Here comes the rain again
Mark Honeychurch - 6th July 2026
After a dry spell of a few months, since early February, I was finally visited a couple of weeks ago by some new missionaries. After briefly chatting with them and asking them to come back last week, I also received a Facebook IM from one of the local overseers - a retired man who has come to New Zealand from Utah as a missionary administrator, and who helps to look after the church and the young missionaries arriving here from around the world:
Hi Mark. It’s Elder Cook. You once gave me your email address but I can’t find it. I saw you on Facebook and thought you may get my message here. My wife and I have been transferred to Dunedin. Are the missionaries still coming to visit? I just want to tell you I enjoyed our visits. I know our beliefs differ quite a bit and I respect your beliefs, I think what we have in common is that we both believe it’s important to live moral ethical lives. I know your beliefs are based on facts that are scientifically verifiable. I hope you would consider (reconsider, I know you have already considered this many times) that maybe there is an unseen realm that can be communicated with. This realm is not understood and not yet scientifically verifiable. My “faith” (sorry, I don’t think you like that word) gives me purpose in this life and comfort and security knowing I can be with my family in eternity. Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not preaching to you or trying to convert you to anything. I’m just relating to you what gives this life meaning to me. I hope you and your family are well. I may never see you again but I’m glad we met and got to know each other a little. Best wishes!
It was so nice to receive this message, even though I’m pretty sure that he is actually trying to convert me despite his denials. I responded:
Hi Dwight, thank you so much for reaching out to me. I hope Dunedin’s treating you well, and isn’t a shock to be down there in the middle of winter. I think I’d be happy living in Dunedin if it wasn’t so cold and remote!
You’re right that we probably have a lot in common, but yes the sticking point is that I’m really interested in making sure things are true before believing them. And sadly I’ve not yet found any spiritual group that is able to provide evidence, even though there are thousands of different religions that insist that they are the ones that know the truth. I think there are many people out there who are unscrupulous enough that they’ll take advantage of us by claiming they know something, and insisting that we should just trust them. But so, so often those people are either misguided or dishonest. I’m sure you don’t just blindly believe phone scammers or Jehovah’s Witnesses when they tell you to trust them. I just try to make sure that I apply that same idea to everything in life, even the things I really, really want to be true.
I’d not heard from the local missionaries in months, but last week there was a knock on the door and two new fresh-faced young men in white shirts were standing there. It was great to see them, and we’ve arranged to have a chat next week. I promise I’ll be nice to them!
Over the last few months I’ve been listening to a Mormon apologetics podcast run by two Mormon academics, Church History Matters, and I swear that this pro-Mormon resource is as good as any ex-Mormon publication as a way to learn about some of the more controversial episodes in the church’s history. Through listening to the hosts’ biased descriptions of events, reading further online, and paying special attention when the hosts admitted that they had no good answer to a critique, I learned a lot about thorny issues that point to the church being deeply flawed rather than God-blessed.
So on Friday, when my new missionary friends came round for a chat, it was great to sit down with them and talk about the church, but I worry that I may have infodumped too much of my new-found knowledge on them! However they both seemed keen to come back, and have even promised to bring me a copy of the handbook that all Missionaries are given to help them talk to us non-believers - Preach My Gospel - so maybe I wasn’t too awful.
Our conference is only four weeks away, and we’ve let all our paying members know that we’re holding our AGM at the conference - with an option to connect via Zoom - on Sunday the 2nd of August. If you’re not a paying member but you feel like what we do is worth $40 a year, feel free to visit https://skeptics.nz/join and sign up. Once you’ve done that you’ll be able to vote at our AGM, as well as volunteer to join our committee if you’re keen to help us out.
Katrina’s away at the moment, so Bronwyn and I are holding the fort for both the newsletter and our podcast this week. We start off with Bronwyn’s review of the newest Gloriavale TV show. Does it shine a light on the dark corners of this abusive cult, or just paper over the cracks and cover it all in a thin layer of whitewash? I definitely have an opinion on this, and so far I’ve only watched the first 25 minutes of episode one!
I was going to just post the text of our recent submission on the Definitions of Woman and Man Bill, currently going through the Select Committee stage, into this newsletter. But somehow my one sentence intro quickly ballooned into something of a rant about Urgency, and how both sides of the political divide have misused this power to push through unpopular legislation. So now you can read our submission and my ranty thoughts.
Bronwyn has collated a set of updates on cult-related topics that she’s written about in the past, and hopefully you’ll find it as useful as I did to be brought up to speed on how quickly, or slowly, the wheels of justice are turning when it comes to punishing cults for their misdeeds and stopping them from harming people.
And finally I’ve picked another weird and wonderful TikTok topic that one of my children has delivered to me - this time it’s RCTA (Race Change To Another), a strange mix of pseudoscientific techniques that are supposed to be able to change your race all the way down to the level of your DNA. I’ve been sitting on this topic for a couple of years now, but I think it was worth the wait.