There are many religions in New Zealand today, which have many and varied beliefs. This tolerance for various religions is something I value in New Zealand. But there are some religions that, depending on how far they are taken, are harmful.

Humanist teaching, for example, quite reasonably advocates for environmental care and endeavours to achieve peaceful conflict resolution. However (taken to extreme) the control of social conflict is obtained at the expense of silencing opposing views. The Labour Party, for example, has intentionally ignored the Catholic Church, Muslims and the concerns of the majority of ordinary New Zealand parents when implementing its humanist gender education. It has also implemented religious censorship laws relating to sexual relationships and gender that are typically the domain of religions and personal choice. The extreme Humanist ideology in parliament is not wanted by the public: not in New Zealand education, neither in politically correct censorship.

Andrew Clow, Te Puna.