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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 2 years

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By: Ashley Fetters Maloy

Published: Mar 27, 2022

For the first two decades of my life, there was very little I did that wasn’t touched somehow by evangelical churches. I can still sing a random smattering of Bible verses, thanks to catchy little melodies we played on cassette tapes in the car. If I squeeze my eyes shut hard enough, I can reach down into the primordial dregs of my memory and find some of the pledge to the Christian Flag, bringing up with it the Play-Doh smell of my preschool classroom at a church-adjacent academy in Scottsdale, Ariz. I still remember the first time I ever felt so overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit that I wept during a church service — I was 11, and it was during a rendition of “Shout to the Lord,” a beloved praise anthem from none other than Hillsong, the Australia-based global charismatic church network known best at the time for its stirring, internationally popular worship songs.

I’m still working out why exactly I quit going to church in my early 20s, about a decade ago; for a long time, all I could really muster was that I could no longer ignore the gnawing suspicion that I’d be happier if I did. (I was.) As an adult, though, I’ve started to piece together that perhaps it had less to do with God or the Bible or Christianity itself than with the fallible, corruptible, misguidable human beings I answered to every Sunday.

So when I watched Discovery Plus’s new three-part documentary “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed,” some of what it uncovered felt wholly, sadly familiar. Other revelations, though, were uniquely horrifying.

“A Megachurch Exposed” aims to spotlight the many alleged wrongdoings of Hillsong, which now has locations in 30 countries. It airs allegations that Hillsong’s leadership got rich off donations while heavily exploiting volunteer labor. And it argues that pastors have engaged in extramarital affairs and mishandled accusations of sexual misconduct by church staff, despite teaching the evils of impurity and lying.

Arguably Hillsong’s most famous scandal stateside involved the downfall of Carl Lentz, the young, attractive pastor (dubbed a “hypepriest” by GQ) often spotted wearing luxury streetwear and hanging out with the celebrities among his congregation — including Justin and Hailey Bieber, Kourtney Kardashian and Kevin Durant. In 2020, Lentz admitted to having a months-long extramarital affair and was fired from his position as head of Hillsong’s only American church, located in New York City. “A Megachurch Exposed” delves into that saga, while also featuring testimonies from former staffers, volunteers and congregation members — plus students at the church-adjacent Hillsong College — who allege that they’ve been worked to exhaustion for no pay or that at least one report of inappropriate behavior toward a young woman by a male staffer was under-investigated. (On the latter, the church has claimed it reported it to Australian authorities shortly after leadership found out. Hillsong has not responded to The Post’s request for comment on the documentary’s various allegations.)

This specific brand of leadership hypocrisy in church settings is, unfortunately, not specific to Hillsong. It’s practically a trope by now, the hyper-successful church leader who quite literally fails to practice what he preaches. Famed televangelist Jim Bakker went to prison in 1989 for fraud related to church fundraising. Jimmy Swaggart, whose televised sermons and Bible studies were broadcast all over the nation in the early 1980s, was suspended by the Assemblies of God Fellowship and eventually defrocked after he was caught hiring sex workers. Pastors at more than one church I attended with my family have resigned or been removed from ministry after being exposed as adulterers and even abusers; one had even stood in front of my friends and me, at youth-group gatherings and in church-camp firepits, imparting to us what seemed like a heartfelt message on the importance of maintaining sexual purity.

Even works of fiction have lately been dealing with hypocrisy in megachurch settings. HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones” follows the high jinks of a blithely hypocritical family at the head of a Southern church empire. Kelsey McKinney’s popular 2021 novel “God Spare the Girls” tells the story of two sisters raised in a purity-minded faith tradition struggling to forgive their father for his infidelity even as the Texas church he leads every Sunday lets him off easy. The first two-thirds of “A Megachurch Exposed,” in other words, reveal the misdeeds of more than just its one titular megachurch.

The series’ final episode, however, is where “A Megachurch Exposed” takes a turn for the truly shocking, depicting an institution so profoundly compromised that its leaders won’t even fully confront the rot. It digs into a scandal that those who know Hillsong solely through its Bieber association may never have heard of: the child sex-abuse saga involving Frank Houston, founder of the church out of which Hillsong eventually grew, and the alleged coverup by his son Brian, who officially founded Hillsong in 1983.

According to the documentary, Frank repeatedly sexually abused at least one young boy in the late 1960s and paid him 10,000 Australian dollars as “compensation” in the late 1990 — when the abuse had been reported to the church but not yet to the authorities. The documentary then cites the minutes from a 1999 meeting of church elders that details their plans to keep the abuse quiet and reinstate Frank as head pastor after a temporary suspension. According to the documentary, at least seven other men have since come forward to allege sexual abuse by Frank Houston between 1965 and 1977.

In 2014, Brian Houston was summoned by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for questioning. The documentary includes footage of his official testimony, in which he acknowledges his father’s sexual abuse of a minor but denies having tried to cover up the payment. A year later, the Commission found he had failed to report knowledge of child sex abuse to the authorities. (The documentary includes the following excerpt from Hillsong’s 2015 response to the Commission’s findings: “The victim was a 36-year-old adult when this abuse became known and could have taken the matter to the police himself at any time.”)

Earlier this year, Brian Houston stepped down as head pastor of Hillsong “for the rest of the year” to focus on fighting the formal charge of concealing sex abuse. This week, after an internal investigation into two complaints that Brian had acted inappropriately toward women, he resigned.

The documentary presents an impressive array of former employees, volunteers and members who readily condemn both Hillsong’s common megachurch problems and its devastating specific ones. But a quietly striking aspect is that few if any seem to have soured on Christianity. Some discuss the more favorable qualities of the other congregations they’ve joined since leaving.

A less thoughtful documentary on the subject might miss such a nuance, but “A Megachurch Exposed” doesn’t. Memorably, one former volunteer says, “If Jesus were to walk into a Hillsong church today, I don’t know if He would be welcomed.” And with a slow smile, she adds, “He would probably flip the tables there, too.”

[Via: https://archive.ph/aPYaL]

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Shut it down.

#Hillsong #Hillsong Church #christianity #Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed #A Megachurch Exposed #megachurches #religion of money #con artists #grifters gotta grift #grifters #corruption #religion #religion is a mental illness

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carlocarrasco · 2 years

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A Look Back at X-Men Adventures Season II #4 (1994)

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from reading the comic book and doing personal research. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised…

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sophiaphile · 4 months

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he's never ending, he's always trentding and he deserves the best of me jesus fucking slays he fucking slays all goddamn day, and you know it jesus fucking slays so we should party in his name, do real dope shit

#jesus fucking slays #the other two #hbo #max #hbo max #chasedreams #hillsong church #satire #jesus #Spotify

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news-folds · 2 years

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Friends of girl killed in Bali gather in her honour

Grieving friends of Olyvia Cowley have gathered to honour her memory after the 24-year-old died in Bali last month. On Saturday, the group of friends shared a drink and cheered to her memory in a touching moment that was later uploaded to social media. “An unfortunate yet beautiful send off for our darling girl. So dearly loved and missed,” one friend wrote. A man shouted “this is Lyv’s” before…

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news-tey · 2 years

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Friends of girl killed in Bali gather in her honour

Grieving friends of Olyvia Cowley have gathered to honour her memory after the 24-year-old died in Bali last month. On Saturday, the group of friends shared a drink and cheered to her memory in a touching moment that was later uploaded to social media. “An unfortunate yet beautiful send off for our darling girl. So dearly loved and missed,” one friend wrote. A man shouted “this is Lyv’s” before…

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sluttylittlewaste · 24 days

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It's wild how many people took Kristen's line of questioning as her saying Tracker isn't taking her religion seriously instead of what I heard her asking which was:

How many of these people would be here if it wasn't religious Coachella?

#also #some of y'all don't seem to realize that Brennan is referencing some very serious real world questions #of what happens when legitimate religious movements get turned into social clubs #and how that transformation often deteriorates the messaging and purpose of said movement #jesus and judas had the same conversation #it's a significant part of why protestantism even exists #did y'all not watch the Hillsong doc?#have y'all never been to an evangelical megachurch #when the church start using free shit and cushy rewards to get people to join? it's a dog whistle for them losing the plot #which Kristen 100% knows #which is WHY SHE ASKED #she's asking how many of these people give a real fuck about Galicaea #IT'S A VALID QUESTION #and it's important that Kristen #(who understands just how deeply Tracker cares)#can pull her back to the reality of what she came to Fallinel to do #let me die #if i die #d20 fhjy #fhjy #dimension 20 #kristen applebees #rant #tracker o'shaughnessey #trackerbees

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trendingnowinsider · 2 years

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Chris Pratt Denies Anti-LGBTQ Accusations : 'I Never Went to Hillsong'

Due to his purported involvement with Hillsong Church, a Christian megachurch that regards homosexuality as “sinful,” Chris Pratt has been portrayed as homophobic in memes and online criticism. Even though he Pratt claims to have never been to Hillsong, he describes himself as “not a religious guy” in a recent interview with Men’s Health magazine.Online skeptics were quick to point out that…

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#carl lentz hillsong church #chris pratt #chris pratt christianity #chris pratt controversy #chris pratt defended #chris pratt faith in jesus #chris pratt graham norton #chris pratt religion #chris pratt religious #chris pratt responds to accusations #guardians of the galaxy chris pratt #hillsong #hillsong carl lentz #hillsong church #hillsong lentz #hillsong pastor carl lentz #pratt #the avengers cast chris pratt #why is everyone mad at chris pratt

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christian-music-lyrics · 2 years

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So Will I - Beckah Shae

#so will i #beckah shae #hillsong #hillsong church #worship #christianity #christian

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virovac · 2 years

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Twitter and media news suddenly more surreal

...what the hell? Chris Pratt isn’t even a member of Hillsong Churhch?

Why doesn’t he just say that then?!!!

#chriss pratt #hillsong church

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beggars-opera · 10 months

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Sometimes you re-stumble upon photos of musicians trying out various styles before settling on their final form and

This is cursed

#hozier #''oh you wrote a song called take me to church? well sir let me show you our new hillsong fashion line''

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swinging-stars-from-satellites · 17 hours

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my in-program notes for this song are very professional 👍

#it's with everything by hillsong #which has a MASSIVE interlude/ending that's just the whoas. you probably know it and if you think you don't know it #you still probably do #but like I hate having ''whoas'' as an actual word in my presentation #and I've seen them do this song live when I went to see united in like 2019 #they've got lyrics onscreen even at stadium shows and the whoas?? are Not on the screens #which just proves to me that I'm Correct #however I will probably forget I did this by the time we actually do this song at church skdkfkdnsk #propresenter

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potsticker1234 · 1 year

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if you were raised in a christian household/ went to a christian school and it gave you The Big Ick, let me know if this resonates with you:

they always tried to tell us that you would feel something moving in your heart and soul during worship music, and if you don't, then you're not a real believer

but tell me why my friend never felt anything during worship songs, but she felt those chills at her first AJR concert lmao

don't even get me started on how worship songs are musically written and engineered to pull emotions out of you to feel like an encounter with God

#we are deconstructiong A LOT #thank you gay nun show #sorry for the religious trauma on main love u all #christianity #deconstructionism #deconstruction #hillsong church is the biggest perpetrator of this worship song issue #that is why modern worship songs with no substance end up on my wn playlist #cause they werent focused enough on god to actually sing about him #so now in my brain theyre singing about avatrice #sorry should have written your songs more doctrinally sound <#jenna speaks

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snowangeldotmp3 · 5 months

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started watching a documentary about exposing hill song church…not sure if this was a good idea….

#SPIRIT LEADDDDD ME WHERE MY TRUST IS WITHOUT BORDERSSSS LET ME WALKK UPON THE WATERSSSSSS IN THE PRESENCE OF MY SAVIORRRRRRRR #was not a member of that church but southern baptists LOVEEEEEE hillsong so unfortunately.#i paid 1.29 for oceans back in 2013/2014 on my iphone 4 #the documentary is good tho i just laugh every time i know a song

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strugglinguist · 11 months

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I’ve been watching the Hillsong documentary on Hulu, and I’m feeling all of the exvangelical feels dude.

#exvangelical #lots of memories!#not a Hillsong member but a mega church evangelical still

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theworldiswhispering · 3 months

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A warm and welcoming presence from the security guard at this megachurch coffee shop

#i get it but like i go to a small church now and forgot that was a thing #sir im just here to drink coffee and pee.#(me in the megachurch getting arrested for too much poopy while hillsong plays in the background)

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sophism · 3 months

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Hate to say it. I have never seen a really bad opinion online that did not come from an US american

#like I saw one comment deadset insisting that Jacob elordi is deep in the Hillsong church because he’s from Australia and everyone here is #and that our taxes go to Hillsong because it is our biggest export that the company relies on for income….#girl is there another Australia I don’t know about #have you heard of beef. wheat. iron ore. wool cotton tertiary education #RUPERT MURDOCH?#the majority of Australians were non-religious in the last census??? I don’t think Jacob elordi is on some secret mission to convert America #anyway odds are that I’m gonna say 97% of the time if you come across a really bad take where they won’t back down…

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