A few months ago I pointed out that many evangelical pastors and numerous members of their flocks often succumb to the lure of internet pornography [Pastors and porn, 30 Apr. 2005]. Newspapers still carry regular reports of child sexual abuse by priests and ministers, crimes which often date back decades. ‘Christian schools’ are supposed to be safe havens from these perils, but just a few weeks ago a male teacher at a Victorian Christian school was banned from teaching after inappropriately touching female students and manipulating them into sexually explicit conversations (Chee Chee Leung, ‘Teacher banned over sexual remarks’, Melbourne Age, 20 Aug. 2005).

For many years, Rev. Graham Capill of New Zealand’s Christian Heritage Party was an honoured visitor at Australian Religious Right conferences. Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party (CDP) was particularly eager to welcome Capill as a speaker at its functions. In 2002, for example, he headed a star-studded list of ‘leading pro-family and pro-life activists’ at the CDP’s International Christian Political Action Convention in Sydney. He shared the limelight with personalities like Babette Francis (Endeavour Forum), Gail Instance (NSW Right to Life), Bill Muehlenberg (Australian Family Association) and Peter and Jenny Stokes (Salt Shakers) (CDP media release, ‘Successful International Convention’, 9 Oct. 2002).

Fred Nile liked to boast that his CDP ‘has a close NZ relationship with the Christian Heritage Party’ (Family World News [FWN], Sept. 1999, 14), while Elaine Nile described Rev. Capill as ‘another unflinching Christian leader’ (FWN, Mar. 2001, 7). The Salt Shakers group liked Capill so much that they posted his entire 15-page address to another CDP conference on their website (Salt Shakers Journal, Sept. 2001, 6).

And which of Capill’s ideas did the Australians find most attractive? Well, take your pick from the menu: pro-censorship, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-rock music, pro-corporal punishment, pro-’family values’ etc. Remember Temptation Island?

This is the last kind of program we as a society need when we have 184 divorces a week and unfaithfulness in relationships has reached epidemic proportions. (’In his own words’, Manawatu Standard, 15 Jul. 2005)

And how about:

For many, sodomy is a depraved, filthy practice which spreads disease and ruins lives. (ibid.)

Capill was particularly concerned about ‘child abuse’ and ‘hypocrisy’:

The perversity of [same-sex couples'] lifestyles is unlikely to be restricted to the couples concerned and puts the children at increased risk of abuse. (ibid.)

[Re granting a preacher's licence to a lesbian]: New Zealand is in serious trouble if the church fails in its task to be a conscience to the nation and maintain decent standards. It certainly cannot do that while licensing such people without the worst sort of hypocrisy. (FWN, Sept. 1997, 14)

In 1998, Capill further lamented the fact that NZ had become ‘a society where rape and abuse of women is all too common’, and referred in 1999 to ‘the appallingly high rate of child abuse in this country’ (www.news.com.au)

On 14 July 2005, Capill, a qualified lawyer and the father of ten children, was jailed for nine years for sex crimes against three young girls. He pleaded guilty to rape, unlawful sexual connection, and three counts of indecent assault against two girls under 12. He also pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting an eight year-old girl over a one-year period (Sue Eden, ‘Capill hypocrisy abounds’, Manawatu Standard, 15 Jul. 2005.

Prior to his sentencing, Capill sent an email to supporters claiming that sex with one of the girls had been ‘consensual’, prompting a remark by the judge that Capill clearly had yet to appreciate the magnitude of his offence (Wikipedia entry - ‘Graham Capill’). Capill’s email evidently added that ‘[t]he law as it has been explained to me seems so different to what the Biblical law and indeed common perceptions are of rape’ (www.kiwiblog.co.nz/archives/011205.html) He is appealing against his sentence.

Apart from a terse, three-line item about Capill’s fall from grace in New Life, 4 Aug. 2005, Australian Religious Right groups have been strangely silent about this ‘unflinching Christian leader’. No denunciations, no ‘learn from this dreadful example’ articles, no misplaced calls for forgiveness, no nothing. Like many similar evangelical miscreants before him, Graham Capill has simply ceased to exist.

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