Prime Minister’s Slip at Waitangi: Jews or Gentiles, slave or free

In this article, I will reflect on ‘unity’ and whether it is the appropriate tag for this passage (1 Cor. 12:12–27) and on what the PM’s slip says (about him) and does (with regards to the public use of biblical texts).

Unity?

‘Unity’ is a beautiful term but it has loaded baggage. In Christian circles, ‘unity’ is one of the terms or concepts often used to romanticize the Christian fellowship as well as to discourage doubts, questions and protests. In church gatherings, one will not be surprised to hear admonitions along these lines:

Don’t question our sacred texts, our teachings or our ways because to question or to doubt those will disturb our unity;

we are one in Christ;

be united, keep the peace.

Peace is one of the manifestations of unity but neither unity nor peace is innocent:

someone benefits from preaching unity and demanding the upholding of peace.

Maintaining unity does not redress the power imbalance that fractures communities (causing disunity). Protecting peace tends to serve the interests of people with power.

If the honorable PM had read on to the end of the chapter (1 Cor. 12:28–31), which reminds us that people do not have the same gift or call but we need to work together – like the many parts of the body needing to respect each other as they work together, he might have realized that this passage speaks more to ‘collaboration’ over ‘unity’.

If the PM had used ‘collaboration’ as a frame for how the gathered people heard his reading of 1 Cor. 12:12–27, he would have affirmed diversity and difference, and encouraged communing through action over ‘unity’ in words and spirit. Put sharply, the frame that the PM announced – unity, and the reason why he read (or was told to read) this passage, was based on a misreading of the text.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is evidence of the illusion of unity. We have two versions of this foundational document, in two different languages and worldviews, that seek to make two peoples - each of which was and is inherently diverse - share power and work together. Since 1840, these two peoples, along with many more people who arrived after 1840, are still trying to figure out how to co-exist and to distribute power and resources justly.

Among and between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti, there was no unity before or after 1840.

Notwithstanding, Te Tiriti o Waitangi upholds the vision that different people could collaborate – the critical message of 1 Cor. 12:12–31, in my personal reading.

Bible in public places

What then of PM Luxon’s ‘unity’? What was he trying to do or cover up? These questions bring me to the matter of using the Bible in public places. Of course, anyone could read the Bible in public places. But to read without reflecting on a passage, in my opinion, is like using the Bible as a club – to hit people, and to discourage them from doubting, questioning and protesting.

Not long after the Dawn Service, more hīkoi arrived at the Treaty Grounds to raise questions, to voice doubt and to protest, in the spirit of Te Tiriti. Before and after the Dawn Service, what matters is not so much what Te Tiriti says but what it does; what Te Tiriti does is to cry for collaboration.

Since 1840, Te Tiriti has done and continues to do a lot:

the many people who arrived and settled Aotearoa New Zealand before and since 1840 – whether at the behest of the British crown and its churches or according to their own drives, whether invited by Tangata Whenua or by more recent treaties – reap the benefits of Te Tiriti;

the generations of people who learned and cultured in Te Reo and Te Ao Māori – reap the benefits of Te Tiriti;

the new generations of migrant communities, from Pasifika and beyond, who learn and appreciate their native languages and ways of being in Aotearoa New Zealand – reap the benefits of Te Tiriti;

the native animals and flowing rivers that have legal rights – reap the benefits of Te Tiriti;

both residents of and visitors to Aotearoa New Zealand – reap the benefits of Te Tiriti;

and the list goes on of human- and other- kinds who reap the benefits of Te Tiriti.

For me, a manuhiri to Aotearoa, Te Tiriti is not interested in ‘unity’ but in real justice – on the ground, in the lives of real people, among Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti (among whom are Tangata Pasifika or Tangata Moana). Intentionally or unintentionally, the PM’s undefined ‘unity’ covers over (masks) Te Tiriti’s search for real justice.

Slip?

The PM may have slipped past 1 Cor. 12:13 because the verse addressed people who “were all baptized by one Spirit” (NIV). It makes sense not to use the category of being baptized in a public event, out of respect to those who have not been baptized. However, this was at a Christian worship event and the intention was to remember the first signing of Te Tiriti at Waitangi – for which Christians and non-Christians played significant roles.

By slipping past 1 Cor. 12:13 (“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink”) the PM neglected two important differentiations.

Firstly, taking ‘Jews’ as reference to the ‘in group’ (or baptized) while ‘Gentiles’ refers to ‘outsiders’ (or unbaptized), verse 13 is an opportunity to affirm that there were Jews/insiders and Gentiles/outsiders both at Corinth as well as at Waitangi. This differentiation is affirmed in Te Tiriti 1840 – even though the British acted as the in-group/Jews and they looked down upon the Māori as the outsiders/Gentiles – but missed by the PM in 2024.

Secondly, a more important differentiation in verse 13 is between slave or free among both groups, the Jews and the Gentiles. There are other ways of reading this verse but my concern here is the implication of the PM’s slip: as a consequence, he missed the opportunity to raise the consciousness of the nation to free-people among Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti, as well as slave-people among Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti. There is diversity within each group.

So what?

1 Cor. 12:13 affirms diversity, not ‘unity’, and lays upon readers/hearers of 1 Cor. 12:12–31 the responsibility, for instance, to do something about Tangata Whenua who are free and have no respect for Te Tiriti. The same applies to Tangata Tiriti!

Whether Tangata Whenua or Tangata Tiriti, Jews or Gentiles, we are beneficiaries of Te Tiriti – with all its problematics and this requires further korero and talanoa.