Letter angers aid group

Press, 29 March 1982, Page 6

Letter angers aid group

■The director of World Vision of New Zealand, the -Rev. Peter McNee, says he will seek legal advice regarding a letter written by a Porirua minister about some of the activities of World vision overseas.

In his letter, sent to newspapers throughout- New Zealand; the Rev. John Borrie, Presbyterian minister of the Porirua Methodist Church, said that, because New Zealanders responded to the poverty crisis, it was essential that they were convinced that the policies, philosophy, and practices of World Vision were also their own. ; He referred to articles in three overseas magazines — '‘Newsweek.” on March 8; the “New Statesman” on February 12: and "Pax Christi," an

Australian Catholic publication of January-February this year — which alleged that food aid had been refused refugees in camps under World Vision control because they refused to convert to the conservative Christianity upheld by the organisation and that World Vision collaborated with. United States military advisers in Honduras and El Salvador. . ; ’ Mr McNee said last week that World Vision in New Zealand and in the United States was seeking an apology from the publisher of “Newsweek.” That was still under negotiation, he said yesterday. Referring to Mr Borrie’s letter, Mr McNee said those things were “very libellous to say.* They are totally

untrue and have been refuted by World Vision I do not know how many times.” The article in the Australian magazine, “Pax Christi,” was no doubt lifted from its Belgian counterpart of the same name, which had started all the fuss about World Vision in June or July last year, and published it in an October issue of the Belgian magazine, he said. “The cnarges are not new, nor are they valid,” Mr McNee said. “I am staggered that they have been repeated.” He said that he would seek legal advice today about the letter. Mr Borrie said from Wellington last evening that he had written the letter because for years he had become increasingly concerned

about the involvement of World Vision in New Zealand.

He was aware of the organisation’s close connections with the United States administration during the Vietnam War, and was especially concerned about World Vision’s specific set of guidelines and conservative form of Christianity. Mr Borrie said that all members of World Vision’s board were required to subscribe to statements of faith which included the infallibility of the Bible, the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, that regeneration by the Holy Spirit was absolutely essential for salvation; and the resurrection of the dead and "they that are:, saved unto; the resurrection of damnation.”