Quote# 83944
A man whose family died in Brisbane's worst house fire believes the tragedy is a blessing in disguise because it will attract more followers to his church.
Taukinukufili Taufa ran the Church of Baptism with Fire & Holy Spirit out of the Brisbane house which caught fire last month.
The blaze killed Mr Taufa's wife, daughter and three of his grandchildren as well as six other extended family members.
Mr Taufa said God speaks to him directly and he believes in baptism through "heavenly fire".
"God showed me how to do it, baptise people in the fire of the Holy Spirit. This is not bad after all, it's a blessing in disguise," he told Close Up.
Three years ago, Mr Taufa set up the firepurifications.webs.com website where he wrote that "we must be baptised in fire".
The 66-year-old said the fire and the loss of 11 of his family members was not a terrible coincidence.
"It is only a terrible coincidence if you don't know what the difference is ... explain to the people how to find, how to differentiate."
Jeremy Lale and his family had been staying with Mr Taufa for two months and were to move out of the home the day after the blaze - but he lost his wife and five children the night of the fire.
But Mr Taufa said the Lale family "came here at the right time".
"They [were] included in the people that God chose to become his people in heaven," he said.
Mr Taufa said he would build another home on the property and hoped more people would be attracted to his church.
"I know it's going to be a tourist resort in the future because people in the world heard about it. They will try to come and have a look."
Australian police told Close Up they were waiting for results on the cause of the fire but believed it was "just a tragic event".
Taukinukufili Taufa,
New Zealand Herald 70 Comments [9/23/2011 2:58:28 AM]
Fundie Index: 108
Submitted By: Wykked Wytch
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#1335031
John
A man whose family died in Brisbane's worst house fire believes the tragedy is a blessing in disguise because it will attract more followers to his church.
Right. He forms an oddball religion. His house burns down and wipes out most of his family. So he thinks now everyone will flock to his church because they've been shown a sign that God loves him?
9/23/2011 4:52:09 PM
#1335037
WWWWolf
> firepurifications.webs.com website
Website on a free webhost? That's obviously a cult. A religious organisation would have a domain name of its own.
9/23/2011 6:27:10 PM
#1335042
TheJebusFire
I hope your 11 dead relatives haunt your new chruch.
9/23/2011 7:34:35 PM
#1335045
Skatepunk
If my entire family died in a fire, I might lose my mind too.
9/23/2011 8:21:34 PM
#1335061
Lezemotu
Well shit. Now I can't say DIAF.
9/24/2011 12:46:06 AM
#1335063
Pioneer
A man who loses family members and says "this will come to my advantage!" is either in shock or a terrible, terrible person.
I don't know which this guy is.
9/24/2011 1:45:44 AM
#1335065
His family died in a fire and he wants to build a new house close to the site? That alone seems unusual to me, knowing of a few similar deaths in my area. The survivors moved away because they couldn't suffer any reminders of the terrible thing that happened. This guy is just unreal, I think he killed them just to set his retarded theme park plan in motion. A true sicko.
9/24/2011 1:59:34 AM
#1335072
Z
@ From the frozen north, Death cometh
Just because they are an honest newspaper doesn't mean they are all-knowing.
Besides that they cite the police as a source. No matter how good they are police sometimes think something is a coincidence at first when it's not.
They should investigate this fire more closely.
9/24/2011 5:02:04 AM
#1335079
Drax
The man's just lost his family, obviously he's not going to be in his right mind. I reckon we should cut him some slack.
9/24/2011 5:34:23 AM
#1335107
*man believes in baptising people with fire
*man's house burns down, killing 11 family members inside
*"The 66-year-old said the fire and the loss of 11 of his family members was not a terrible coincidence."
* followers lived in, also died in the fire, the day before they were about to leave.
* quote: "They [were] included in the people that God chose to become his people in heaven,"
*man hopes that more people will be attracted to his church
conclusion: delusional psycopath with pyromaniac tendencies started a cult and killed off everyone when some started to grow desillusioned with his practices. now he is sarting over. now let's see if the Aussies have the same level of deductive reasoning.
9/24/2011 6:32:18 AM
#1335154
The_L
Dying in a FIRE is never a good thing!
9/24/2011 8:28:01 AM
#1335227
punch
Why do I believe that tragic event was executed for reasons explained above?
9/24/2011 2:10:36 PM
#1335231
Only he survives?
Someone better check to see if the doors weren't locked...
And won't he be surprised if no one joins his church... because they're too worried about him locking them inside and setting fire to it...
Again
9/24/2011 2:32:17 PM
#1335245
Felis >:3
I feel sorry for this man, and I really do. I hope that this is just a coping mechanism. I'm worried that this will turn into something much worse, and he'll start showing people to it, or he'll be exploited in his vulnerable state by self-proclaimed spiritualists.
The thing is, there is a lot of religious fundamentalism in Queensland (Brisbane's state) and it's of the 'soft' type, i.e. it looks like the gentle Anglican sort of religion, for the most part. This is because a large part of the public there is fairly religious, so it can tie in easily, and snare people easily.
So either one of these things could happen.
9/24/2011 5:31:12 PM
#1335250
good thing this was a New Zealand fundy
if it was a bible belt southern redneck fundy it'd have read
"The blaze killed Mr Taufa, his wife, four daughters, three of his grandchildren and 12 of his great grandchildren, as well as sixteen other extended family members. Mr Taufa was 27 at the time"
9/24/2011 5:52:34 PM
#1335285
Berry Caluroso
Yeah, I can't really judge the guy for trying to put some meaning into his family's deaths. That's a horrible thing to happen, and you've got to deal with it however you can.
9/24/2011 9:47:41 PM
#1335469
Um. I really hope this guy did not kill his family.
9/25/2011 10:12:15 PM
#1335613
Gypsin
how horrifyingly sad.
9/26/2011 1:45:12 PM
#1335661
Potentate Argyros
I think the police need to look at some of his comments on his website. This is scary shit.
9/27/2011 1:53:35 AM
#1336240
Gingerninja
Honestly, after watching all this on the news...I really do think this poor bloke is just trying to make it seem better. That his family was sent straight to heaven through that fire. Fundie yes. But just a sad, sad version of one.
9/28/2011 4:10:11 PM
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