Cult traits emerge as Hillsong call Royal Commission “extremely unfair”
29 Monday Feb 2016
Posted in Associations, Hillsong Associations, Hillsong Scandal, Houston, News Headlines
Tag Archives: ACA
SMH reports on Hillsong’s “gorilla warfare” against ACA.
27 Monday Apr 2015
Posted in News Headlines
Tags
a current affair, ACA, Brian Houston, gorilla, Hillsong, Hillsong cult, houston, SMH, sydney morning herald
God’s Word says the following about false teachers,
“But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.” Jude 1:10
Do you want to know what Christian love looks like at Hillsong Church? Spiritual leader/CEO of Hillsong Church, Brian Houston was not impressed as to how he was represented in A Current Affair’s recent report.
Hillsong: The multi-million dollar “crazy cult”
Which “tabloid trash” do you believe?
Brian Houston in damage control… again… and again…and again.
“Tabloid trash” exposing Hillsong of lying?
It looks as though secular media are now reporting on the conduct of Hillsong’s spiritual leader.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports,
A Current Affair versus Hillsong: the coffee challenge
It was a Goliath and Goliath story. Channel Nine’s nightly current affairs program versus Australia’s best known mega-church, head to head, in the Twitter arena.
A Current Affair last week aired a 16-minute special report detailing explosive revelations that the controversial Hillsong Church made a lot of money but, like every other church in Australia, paid no tax.
Hillsong was making a concert movie set to rake in millions of dollars tax free. Parishioners regularly gave up to 10 per cent of their income in a practice known as tithing. The church was making it so easy to collect tax free dollars through tithing that it was even developing a giving app.
ACA said the church had not responded to requests for comment, a claim denied by Hillsong in a statement the next day that called the segment “tabloid trash”.
A day after that, Hillsong founder Brian Houston laid down a boldfaced challenge to ACA reporter Ben McCormack.
@benmccormack9 Hey.. How about coming to have a coffee with me one day? You got the guts to do that? Just you and me.
The proposed coffee date sounded more like the pastoral equivalent of “Do you wanna take this outside?”
McCormack wasn’t backing down.
@benmccormack9 Hey.. How about coming to have a coffee with me one day? You got the guts to do that? Just you and me.
@BrianCHouston love to meet. Why not do an interview on camera & answer some questions too? You got the guts to do that?
Houston shot back:
@BrianCHouston love to meet. Why not do an interview on camera & answer some questions too? You got the guts to do that?
@BenMcCormack9 The Q’s are not the issue. It’s your skewered editing & underhanded tactics that are the problem. So no..!
McCormack repeated his offer of an interview before Houston repeated his mano-e-mano cappuccino challenge. McCormack suggested that, like Hillsong followers, the ACA team “lived to give”.
A bitter stalemate ensued.
On Monday, not content with having had the last word only once, McCormack tweeted:
@BenMcCormack9 well my offer of a coffee with no hidden recording or cameras stands. It’s not as though ACA is known for its credibility!!
@BrianCHouston “credibility”?? Hillsong issuing false hysterical misleading press statements. It’s you with the credibility problem Brian.
Houston may be frantically trying to come up with his own put-down. But maybe he has taken another tack to win this stoush.
As he tweeted the day before it began:
Love is a very compelling argument!!
Source: By Patrick Begley, Sydney Morning Herald, A Current Affair versus Hillsong: the coffee challenge, http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/a-current-affair-versus-hillsong-the-coffee-challenge-20150427-1muarj.html, Published 27/04/2015. (Accessed 27/04/2015.)
Does Brian Houston’s response to the ACA report, represent the actions of a godly shepherd or are we seeing the responses exposing the behaviour of a false teacher.
“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” 1 Timothy 3: 1-7
“Tabloid trash” exposing Hillsong of lying?
26 Sunday Apr 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
a current affair, ACA, Ben McCormack, Brian Houston, crazy cult, cult, exposed, Grimshaw, guts, Hillsong, Hillsong cult, houston, lie, lies, statement, Tracy Grimshaw
LOVE, LEAD, LIE
We noted in our previous article Brian Houston retweeting Hillsong’s tweet of their ‘Hillsong Statement’ about the A Current Affairs (ACA) report. This is what the Hillsong Tweet read:
Statement by Hillsong Church on A Current Affair story: http://hil.so/qzpw
Source: Hillsong Church, https://twitter.com/hillsong/status/590754683674853376, 10:51 PM – 21 Apr 2015. (Accessed 24/04/2015.)
We have already reviewed this “Official Statement” from Hillsong:
Which “tabloid trash” do you believe?
Brian Houston in damage control… again… and again…and again.
What occurred after Hillsong issued that statement was breathtaking.
THE REPORTER AND THE RORTER
One of the issues that the A Current Affairs report highlighted was the fact that Hillsong pressures people to give money.
Hillsong have continually lied to the general public about this issue and this is a lie that we at Church Watch have exposed repeatedly.
We would like to remind our readers that Brian Houston himself pressures his members to give money so they can be right before God and be in the will of God. (This false teaching absolutely perverts the foundational teachings of Christianity and is in fact a damnable heresy.) As you can see, Houston is scamming people financially into believing that they can only prosper in God if they give money to God/Hillsong.
On the 22nd of April, Tracy Grimshaw from A Current Affair tweeted ,
@FArimado we ask Hillsong constantly to talk to us about how the donations are spent. They will not. “If only” they would..
Source: Tracy Grimshaw, Twitter, https://twitter.com/tracygrimshaw/status/590997174332227584, 2:54 PM – 22 Apr 2015. (Accessed 25/04/2015.)
It was this phrase from Brian Houston that caught our attention:
“It’s not as though ACA is known for its credibility”.
Who is lying? Who’s credibility is at stake here? Sadly, many people are tweeting that this is not a good look for a church. And as @Dan_Nolan9 observed, “Not a good look for a church – creating falsehoods in a statement accusing ACA of falsehoods”.
This because ACA responded to Hillsong’s original tweet alerting people to the Hillsong Statement. The statement claimed “the program made no attempt to contact us to get the facts – or even hear our perspective – before airing this piece of fiction”.
Ben McCormack from ACA tweeted a few times to people who accused ACA of not contacting Hillsong.
@hillsong this statement by Hillsong is false. ACA contacted the church by phone and email and we got no response.
Source: Ben McCormack, Twitter, https://twitter.com/BenMcCormack9/status/591090162039279616/photo/1, 9:04 PM – 22 Apr 2015. (Accessed 25/04/2015.)
This tweet included the following evidence to prove that Hillsong’s statement was a farce:
He also tweeted later with the same attachments,
@Markedw @tracygrimshaw @hillsong we contacted them on 4 separate occasions. Don’t fall for more Hillsong dishonesty.
Source: Ben McCormack, Twitter, https://twitter.com/BenMcCormack9/status/591105999525650432, 10:07 PM – 22 Apr 2015. (Accessed 25/04/2015.)
After the news team publicly exposed Hillsong for not being honest in their official Hillsong Statement, Brian Houston contacted Ben McCormack. Do you think Brian Houston apologised for his false allegation?
This exchange took place on the 23rd of April, 2015:
Brian Houston:
@benmccormack9 Hey.. How about coming to have a coffee with me one day? You got the guts to do that? Just you and me.
Ben McCormack:
@BrianCHouston love to meet. Why not do an interview on camera & answer some questions too? You got the guts to do that?
Brian Houston:
@BenMcCormack9 The Q’s are not the issue. It’s your skewered editing & underhanded tactics that are the problem. So no..!
Ben McCormack:
@BrianCHouston now there’s a surprise.
Ben McCormack:
@BrianCHouston our offer of an interview remains open..
Brian Houston:
@BenMcCormack9 well my offer of a coffee with no hidden recording or cameras stands. It’s not as though ACA is known for its credibility!!
Ben McCormack:
@BrianCHouston we live to give Brian.. Just like your followers.
You’d think that excellent leadership could check all their emails or even check with ACA, before publicly accusing ACA of lying. (Especially when the program was being advertised in advance.) Once again, we are seeing another unsound, unwise and poor leadership example in Hillsong Church.
So why should Bobbie and Brian Houston set themselves up as leadership mentors for other churches to follow?
Live Love Lie
Which “tabloid trash” do you believe? (UPDATED)
23 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in News Headlines
Tags
a current affair, ACA, Hillsong statement, Nick Xenophon, statement, threat, threaten, tithes, Xenophon
(EDIT 29/04/2015: We have uploaded another Hillsong document which is a tithing envelope titled:
HOME
building God’s House
Tithes
It comes with an out of context scripture from Malachi 3:10 [NKJV]. It is in this context where Malachi curses anyone who withholds their tithe to “God’s House” or “storehouse”. You can see this Hillsong tithing envelope at the bottom of this article.)
Hillsong released a statement in response to this A Current Affair report:
Hillsong: The multi-million dollar “crazy cult”
Not only did Hillsong issue to Senator Nick Xenophon mob-like threats, apparently “the vast majority of Australians” see the ‘A Current Affair’ report as “nothing more than tabloid trash.” So in response to the minority in Hillsong who read and believe “tabloid trash,” Hillsong writes:
Statement by Hillsong Church on A Current Affair story April 21, 2015
There was no factual basis whatsoever to the story on A Current Affair about Hillsong Church, and the program made no attempt to contact us to get the facts – or even hear our perspective – before airing this piece of fiction. The movie “Let Hope Rise” is being produced by an outside production company who approached us, and Hillsong Church has not invested one cent into this movie. Furthermore, we operate like any other church financially and support people pastorally across the world. This story was yet again, nothing more than tabloid trash and we believe the vast majority of Australians view it as such. It is disappointing that Senator Nick Xenophon, (who presents himself as a champion of the people) has cooperated with such stories for at least the third time. It is poor behaviour and worth noting by church-going voters and people at large in South Australia, who rightly expect their elected representatives to make comments based on factual information rather than conjecture.
Source: Hillsong, Statement by Hillsong Church on A Current Affair story April 21, 2015, http://hillsong.com/media/statement-by-hillsong-church-on-a-current-affair-story-april-21-2015. (Accessed 23/04/2015.)
There is a lot to extract from this statement. Especially the plethora of fallacious arguments and lack of evidence to back up Hillsong’s claims. However, more people seem to be sharing their experiences or insights into the corruption of the Hillsong cult.
This an insightful comment from a former AOG pastors wife:
My mate Tanya Levin did a brilliant job on ACA this week. She’s speaking again about the revenue raising juggernaut that is Hillsong ahead of the release the mega-church’s new Hollywood movie.
In my former life I was for a time an AoG (ACC) pastor’s wife. Even 25 years ago, Brian Houston was recognised in the movement as the one to watch. I can tell you that pastors of churches all around Australia dreamed of being able to count on collections like the ones Brian garnered. Over time Brian’s formula for getting folks to empty their pockets – a complex and emotionally powerful mix of music and clever sales patter with lashings of Jesus – was replicated in hundreds of financially struggling churches around the country and, eventually, around the world. As Tanya so beautifully puts it in this clip, “From London to Cape Town to Copenhagen the message is the same – give, give, give, give, give.”
Although the ACA team was forbidden to film the plea for money, I can tell you that the section of the ‘service’ specifically designed to predispose you to giving generously, runs for about 15 minutes and is the culmination of a cleverly orchestrated, high-production value, highly emotionally manipulative stage show. Those of us in the AoG who despised Houston’s methods had a name for it: fleecing the folk. Nobody does it better than Brian. The report estimates in 2012 Hillsong ‘earned’ $72 million dollars in tax-free income, only a tiny fraction of which is spent on charity work. These guys are crooks, plain and simple, and the Australian public is paying for it. Glad to see Nick Xenophon is trying to increase public accountability of this secretive money printing organisation.
Source: Jane Douglas, FaceBook, https://www.facebook.com/jane.douglas.90/posts/805714359512544, Published 22/04/2015 at 13:03. (Accessed 23/04/2015.)
Her views are worth considering Hillsong states that they “operate like any other church financially and support people pastorally across the world.”
Really? Do you want to know why those people in the ACA Report give 20% at Hillsong?
Does your church put out giving envelopes to you that are like this? Would you feel comfortable putting your credit card number on the back of the envelope where everyone can see it?
* Tithing is an anti-Christian teaching that uses Malachi 3:8-11 to teach that if you do not tithe, God will curse you.
* This envelope was collected from Hillsong and given to us at the beginning of January 2015.
Hillsong Church Watch 