The latest Global Wealth Report puts New Zealand fifth in the world - partly thanks to our house prices.

The Credit Suisse Research Institute released its report on Tuesday, showing global wealth has risen by NZ$14.2 trillion. That's a 2.6 per cent increase on last year. Continue reading

Barker is responding to a NZ Herald report based on 2013 Census data and the New Zealand Deprivation Index.

"As society gets better off, churches need to change their message to target the rich to remain relevant," he said.

Barker, stopped attending the Catholic Church because its message was no longer germane, says the prosperity gospel preaches that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, and faith, positive speech and donations to Christian ministries will increase a believer's material wealth.

He is of the view churches could be turned into places where the rich could network too, rather than just be institutions that provided support for the poor.

Poor church - deprived neighbourhoods

The NZ Herald report shows a strong link between wealth and religion, where the most deprived suburbs are the most religious neighbourhoods.

Poorer areas registered more than 90% of people with at least one religion whereas in richer suburbs more than half the residents are not affiliated to any faith.

Massey University religion expert Peter Lineham said the poor had most to benefit from being members of a church or organised religion.

"Religion offers a lot of benefits for poor people, in a sharing community, comfort and support in difficult times, and with significant financial benefits to share," said Professor Lineham.

Religion helps deal with the isolation of migration and is a way to reinforce the values of an ethnicity, he said.

Lineham also said an increasing number of New Zealanders no longer found religion appealing.

"Individualism is a powerful feature of modern middle-class society and the idea of a religion and its values to conform to doesn't appeal."

The report also shows

• Christians decreased to 1,906,398 (48.9 percent of people with religious affiliation) from 2,082,942 (55.6 percent) in 2006
• Catholics are now the largest Christian denomination with nearly .5m adherents
• Catholics, for the first time have overtaken Anglicans
• 1/8th of Catholics are Asian
• 1/10th of Catholics belonged a Pacific ethnic group
• The level of immigration means Auckland is the most religious area in the country.

Sources

• NZ Herald (including interactive map comparing suburb, wealth and religious affiliation)

SPIEGEL: Mrs. Gates, how does it feel to be so rich that you can use your money to influence the lives of millions of people?

Gates: Our money looks huge, but it's actually not when you look at the range of projects that we're going after. Bill and I believe philanthropy can only be effective if it starts things and proves whether they actually work or not. That's the place that governments often don't want to, or can't, work. We might take on six candidates for developing a malaria vaccine knowing that five will fall away. But we'll get one hit. And to meet a mom and know that her baby is alive and that we had something to do with it, that feels great.

SPIEGEL: Why didn't you just entrust your fortune to an institution like the media mogul Ted Turner, who donated a billion dollars to the United Nations?

Gates: Bill and I felt like we had something to add from the private sector. He started Microsoft; I worked there for nine years. We felt the private sector has a view of things that is beneficial to this work. You bring a kind of thinking, an entrepreneurial thinking. And then, if it works, governments can scale it up.

SPIEGEL: Are you not challenging the UN's leadership role when it comes to development aid?

Gates: Every single thing we do has to be done with governments. Look, we could go out and spend the entire resource in two years. Gone, done. But would we have a catalytic effect? Would we have left something behind? Would we have saved as many maternal lives or childhood lives? The answer would be no. Continue reading

• Source: Spiegel Online
• Image: GirltalkHQ