A Leaked Probe Into Star-Studded Megachurch That Was Recently Embroiled In Massive Scandal Reportedly Exposed A Deep, Disturbing Culture Of Abuse And Sexual Misconduct

Oh, dear God...


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It wasn’t long ago at all that we reported on the massive scandal inside the star-studded Hillsong megachurch — frequented by the likes of high-profile celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Kylie Jenner, and Selena Gomez — after the Australian branch pastor, Brian Houston, resigned from his position in shame amid an internal probe by the church’s board that ultimately determined Houston violated the church’s code of conduct at least two separate times over the past 10 years due to highly inappropriate behavior towards two different women.

But it seems Houston’s resignation amid the probe was just a scratch on the surface of an entire iceberg of abuse and sexual misconduct culture that went so much deeper inside the church as a whole.

According to a bombshell new report from The Christian Post, a leaked investigation into the Manhattan branch of Hillsong megachurch exposed an abusive, foul culture behind the veil that went further than even Houston’s shameful resignation, or the New York branch’s former pastor Carl Lentz.

The original investigative report, titled Internal Investigation Report Regarding Carl Lentz and Other Matters, was leaked to the Christian Post and outlined an internal investigation that the New York City law firm Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman conducted into the church.

Hillsong was founded in the 1980s, originally only existing in Australia, before taking off into a massive global establishment that boasts an average weekly attendance of 150,000 people.

A report from the New York Post notes, “When Houston was looking to expand into America, charismatic young pastor Lentz, now 43, came to his attention in 2010. Lentz became Hillsong’s shining star, skyrocketing to such fame that he rubbed elbows with the likes of Bieber and Oprah Winfrey.”

The leaked report, totaling 51 scandal-filled pages, alleges, “a mishandling of the spiritual care of a vulnerable parishioner with an eating disorder who eventually died, and multiple incidents of consensual or non-consensual sexual interaction between church leaders and congregants, staff, volunteers, or non-churchgoers. It presents an unflattering view of Lentz as a lying, massage-loving, adulterer who presided over a congregation in which he did as he pleased in a hierarchy where he seemingly answered to no one,” according to the Post. 

Investigators stated in the report, “Lentz’s ability to lead so poorly was itself the result of insufficient supervision and accountability applied to Lentz himself. Indeed, it appears that effective management and accountability of Lentz was nonexistent. What is more, multiple witnesses described Lentz as repeatedly reinforcing the idea that New York was separate and apart from Australia. Although Lentz denies it, multiple staff in New York recall Lentz saying that ‘Australia is dead to us’ and other comments to similar effect.”

“As with much of his testimony regarding non-sexual matters, Lentz was not credible when defending his demands for cultural isolationism from the Australian parent church. The Australian mother ship appears also to bear some responsibility here, since it never established effective oversight and accountability for the New York Lead Pastor,” investigators added. “This lack of oversight permitted Carl Lentz to assume the role of final arbiter of what was proper behavior for everyone in New York, himself included. With the benefit of hindsight, given Lentz’s personal limitations, this was a recipe for trouble.”

“It was not uncommon for volunteers and staff who had frequent interaction with Carl Lentz to report that such interaction had ’caused’ them to suffer from mental illness.”

Is it just me, or is there a real trend developing among these megachurches?

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/ToBeDaniel licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

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