I joined the (New Zealand) Labour Party when I was 18 and have been involved with the politics and policies of Labour ever since, writes Thomas Tarurongo Wynne.

Working in the machinery of government was inciteful, and for those of us who enjoy policy, leadership and government, it was the best vantage point, front row seats for the past three years – and what a ride it has been.

But to say that I believed or subscribed to every decision, policy, or worldview of the Labour government because I worked and supported it would be a reduction of my own thinking and to the spectrum of thought and change I have travelled since I was 18.

And if we take a moment, imagine the positions we held at 18 and those we hold today, or how life has impacted relationships, thoughts, feelings and world views, because they are always being impacted by the world around us.

Despite outside forces and others trying desperately to fix us down, and put us into a box – a box many of us now struggle to break free from – I choose to refuse to be placed into a box. And whether it be religious, political or social, I have always endeavoured, though not always succeeded to break free from others constraints.

Today’s world is obsessed with shoving us into boxes, and ideology has filled the vacuum of deep and meaningful spirituality. Secular Western thought has become a religion, with social media platforms and algorithms as its bible. Its ideological evangelists preach outrage, and its social reconstruction is not equity, peace, and justice, but tribalism, polarisation, and deep-seated division.

A division that is fueled by soundbites, and not reason, social media posts and not debate, and a sense that if you do not believe what I believe, then you are hateful, and devoid of values or humanity.

Is it any wonder, Jesus compelled us to not be a part of its system.

Posts on social media simply heightens the power of its algorithm to divide, and divide, and divide. 

If we believe anything, or take a position on something, we are catapulted into another set of beliefs we may never have signed up to, or roads of thoughts, beliefs and behaviours we neither subscribed to or have ever believed.

Such is the dilemma of putting out our thoughts or being judged by them on a simple (social media) post, which is what social media platforms are.

And if we are all confronting the path to radicalisation through the power of social media, and the weaponisation of our inner thoughts to pitch each other against each other, then I know I must do better, and to resist it where I can, though at times I have also been caught in its cross hairs and succumbed to its outrage, and for that I take responsibility, and will do better.

The current conflict in the Middle East is a clear example to us all that somewhere in that social media machinery, we now find ourselves potentially pitched against each other if we let it.

Or maybe it’s Russia and Ukraine, white against black, slave against master, racism against the racist, systemic, political, social or ethnic, take your pick, because today we have a smorgasbord of outrage to choose from, to feed on, and to fatten our plates at the table of group thinking, group thought and them versus us.

Jesus was a Jew, from the tribe of Judah, an Israelite and the land he walked on has a centuries old spiritual footprint for us all to consider or ignore.

He said blessed be the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.

The Greek term translated as “peacemaker” is the adjective form of the verb that means “makes peace” and is the Greek term that also means harmony between individuals and nations of safety, security, and prosperity.

It is the exact opposite to the state of war. I need to be a better peacemaker, and choose today to stand with the innocent, men, women and children, who like so many of us, want peace, and to be peacemakers also.