buddhist statue is being installed in Waiwera, north of Auckland. Locals have already witnessed ceremonies taking place at the foot of the statue site, complete with chanting, cymbals and drums. The local council has no issue with it at all. Why? Because it has been classified as “art”.
It is a complete joke. One council waves through a 16-metre towering religious monument, while another tries to scrub a Bible verse from a small café window. The excuse? The Buddha is artistic. A scripture painted in a shopfront is somehow unacceptable.
Maybe John 3:16 Coffee to Go should put the verse on a canvas and call it an abstract installation. Maybe they should add a plaque next to it explaining that it's a visual metaphor. Maybe then the council would leave them alone.
This isn’t about rules or consistency. This is about what is fashionable and what is not. Christianity has fallen out of favour with the ‘cultural elite’. If this were a verse from the Quran or a line from a Māori proverb, the council would not touch it. Because it is from the Bible, suddenly it becomes a problem.
New Zealand likes to pat itself on the back for being inclusive. That only seems to apply to every worldview except Christianity. The moment someone mentions Jesus or quotes scripture, the knives come out.
This café is not the problem. The problem is a growing hostility toward one faith, and one faith only. The silence from the rest of the country proves how normalised this bias has become.
Update: Following growing public concern, Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe has confirmed that the John 3:16 wording displayed on the window is not the issue and can remain in place. The matter at hand involves unconsented alterations to the window and frontage of a heritage-listed building, changes which require formal approval under the Whanganui District Plan. The property owner is reportedly cooperating with council to resolve the issue, and the council’s planning team is offering guidance and a fair timeframe to sort it. Notably, council has received no complaints about the John 3:16 message itself.
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Matua - I am not a Christian- but my family are and I thank you for this post. I saw both these posts and you have articulated perfectly the hypocrisy- or unequal treatment of Christians/Christianity vs anything else.
It makes my blood boil. It gives weight to Brian Tamakis protest and it’s deeply disturbing.
Thank you for melding these two posts into one to clearly show the blatant discrimination.
This is not going to end well…
Remember the Crusades…there are those that will die for their faith in all faiths…this kind of discrimination may be the straw that breaks the proverbial camels back…
Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe has confirmed that the John 3:16 wording displayed on the window is not the issue and can remain in place. The matter at hand involves unconsented alterations to the window and frontage of a heritage-listed building, changes which require formal approval under the Whanganui District Plan. The property owner is reportedly cooperating with council to resolve the issue, and the council’s planning team is offering guidance and a fair timeframe to sort it. Notably, council has received no complaints about the John 3:16 message itself.