Under celebrity pastor Carl Lentz, international megachurch Hillsong became trendy and influential, garnering splashy profiles in outlets such as GQ, and attracting stars such as Chris Pratt, Kendall Jenner, Nick Jonas and Justin Bieber.
But all was not holy. “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed,” a new three-part docuseries premiering March 24 on Discovery+, dives into the jaw-dropping history of the religious institution and its founder Brian Houston, who has been accused of everything from embezzling church funds to covering up child sex abuse. Houston, 68, stepped down as the church’s director in January (amid a court case accusing Houston of hiding his late father’s sexual abuse of children — all of which the church has denied), and he resigned for good March 23, after an internal misconduct investigation, which found Houston had behaved inappropriately towards two women. . .
Hillsong originated in Australia in 1983, founded by Houston, who grew up in dad Frank Houston’s Sydney-based Pentecostal church. When Houston was looking to expand into America, charismatic young pastor Lentz, now 43, came to his attention in 2010. . .
Ranin Karim, 35, alleges she had a five-month-long affair with Lentz that eventually led to Hillsong ousting him in 2020, as she exclusively told The Post in November 2020. In the documentary, Karim describes how they met in a park and exchanged phone numbers. When she asked for his last name, “He was like, ‘When people Google people . . . it’s not a good look. It’s better to get to know the person before you look them up.’ That was the weirdest answer I had ever heard,” she says. . .
Lentz was fired from Hillsong in November 2020, with Houston citing his “moral failures.”
via joemiller
