I know this will fall into the "TLDR" category, but fuck it. This shit is pissing me off, and the more people who discuss it, the better.
As much as I think anyone who believes in an omniscient, omnipresent (and there's one other omni that escapes me right now...) fairy that lives in the sky is an absolute nutter, I am quite happy to let people follow their religion of choice, as long as it doesn't impact on others.
Well, Hillsong affects others.
This organisation is slowly garnering a reputation of being a gluttonous, insidious organisation. This is despite its attempts to appear to be a church full of
shiny, happy people.The church was set up by a guy called Brian Houston. If you want more info about him, you can have a read
here. However, one interesting tidbit from that site is:
"In 2000 Frank Houston was advised to resign his ministerial credentials by his son, Brian Houston the after Houston senior confessed that he had engaged in paedophile sexual activities with a teenage boy while ministering in New Zealand (and the fact he was gay) some thirty years earlier." (Frank Houston is Brian's father, who assisted in setting up Hillsong in Australia).
This article from 2005 details the complex financial web that the Houstons have created, involving a business called "Leadership Ministries Incorporated" (LMI) and how it's a separate entity to Hillsong. In 2005, LMI (a business that deals with the Houston's books/speaking engagements etc) generated over $1.3million in revenue. This is distinct from Hillsong's (tax free) revenue which hit the $50million mark in the same year. That's some big money being generated - and there's a lot of dubious shuffling of funds.
So where does the big money come from? The church basically asks members to donate 10% of their wage to the collection plate. The Houstons also sell a bunch of "merchandise" related to the church's teachings, including a lovely book written by Brian called "You Need More Money: Discovering God's Amazing Financial Plan For Your Life" or his wife's three-tape boxed set called "Kingdom Women Love Sex", in which she says encourages women to lose the lard - "
If I carry weight I feel like a retard ... How are you going to do anything to surprise your man when you need a hydraulic crane just to turn over in bed?" and suggests plastic surgery as an option to resolving the issue.
A critic and ex-member of Hillsong has claimed that the church's basic philosophy is that "God will repay everything you give. And the longer you have to wait, the greater the return."
Yeah. That doesn't sound sus at all.Well, Houston and his wife Bobbie (and their family) must have been waiting a while, as they own a place on a 1.2ha block at Wilberforce, and in 2002 the wife sold a $650,000 apartment at Bondi Beach, on the same block as James Packer - yet they continue to use this property. In addition, the couple's children have bought properties around the Bondi apartment, with
one son paying $276,000 up front.
Hillsong argues that its funds are poured directly back into charitable offerings and infrastructure designed to help the community, through its charitable arm,
Emerge. For example, there are Hillsong medical centres (which have pissed off nearby doctors who now have to compete with a tax-free entity), youth hostels (let's hope they don't follow Father Frank's philosophy!), Aboriginal assistance and crime prevention programs (like
this one in which they misused a government grant).
Despite all this dodginess, I'm mostly concerned about the "insidious" aspect of this group. For example, my mother and aunt were both undergoing counselling related to childhood sexual abuse. They were seeing the same counsellor, who they had contacted via Mission Australia. They were seeing her separately, and were at a fairly low ebb in their lives as they were working their way through their trauma.
After a couple of months, my mum brought home a Hillsong CD. I asked her why the hell she had it, and she explained that the counsellor had given it to her. Now, my mum is a fairly smart cookie, and I couldn't believe that she hadn't heard of Hillsong, or been conned by this woman. She did her own research and promptly threw the CD in the bin and tore strips off the counsellor at the next session.
The scary thing was that the counsellor tried the same thing on my aunty. Apparently, she'd slowly "groomed" them by introducing discussions about spirituality etc, and a need for community, then all of a sudden it was all CDs and invites to "women's retreats". It makes me wonder how many people - obviously very vulnerable people - she had taken (and still IS taking) advantage of.
I, too, have experienced the way that these people work. A parent at my school "befriended" me - popping in after class for chats, offering lots of help. After a while, she invited me along to her "church" one weekend. Yep. You got it - a church affiliated with Hillsong.
Then we have all the stuff like the Australian Idol fiasco, and the dodginess surrounding Hillsong's registration as an ARIA outlet causing Hillsong artists to rocket up the "mainstream" charts - and you've really got to wonder what the go is.
Anyway, I've had enough of a rant now.
The following videos are compulsory viewing. Take a look at Brian Houston explaining Hillsong's "Vision", and be utterly repulsed.
Hillsong Vision: Part OneHillsong Vision: Part TwoHillsong Vision: Part ThreeHillsong Vision: Part Four(P.S. Sorry Facebookians, you're going to cop this twice 
)
