Oh, Dear, Another (Male) Mega-Church Pastor In Trouble, Possibly for Adultery – Brian Houston of Hillsong Church – So Much for Equally Yoked and Male Headship Teachings!
Update below, March 22, 2022 – Houston has since resigned.
If not adultery, this may possibly be a case of Clergy Sexual Abuse, if there was sexual activity between this guy and the lady.
This would also go to show (once again) that marriage does not make people more upstanding, loving, moral, or godly than remaining single. Also: one does not have to achieve a level of godliness before God will permit a person to marry (this was commonly taught in the dating advice books I read by Christians while growing up).
If so many grown, married men, even ones who identify as Christian, can do idiot things like claim to be quasi-stoned and stumble into another woman’s hotel room, this goes to show that married people are not more responsible than single adults.
Also goes to show that the “equally yoked” rule is a waste of time for single Christian women: you can be a Christian woman who marries a Christian man, but the Christian man in question doesn’t even bother to follow the most basic of Christian ethics.
Complementarian Christians keep teaching that men are, for some reason, supposedly more suitable for leadership roles in life in church, and news stories like this one reveal that no, they are not. Many men are complete failures at leadership.
Embattled former Hillsong pastor Brian Houston allegedly committed ‘indiscretions’ towards two women, the current head of the global church has revealed in a meeting with staff.
Pastor Phil Dooley, who took over leadership of the church from Houston in January, told staff about the apparent incidents during a video conference on Friday morning, the ABC reported.
The claims, revealed during a Zoom meeting with some 800 staff, come just months after Mr Houston stepped down as leader of the mega-church while he fights criminal charges that he covered up his father’s child sex abuse.
Hillsong Church says founder Brian Houston breached its code of conduct, with the organisation apologising “unreservedly” to two women who complained about his inappropriate behaviour.
(Link): Hillsong board blames anxiety drug, alcohol for landing Brian Houston in a woman’s hotel room
Excerpts:
by Roxanne Stone
The board of the global megachurch released a statement revealing its cofounder had sent inappropriate text messages to a staff member and spent time in a woman’s hotel room.
The board of directors of Hillsong, the global megachurch and music empire co-founded by Australian pastor Brian Houston, released a statement Friday (March 18) addressing two complaints about Houston, including an accusation that the married pastor had spent time alone in a hotel room with a woman in 2019.
Megachurch says Houston, who has stepped down as leader of the church, breached its code of conduct
(Link): Hillsong founder Brian Houston was drunk inside a woman’s hotel room for 40 minutes, church reveals
Excerpts:
March 2022
By Leonardo Blair, Senior Features Reporter
Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston violated the church’s code of conduct by entering the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes while under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs during the church’s annual conference in 2019, officials revealed Friday.
In a statement outlining investigations into two complaints against Houston’s behavior in the last 10 years, the global evangelical church network also said that its global senior pastor exchanged an “inappropriate text message” with a staffer in 2013, resulting in her resigning shortly after.
In a recording of a meeting with 800 staffers of the global megachurch cited by Crikey, Hillsong Interim Global Senior Pastor Phil Dooley said Houston doesn’t recall having sex with the unidentified woman in the hotel room in 2019.
…“Later that evening, he [Houston] went to go to his room [in a hotel, after a conference], didn’t have his room key and ended up knocking on the door of this woman’s room, and she opened the door, and he went into her room.”
Dooley said the church couldn’t conclusively say what happened.
“This woman has not said if there was any sexual activity. Brian has said there was no sexual activity,” he said. “But he was in the woman’s room for 40 minutes. He doesn’t have much of a recollection because of the mixture of the anxiety tablets and the alcohol. This woman had also been drinking, so her recollection is not completely coherent.”
You can read more of that (Link): here
Update . March 22, 2022
Hillsong founder Brian Houston has resigned from the Pentecostal megachurch over allegations of ‘indiscretions’ toward two women, an emergency staff meeting has been told.
The church’s acting senior pastor Phil Dooley announced the resignation to the second staff meeting in a week on Wednesday.
He said it was a time of ‘humble reflection’ for the church, which was founded in Sydney’s west and has since spread around the world.
The church had been investigating ‘two complaints made against Pastor Brian’ over the past 10 years.
Related:
(Link): Carl Lentz’s Alleged Mistress Speaks Out in Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed Trailer: ‘Toxic’
(Link): Sex Abuse Allegations by Carl Lentz’s Former Nanny Put Spotlight on Hillsong (Church) Culture
(Link): Hillsong Church Rife with ‘Inappropriate’ Sex, Members Claimed
(Link): Tithe Money Funded Hillsong Pastors’ Luxury Lifestyles: Former Members by H. Frishberg
(Link): Women in Perry Stone’s Ministry Allege Sexual Misconduct, Say FBI is Investigating Televangelist
(Link): Inside Disgraced, Disheveled Ex-Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz’s Downgraded House
Christian Pundit 