Shaping Godzone : public issues and church voices in New Zealand 1840-2000 / Laurie Guy.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 568-597) and index.

Introduction Section One: Race Relations and Racial (In)justice in Colonial New Zealand -- Missionary and Maori, 1840-1865 -- Voiceless at Parihaka, 1881 -- Anti-Asian Racism in 'White' New Zealand. Section Two: Legislating for Godliness -- Keeping Quiet About the Sabbath, 1860-1930 -- Sunday or Fun-day, 1931-1990 -- The Battle of the Booze -- Uncorking the Bottle: The Alcohol Issue, 1920-2000. Section Three: In Search of Utopia -- Women Count in the 1890s -- Social Gospel and Socialism -- The 'Great Depression', 1929-1935. Section Four: Issues of War and Peace -- Fighting for Peace, 1899-1918 -- Versailles to Vietnam (and Beyond): Issues of War and Peace, 1919-1989. Section Five: Combating Racism at Home and Abroad -- Racism and Religion in Pukekohe, 1959 -- No Horis in the Scrum: Rugby and Race, 1959-1980 -- Tackling Apartheid: The 1981 Rugby Tour Controversy -- Race in the Eighties: 'Not One Acre More' at Bastion Point. Section Six: The Place of Sex in Society -- Sex and Celluloid: The Film Censorship Debate, 1965- 1976 -- Abortion in the Back Streets: 1930 to 1960s -- Life versus Life: The 1970s Abortion Debate Section Seven: Issues of Gender and Sexuality -- Liberation at Last: Second-wave Feminism from 1970 -- Good as You? Gay or Sad? Debate over Homosexuality, 1960-1986. Section Eight: Toward the Future -- Hikoi and Hope: Social Justice in the 1990s -- Afterword.

Churches as institutions, and Christians as individuals and groups, have made significant and often contentious contributions to shaping private and public morality and issues of social justice in New Zealand. Laurie Guy provides a lively account of Church and Christian involvement in a selection of these issues. These Christian voices and influences have often been relegated to footnotes in our historical writing or ignored altogether. This book persuasively argues that Churches and Christians were major players, not always successfully, in contributing to the public debates determining the shape of New Zealand society. - Allan Davidson. This ground-breaking book highlights the influence of the church in the shaping of 'Godzone' - Aotearoa New Zealand. It audaciously claims that the church has been midwife to the nation. Without missionary influence there would have been no Treaty of Waitangi and no New Zealand as we know it today. In the nineteenth century church voices were nation-shaping on issues as wide-ranging as alcohol restraint, voting rights for women, the use of Sunday and the exploitation of workers. In the last generation there were vocal church voices on the Vietnam War, a nuclear-free New Zealand and the 1981 Springbok Tour. On some matters church voices were deeply divided, over abortion and homosexuality, for example. On other matters the church ought to have spoken out, but largely failed to do so: against World War One and against racism in the hundred years after 1860. Church influence has now waned. It was, however, vocal for justice and dignity for the poor in the 1998 Hikoi of Hope. That final major act for the twentieth century is illustrated on the front-cover image, a reminder that the church voice still matters on public issues.