Hillsong

[marmalade]

Secrets of Hillsong premiers 5/19 on FX (USA). Trailer;

 

[SisterCupcake]

Wow...so at least from that trailer, Carl Lentz is painted as a martyr - "I mean, what I did was bad, but that's just the tip of the iceberg folks..." Interesting way to frame it.

[Ozlsn]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:19 AM, SisterCupcake said:

Wow...so at least from that trailer, Carl Lentz is painted as a martyr - "I mean, what I did was bad, but that's just the tip of the iceberg folks..." Interesting way to frame it.

Ooh, how to throw the people you might need under the bus. Good move Lentz, and I need more popcorn.

[clueliss]

There’s a Hillsong documentary from FX on Hulu that premiered this week.  Two of four parts are available right now.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

46 minutes ago, clueliss said:

There’s a Hillsong documentary from FX on Hulu that premiered this week.  Two of four parts are available right now.  

Thanks for the reminder. I meant to watch. I will try to watch the first one today.

[Pecansforeveryone]

The documentary is quite good. I felt some for Laura Lentz and after what she disclosed, I really felt for their children. The documentary gives several challenging voices to the Lentz es so it is by no means just Carl playing "woe is me."

[Cam]

20 hours ago, Pecansforeveryone said:

The documentary is quite good. I felt some for Laura Lentz and after what she disclosed, I really felt for their children. The documentary gives several challenging voices to the Lentz es so it is by no means just Carl playing "woe is me."

Isn’t it something that you and no doubt many others feel for their children, yet they never seemed to think about how their actions would affect their own children. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I do feel for the children but I have a hard time feeling for most of the adults. They were adults and I think they were often complicate in a lot of messed up shit. 

[stylites]

On 5/21/2023 at 2:27 PM, Pecansforeveryone said:

The documentary is quite good. I felt some for Laura Lentz and after what she disclosed, I really felt for their children. The documentary gives several challenging voices to the Lentz es so it is by no means just Carl playing "woe is me."

I thought it was better than I feared, though there was a certain amount of exculpation going on as you point out.  What struck me was how much Hillsong is a business model layered over a way of doing church.  Parts of it are essentially a form of MLM - complete people labouring for free as a form of sweat equity - that constantly seeks to grow the 'downstream'.  There are also places where the model of a church breaks down because of the scale and visibility with which they operate - like Hillsong spinning and leaking audio to justify their decisions to get rid of the Lentz's to protect the institution against taint.  Obviously you feel sorry for them, but on the other hand they were okay with the system until it happened to them.

[marmalade]

Parts 3/4 air late tonight on FX.

[bea]

Okay, I was never much of a Hillsong snarker, mostly because I didn't know anything about it.

And then I watched these two documentaries back to back and DAMN, what a mess.

[Katzchen24]

Houston's trial rolls on. Closing addresses were apparently happening on 15 June 2023 (ABC article here).

There doesn't seem to be any indication of how the trial is going, and my inner pessimist thinks he'll get away with concealing his father's crimes.

 

[Ozlsn]

On the positive side The Kingdom is on SBS on Demand, yay!

[bea]

On 6/20/2023 at 4:30 AM, Ozlsn said:

On the positive side The Kingdom is on SBS on Demand, yay!

I hope that makes it to the US soon.....looks great.

[Katzchen24]

Dammit.

Houston has been found not guilty of concealing the abuses his father committed. No justice for the victims here. Could open a book on how soon until Houston is back on the comeback circuit.

[Ozlsn]

5 hours ago, Katzchen24 said:

Could open a book on how soon until Houston is back on the comeback circuit.

I think that may be a while off yet - the drink driving and drunken unwanted advances probably have done more to tarnish him in the congregation's eyes. Besides he's got a sweet retirement deal, that will keep him going for a couple of years.

[Antipatriarch]

9 hours ago, Katzchen24 said:

Houston has been found not guilty of concealing the abuses his father committed. No justice for the victims here.

Apparently the ruling says they found that (Brian) Houston had a "reasonable excuse" for not reporting, in that (one of?) the victims told him he didn't want it to go to the police? source

Quote

Attorney Phillip Boulten conceded that not telling the police also protected Frank Houston’s reputation and Hillsong.

How convenient.

That's not how this should work. If there's abuse, you report. Not only are there likely to be other, not yet known, past victims, but there are also potential future victims to think of.

[noseybutt]

52 minutes ago, Antipatriarch said:

Apparently the ruling says they found that (Brian) Houston had a "reasonable excuse" for not reporting, in that (one of?) the victims told him he didn't want it to go to the police? source

How convenient.

That's not how this should work. If there's abuse, you report. Not only are there likely to be other, not yet known, past victims, but there are also potential future victims to think of.

While I agree reporting should happen regardless, that’s not the way it worked at the time of the alleged crime. Back in the day, there was a strong emphasis on doing what the victims wanted and respecting their wishes without understanding that not wanting to report is fear based and part of the abuse cycle.

I still hear similar debates around domestic violence and esp parents who are not wanting to report adult offspring.