Rev Dr Malcolm Falloon/NZ Christian Network
For many socially conservative Christians, myself included, the feeling of being politically homeless has a long history. Over the past three decades, several parties have promised a more recognisable home for our convictions outside of the more established political parties. Moments of real possibility, however, have been followed by disappointment. Remembering that history helps explain some of the uncertainty that many of us feel today.
Christian Heritage formed in 1989, followed by Graeme Lee’s Christian Democrats in 1995. MMP offered new possibilities, and the two parties contested the first MMP election in 1996 as the Christian Coalition. They received 4.33 percent of the party vote, but with neither five percent nor an electorate seat, they missed out on Parliament. The coalition split the following year.
The breakthrough came in 2002. The Christian Democrats, renamed Future New Zealand, joined with Peter Dunne’s United New Zealand to form United Future. This broader grouping won 6.69 percent and eight MPs. For Christians seeking representation for their concerns, it was a significant moment.
That support, however, proved difficult to sustain. United Future fell to 2.67 percent in 2005, later surviving through Dunne’s electorate seat before disbanding in 2017. Christian Heritage suffered a devastating blow when former leader Graham Capill was convicted of child sexual abuse in 2005. The party was dissolved the following year.
Another possibility emerged with Colin Craig’s Conservative Party. In 2014 it won 3.97 percent, but again secured no seats. Craig’s departure from the leadership and the turmoil of 2015 disrupted that momentum. Subsequent campaigns under the New Conservative name remained well below the parliamentary threshold.
In recent elections, several other small Christian or Christian-led parties have also sought seats in Parliament, either in their own right or in cooperation with others. Yet, all have fallen short of the five percent threshold, with a combined result of just 1.13 percent in the 2023 election.
This is a sobering history. It shows how difficult it can be to turn shared moral concerns into a durable political organisation. Electoral thresholds, internal differences and failures of leadership all played a part. Meanwhile, however, many socially conservative Christians continued to find their political homes within more established parties.
Such participation can reflect a Christian political realism: recognising that a shared faith does not settle every question about economics, public services or political priorities. Even agreement on important moral questions does not automatically produce agreement on a party programme.
Perhaps the question for 2026 is therefore: which policies, candidates and coalitions best serve the common good, within the limits of what politics can achieve? Answering that requires weighing several goods. Christians will differ over the weight they give particular issues, and no ideological package automatically contains all the Christian answers.
Perhaps the search for a perfect political home will always disappoint. The more practical question is whether we can bring our convictions to bear within the political homes that already exist and, where necessary, form new coalitions around concerns shared by our neighbours.
Throughout this, Christians should also remember the limits of political power. Politics matters, and good laws can restrain evil and preserve freedom. But law cannot change the human heart, and politics cannot save us. Only Christ can do that.
First published by New Zealand Christian Network News and republished with permission.
