![]() You just push it as far under the rug as you can. "Most of the time, it serves everybody to push everything down. was what looks best for the church," Lentz says. "Typically, the way that Hillsong has handled scandal. Lentz is also critical of Hillsong's leadership, particularly that of founder Brian Houston, a former friend and mentor, who is now in the midst of a trial in Australia, where he is accused of failing to report child sexual abuse by his father, Frank Houston, a preacher who died in 2004 and whose Pentecostal church there was a precursor to Hillsong. There were mutual decisions made by two people who lied profusely, mainly to my wife." "Any notion of abuse is categorically false. "I am responsible for allowing an inappropriate relationship to develop in my house with someone that worked for us," he says. Lentz also admits an inappropriate relationship with Kimes, who was co-pastor of Hillsong in Boston, in addition to being the family's nanny, but insists that it was consensual. What I've done is my fault, but where that thing started, I have no control over. Lentz also says he misused drugs prescribed for ADHD for years, including during his tenure at Hillsong, when he would oversee as many as seven worship services on a single Sunday. Lentz, who relocated with his family to Sarasota, Florida, after a stint in rehab, says he was sexually abused by a family friend as a child, an experience that led to intense shame and secrecy around his private life. "The Secrets of Hillsong" features the first interviews with the Lentzes, who were both ousted from the church, and includes new revelations about the personal demons that contributed to Carl Lentz's behavior. "The Secrets of Hillsong," a four-part docuseries premiering Friday on FX, makes the case that Lentz, although flawed, was a convenient, high-profile scapegoat for an institution that went much deeper than a single wayward pastor. To many, it seemed like a predictable twist in an all-too-familiar tale: Lentz, despite his hipster trappings, was just another hypocritical religious leader caught up in a sex scandal and ultimately undone by his own hubris. "I was subjected to manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power and sexual abuse," she wrote in a 2021 blog post. Then, he disappeared from public view, even as Ranin Karim talked about her affair with Lentz on "Good Morning America," and the family's former nanny, Leona Kimes, publicly accused Carl Lentz of misdeeds. ![]() Then, in late 2020, he was fired from Hillsong for "moral failures." On Instagram, Lentz apologized for cheating on his wife, Laura, disappointing the thousands of congregants who looked to him for spiritual guidance. In the process, Lentz turned into a star himself, a "hypepriest" to the rich and famous who was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and profiled in major magazines.Īs a white Evangelical who lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, and wasn't afraid to say Black lives matter - even on "The 700 Club" - he seemed to represent a new, more progressive strain of Christianity, even as he skillfully dodged questions about the church's stance on LGBTQ+ issues and did little to increase diversity in the organization's leadership. Known for his designer skinny jeans, plunging V-neck shirts and wildly charismatic sermons, Lentz attracted numerous celebrities to his flock and in 2014, famously baptized Justin Bieber in a bathtub belonging to NBA player Tyson Chandler. Over the following decade, the church became a sensation, drawing thousands of diverse, young congregants every Sunday to services at Irving Plaza in Manhattan. The pastor had founded the New York City outpost of Hillsong, a Pentecostal megachurch with roots in Australia, in 2010. Just a few years ago, Carl Lentz was on top of the world.
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