Publications
Partners
There were mixed reactions when Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston was found not guilty of concealing his father’s child sex crimes, by a Sydney magistrate.
The former leader of the global megachurch was charged in August 2021 after police New South Wales found that Brian’s father, pastor Frank Houston who died in 2004, had confessed to sexually assaulting a young boy decades before.
Brian (69) said he only learned about it years later, and didn't inform the authorities. Australian prosecutors, however, argued that he tried to cover up his father's sexual abuse crimes by paying the victim hush money to keep quiet about it.
The disgraced pastor, who maintained his innocence throughout the trial, welcomed the ruling.
“A lot of people’s lives have been tragically hurt, and for that I’ll always be very sad. But I’m not my father,” he said outside court.
Bobbie Houston, Brian’s wife and Hillsong co-founder, also welcomed the news. “I don’t know where to begin to acknowledge and give heartfelt gratitude to those who have walked with us through this arduous and heartbreaking territory,” she said on Instagram.
“But they know who they are. I also want to give public gratitude to a remarkable legal team. You walked with Brian because you knew he was and is a man of truth.”
Brett Sengstock, who testified that he was just seven years old when Frank began abusing him, said the trial traumatised him.
“Frank Houston was no pioneer for Christianity. His legacy remains a faded memory of a paedophile,” he told reporters.
“Regardless of today’s outcome, I have received a life sentence. Blaming the victim is as repulsive as the assaults themselves.”
READ MORE | The cash, the flash, the secrets & lies: Hillsong church's series of scandals
Brian and Bobbie founded Hillsong 40 years ago, but the last two years have been a rollercoaster for the preacher and his flock.
In March 2022, he resigned as the leader of the church following an internal investigation that found he’d behaved inappropriately towards women in the congregation.
Then in May, an FX documentary series titled The Secrets of Hillsong dug into the rise and fall of the megachurch, as well as the cracks in the congregation. The series featured conversations with congregants and is based on Vanity Fair journalists Alex French and Dan Adler's reports on the megachurch’s scandals.
Former pastor Carl Lentz, who was fired from Hillsong Church NYC in 2020 amid a cheating scandal, also broke his silence in the documentary.
“The hardest part of this was just trying not to look my wife in the eye ever,” he said.
Carl and his wife Laura have since moved to Florida with their three children. He now works a desk job and hasn't spoken to Brian since Brian fired him in a Zoom call three years ago.
Shortly after sacking Carl, Brian appeared on the Today Show discussing the cheating allegations.
“There were leadership issues that I believe included lying, included what I'd call narcissistic behaviour,” he said.
“I don’t think Carl really is anything like me.”
In the doccie, Carl clapped back saying, “If there's one person not qualified to talk about the state of another person in this situation, it would be Brian.
"But I hate to see what’s happening right now,” he said, referring to Brian’s legal cases.
SOURCES: BBC.COM; LATIMES.COM; CHRISTIANPOST.COM; TIME.COM; VANITYFAIR.COM
