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Hillsong Insider (Part 2): “The Hillsong Takeover of a Norwegian Charismatic Mega Church”

21 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Nailed Truth in Hillsong Associations, Hillsong Fascism, Hillsong Scandal, Insiders

≈ 26 Comments

Tags

Bethel, Brian Johnson, Hillsong family, Hillsong insider, insider, Jenn Johnson, Johnson, Oslo, pagan mysticism, paganism, Roman Catholicism, scandals, takeover

This is Part 2 of my series of 3 articles. Please feel free to read my first article below:

Hillsong Insider (Part 1): “My exit out of a mega church… Never to return again”

In this article, I will be looking at how Hillsong asked Oslo Christian Center to join their godfather family in the spring of 2014.

insider

THE HILLSONG TAKEOVER

I was actually not at church the Sunday it was announced to the whole church. One of my friends met me later the same evening and excitedly told me that the church had joined the family of Hillsong.

I thought I wasn’t hearing right! Never in a hundred years did I expect the church to join the “family of Hillsong”!

I thought it was good enough, more than enough, in fact, all sufficient to be a part of the family of God!!! Whatever did it mean to join the family of Hillsong? What were the implications? It sounded like a good ole boys club scenario to me, where you get asked to join the club. It’s like, what on earth had we done to put us in the spotlight, enough to catch the attention of an Australian mega church on the other side of the globe? I realized all the Norwegian church members were really honored and touched that we had been asked to join their family. “Humbled,” in fact, to quote our pastor. That we would make the list and be asked to join was really amazing to the church members. Everybody thought it was very exciting!

I was curious to hear how the decision had played out. Had we voted on it? Or even talked about it? Had I had my head in the sand? How had I not even heard the buzz in the air? Was it really just landed on us with absolutely no warning?

It felt like boarding a train and knowing more or less that you will end up at this-and-this destination, but then midway, without warning, they change the engine and you head off in a completely different direction! You have no idea where the stops will be and much less where the destination is!  In short, I felt completely disoriented!

This was a huge decision on the church’s part, international in fact. How was it possible we had not been informed?

AN UNHEALTHY CHURCH MENTALITY

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” 1 Peter 5:1-4 (Emphasis mine)

I did some research and found out that no, indeed, I hadn’t missed a vote or earlier announcement. A couple of members seemed shocked that I even asked about a congregational vote. They explained to me with a wave of the hand that one can’t have all the grannies getting involved to vote on the color of the sanctuary curtains! One needs a team of leaders to make these decisions because otherwise one would never get anything done!  I couldn’t believe that was the explanation they tossed me!

I was seriously concerned about going to a church where the leadership made international decisions that they did not even run by us, the lay people, for some feed back. I asked some leaders if they had had prior knowledge. I was told that one month prior to the congregation being told, all the leaders, such as cell group leaders and various team leaders, were called in to a meeting and briefed on the idea. So first, the very top of the pyramid of leaders had discussed this, and when they had considered all the facts and felt it was a good idea, they presented it to the lesser leaders.

It was naturally presented in glowing terms by the top leaders, like it would only be a benefit to the church. We would of course keep our church name and own identity and operate church as usual. Joining Hillsong family would not affect our finances. But being part of the family of Hillsong would probably give us more access to Hillsong material and speakers and conferences and discounts of sorts. The leaders said at the meeting that they were open for feedback and thoughts around this decision.

It probably felt a bit like being a guest at a wedding.  “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”   Maybe some of the wedding guests have a certain gut feeling this marriage might not go well or are afraid the couple have not been entirely honest with one another or that they should give the relationship more time before they rush into this decision, but the doubting guest knows that the couple have made up their minds and nothing they say will probably stop them from taking their vows. Also, if they were to speak up and the couple got married anyway and lived happily ever after, then they would go down in history as the doubting guest with no faith in the couple’s commitment. Who is really going to risk their reputation and go out on a limb like that?

So I can imagine it was something like that at that meeting.  Any silent objectors stayed silent and hoped for the best! Just sprinkle some good faith over it and it will work out for the best. I mean, hey, what’s not to like about it? It’s a win win situation! It’s a warm wall at our back! I mean, who in their right mind would turn down such an offer?  It’s too good to be true! To get to be a part of famous Hillsong but still be our own identity?! Well, I wondered if it was just that:  too good to be true.

Sadly, I personally think this decision says lots about our leaders faith and trust in our congregation; our congregations faith and trust in our leadership; and most importantly, how we as a church have put our faith and trust into Hillsong to love, grow, comfort and support us rather than God.

How is joining Hillsong helping us if we are faithfully preaching God’s Word daily? What power do they have that we don’t already have? Why the pressure to join? What are we saying about our church and leadership now that we’ve joined Hillsong? That we were incompetent?

HILLSONG’S OPERATION BEHIND THE TAKEOVER

So what did I know about Hillsong?  About what every body else does.  They are famous for their praise and worship music. I had an album of their music that somebody had given me and I knew others who rushed to get their newest albums as they cranked them out. We all sing their songs at some point in our various churches of all denominations. It’s this big church and popular Bible school destination. I mean, who with money doesn’t feel God calling them to a year of Bible school in exotic Australia???!!!! That’s really about all I knew about them. I mean, they are way over there on the other side of the globe. There are enough church goings-on to keep up with over here.  Why pay any special attention to Hillsong other than their music?

But if we were becoming a member of Hillsong family, that must mean we line up with their doctrine and way of doing church. So I felt I better research the Hillsong pastors and see what they were up to, as I assumed we would be hearing more from them in the near future.  As I looked into Hillsong, absolutely everything alarmed me.

Bit by bit I pieced together our involvement with Hillsong.  Apparently we had history that went way back. Our pastor had studied at the Hillsong Bible School himself! So did someone at Hillsong Bible School give him the idea that he can convert his church into a Hillsong Church? If so, what Bible School would do such a thing? Why not hand over the church and start his own Hillsong Church upfront in Oslo?

When he returned to Norway, his father, who was the senior pastor and founder of Oslo Christian Center, gave him the opportunity to start a church in downtown Oslo. So the son started up a brand new church that was a branch of his father’s church. They rented Victoria Theater on the main drag in Oslo, a couple blocks from the palace. It was a theater that was a bar and concert venue the rest of the week. As I looked into Hillsong campus churches world wide, I noticed that seemed to be their trademark, renting secular theaters for church services. So we were apparently a chip off the old block! I guess it’s too embarrassing and uncool to meet in traditional churches. I assume this does not really accommodate the whole stage effect that these hip young “churches” are into.

I was told that Brian and Bobbie Houston had  been emotionally and spiritually supportive about our young pastor starting this church. They had really prayed over him. Then when the son took over as senior pastor when his father retired they also really prayed over him again!

One year later, after he had been functioning as senior pastor of the three campuses of Oslo Christian Center, Hillsong invited us to join their family.

I hate to be so nonspiritual that I just look at the cold hard facts of finance and business opportunities, but all the same, I found myself pondering some things.  Hillsong has a campus in Stockholm and Copenhagen… why not Norway? Norway is the most evangelical country of Scandinavia, so the market is big for a church like Hillsong. We have one of the best economies in the world and the highest standard of living. From a purely financial point of view, who wouldn’t want a piece of that pie?

Well, we were already here. So we would have been stiff competition for Hillsong, to be perfectly honest. So maybe Hillsong thought if you can’t beat them, join them. Whatever the case, I couldn’t get rid of this nagging feeling that this was a great strategy on the part of Hillsong.

It wasn’t only our church that joined the family of Hillsong.  A few months earlier, Intro Church also located in downtown Oslo, joined the family of Hillsong. We joined the family of Hillsong in the spring of 2014 and that summer, Norway was the most represented country at the London Hillsong summer conference.

A couple months before we joined the family of Hillsong, Pastor Clark from the London Hillsong campus, spoke at our leadership conference. That must have been a key weekend for all the leaders that were in the know! The following year after we had become members, they had three Hillsong pastors as speakers  at the leadership conference: Hillsong pastors from Stockholm, Copenhagen and London.

The latest checkup on the OKS.no website shows that they now have various groups you can join, such as, “The Creative Team,” “The Kingdom Builders,” and “The Sisterhood.”  These are ideas that come from Hillsong.

IS OUR CHURCH LOSING IT’S IDENTITY?

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” Galatians 3:1 (Emphasis mine)

I remember the first Easter service I was at the church, the sermon our pastor preached was really good and strong. It was an excellent service and had an impact on many. In fact, the people that I invited to that Easter service ended up coming back because it made such an impression!

But a year later, around the time we were joining the Hillsong family, the Easter service was very different. First of all, our pastor did not preach, even though he was present. The pastor from Stockholm Hillsong preached. I just didn’t understand why the Hillsong pastor wouldn’t want to be preaching at his own church on Easter morning. And why would our pastor move over on such an important Sunday? This is the big Sunday they encourage everyone to invite guests and people that maybe don’t normally go to church. If I had invited anyone to church that Sunday, they wouldn’t have gotten an impression of our own pastor. The sermon was so unmemorable. I can’t even remember the main points.

But worst of all, was that they had a trapeze artist swinging from silk scarves hanging from the stage ceiling as the praise and worship band played. It was a total show! It did not at all help me to think about the real reason of “Resurrection Sunday.” The show took over and as our pastor got up to do announcements, he said, ” Wow! What are we going to do next Sunday to compete with this?!!”   And I thought, “Yes, what are you going to do? You have whet an unstoppable appetite. The show must go on. You have brought cake and circus to the church. Now you are going to get up and bore us with a sermon? Well, at least keep it short and sweet and peppy and fresh!”

When they tantalize our senses with so many experiences, they do not prepare us for a serious sermon. We just want more of the fun stuff. Oh please!

Don’t  we have enough entertainment on our T.V., internet, Facebook, and iPhones? Do we really come to church for more of the same stuff? Like trapeze artists swinging on silk scarves to the music of praise and worship? Talk about caving into the carnal desires of the flesh!

WHY can’t we stick with the simple Gospel? The King of the universe was born in a stable. When Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, came to Jerusalem for the Passover, which we now refer to as Palm Sunday, He rode in on a donkey. Just one Easter service at our church cost more then both of those events put together!  I couldn’t help thinking about the churches being burned in Pakistan and Egypt. Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ suffering and being martyred for the sake of the Gospel. Meanwhile we just pumped more and more money into presenting  the simple Gospel to wealthy, high-maintenance western Christians.

That was one of the last Sundays I was at that church. The next Sundays I came only to fulfill my cafe duties through to the end of the spring semester. I simply could no longer with good conscience support the theology which is of course the backbone of any church–what they believe and stand for and put the focus on.  I want to follow Jesus and not be a part of some big namebrand church that pumps loads of time and energy and money into entertaining the crowd.

HEADING DOWN HOUSTON RD

It was easy to see where Hillsong was headed. The Hillsong Praise Band has performed and worshiped with practicing Roman Catholics and partook in their pagan rites at the national Catholic World Youth Day, Sydney Australia.

That is called ecumenism. Hillsong work with other faiths that teach things that are not in the Bible, like praying to saints, and worshiping Mary. And then the Catholics in turn let all other forms of faith on the stage, like Buddhists and Hindus and Shamans.

Hillsong also shared their stage with Brian and Jenn Johnson of Bethel  in Redding, California. Hillsong let Brian and Jenn Johnson’s praise and worship band open up their 20l4 summer conference in London. Brian Johnson openly joked in an interview at a Hillsong praise and worship workshop, that the “Glory cloud of God” mostly shows up when it’s his song!

I find it toxic to be in an environment that openly laughs and jokes about holy things like the presence of God. The glory cloud of God is no laughing matter! We need to get back to, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

Hillsong pastor of the New York campus says he has “conversations” about a sin like homosexuality. There is no “Thus saith the Lord”  unless it’s important issues to them like tithing and new prophetic statements. Also, how anybody can find the Hillsong promotional video for their 2015 summer conference inspirational, I will never understand.  They make God sound very far away, as if we can hardly hear Him in the “violence of silence, brutalizing the senses”. We are “drawn by a whisper that waits for our response.” What does this mean? It’s nothing but pagan mysticism presented as Christianity!

At no point do the creators of the promotional video say we actually have the words of God in our hands. A book called the Bible.  A living book that we are meant to open and read.  And every “whisper” that we hear blowing out in this vast universe is meant to line up with the word of God.  And if it that “whisper” does not line up with the word of God, you chuck it out!

Hillsongs vision for 2015 in their own words is a “dangerous declaration, a new manifesto.”  I would have to indeed agree with them: Hillsong has a new dangerous declaration that I want to stay far away from. Their new manifesto is another Gospel, another faith and another Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Above are just some of the unsettling truths I came across. I am still learning more frightening information about Hillsong as I write. Hillsong’s takeover of Garden City Church should concern Christians globally.

Hillsong insider: the GCC “merge” “was surely and truly a “plotted corporate takeover””

There is nothing ethical about the way Hillsong is undermine and take over churches like mine. These are people’s lives after all that will be affected. We need to be careful who we put our trust in. I personally, feel betrayed with my church’s conduct. I felt pressured and manipulated and I am sure others felt the same way.

To me, I wish my church was more forthcoming about this takeover in advance. Why could they not trust their congregation in voting on this very important issue? Why did the congregation blindly hand over their trust to the pastors to make this decision for them? Why the secrecy? While I discovered that it wasn’t hidden knowledge that my pastor studied at Hillsong and met with Brian Houston on some occasions, why was it decided that the entire church would be influenced from the top down in secret?

Everything was so carefully managed and orchestrated. Was our church informed about Hillsong’s history in Australia and New Zealand? There had been some scandals involving Pastor Frank Houston, Brian Houston and other Hillsong leaders. Are we to embrace their theology?

And what would happen if we became a proper bonefide Hillsong “Church”? Who will own the assets? What if my pastor realised that he made a mistake? Will Hillsong simply see him as an asset and discard him the way Hillsong has dealt with leaders or troublemakers in the past?

These are tough questions that I hope I will find answers to.

Hillsong: This is war!

30 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by Nailed Truth in Uncategorized

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

Chrislam, Hillsong, Hillsong Chrislam, Hillsong Church, hillsong conference, Hillsong Conference 2015, paganism, pope, rick warren, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism

WHY PASTORS AND CHURCHES NEED TO WARN THEIR FLOCKS AGAINST HILLSONG

This article will be examining the false claims made by Hillsong’s invited guest speaker Rick Warren, in contrast to some damning evidence put out by the Roman Catholic Church on their 2008 World Youth Day.

hillsong islam muslimWe ask again, what god does Hillsong worship? We say this in light of Hillsong embracing pagan religions such as Islam and Roman Catholicism. We say “embracing” because of Brian Houston’s insistence that his movement preaches an inclusive gospel and an inclusive Jesus (a gospel and a Jesus you will not find in the bible).

Recently, Pastor Jordan Hall said the following about Hillsong’s invited guest speaker Rick Warren for next year’s Hillsong Conference 2015:

“What this man [Rick Warren] is demonstrating is that he is not a Christian brother… I think he is wicked folks…”

This is the video that Pastor Jordan Hall was reviewing.

Hear Jordan Hall review Rick Warren’s Roman Catholic promotional video below. This is well worth your while.

Rick Warren Anathematizes Self (Listen)
Rick Warren Anathematizes Self (Download)

When this video was published on FaceBook by Catholic News Service, Dan Phillips from the Pyromaniacs blog commented on the above video.

“Absolutely appalling. What a wretched failure of Christian leadership… to say nothing of basic Christian fundamentals. God grant him repentance, and God spare others from being misled.”
Source: Dan Phillips, FaceBook, https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152421040155723&comment_id=10152422050505723&offset=0&total_comments=361, 28 November at 00:25.

Those that are being mislead are those that will be attending Hillsong Conference 2015 next year. What makes Hillsong conference so dangerous is that they are brazenly declare in their marketing gimmicks that Hillsong are hearing from God.

Their “SPEAK – WE’RE LISTENING” campaign is supposedly based on the prophet Samuel hearing from God in 1 Samuel 3:10. However, their choice of immoral and deceitful teachers are a clear indication that the Hillsong leadership are definitely not hearing from God and that they have no clue what a fine bible teacher looks like. One corrupt teacher they are still allowing to speak at Hillsong Conference 2015 is Rick Warren.

Houston claims Hillsong Conference are hearing from God and are bringing “the finest Bible teachers”

You know something is wrong with Driscoll when he is invited to speak at Hillsong Conference…

We remind you again that it was Tony Palmer that said to Kenneth Copeland’s Word of Faith cult that, “Brothers and sisters, Luther’s protest is over. Is yours?”

Well according to Rick Warren it is. And according to Hillsong it is. Why? Because they don’t stand for Jesus and His gospel. If they knew the Christian faith, they wouldn’t be pointing Christians to be “coming home to Rome” and worshiping their deity.

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“Pillar of FIRE…” WYDSYD08 booklet

In our article on Hillsong embracing Roman Catholicism (Part 4), we went to great lengths exposing how Hillsong and the Roman Catholic church are grooming Christians and churches to embrace Rome.

Furthermore, we covered the fact that Hillsong had no issue leading thousands of Roman Catholics at World Youth Day in “worship”.

However, if you were in the city of Sydney in 2008, you could not escape the litter of small World Youth Day pamphlets titled “Pillar of FIRE, Pillar of TRUTH”.

This booklet specifically defines the difference between the Roman Catholic Church religion from Christianity, teaching what it means to be a true Roman Catholic.

The relevant pages below refute Rick Warren’s argument that Christians and Roman Catholics have “more in common”. After browsing the below booklet, Christians need to ask the question:

Do I believe Brian Houston, Rick Warren and the Pope that “Luther’s protest is over or are they trying lying to me?”

To give you an idea what is taught in the below booklet, we read,

“Some people promote an especially attractive idea: All true Christians, regardless of how they live, have an absolute assurance of salvation, once they accept Jesus into their hearts as “their personal Lord and Savior.” The problem is that this belief is contrary to the Bible and constant Christian teaching. The Bible makes it clear that Christians have a moral assurance of salvation… but the Bible does not teach that Christians have a guarantee of heaven. There can be no absolute assurance of salvation.” – Pillar of FIRE, Pillar of TRUTH, WYDSYD08, Published by Catholic Answers, Inc. 2008.

To see the content online, click the below link:

Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth

If you have a problem with this material, you have a problem with Rick Warren and Hillsong. Not Christianity.

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Brian Endorses ‘Noah’: “You’ll enjoy the film — if you’re not too religious”

04 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by Nailed Truth in Associations, Brian Houston's Beliefs

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Aronofsky, Brian Houston, Christians, Hillsong, Hillsong Church, Noah, noah film, noah movie, pagan, pagan film, paganism, religious, righteous

Brian Houston recently defended his beliefs over the Hillslam controversy,

“I apologise for any confusion and obviously my allegiance is to the Lord Jesus Christ alone.” [Source]

Unfortunately, we have garnered enough evidence to now seriously question Brian Houston’s “allegiance” to whatever ‘thing’ he calls “Jesus Christ”. His latest endorsement of the movie ‘Noah’ gives us a fascinating insight to his spiritual state. While Judas betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver,  Brian Houston does it for free. We just don’t know if he has done this does deliberately or foolishly. After Houston’s Hillslam controversy (among many other things), it is of our opinion he is deliberately pushing his own agenda.

Recently, the Hollywood Reporter quotes Brian Houston of Hillsong endorsing the movie ‘Noah’ to his congregation in Sydney,

“You’ll enjoy the film — if you’re not too religious.”

The truth is, you wont enjoy this film if you ARE a Christian. Once again, Houston attacks Christians for defending their faith by labelling them “religious”. Furthermore, Hillsong’s head of film and television said,

“If you’re expecting it to be word for word from the Bible, you’re in for a shock […] There can be an opportunity for Christians to take offense. [But] we were pretty excited that a studio like Paramount would invest in a Bible-themed movie.”

Bible-themed movie? This movie was based off the kabbalah and other gnostic texts. It looks as though they purposely misquoted the bible. The righteousness of God was perverted by Satan himself in this movie. Genesis 6:9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time” who “walked faithfully with God“. The Apostle Peter says, Noah was “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).

So Brian, can you please explain why Noah’s Father Malech (depicted as a Shaman) blessed Noah with the serpent-skin of Satan? Why did Noah go to Methuselah (depicted as a Shaman) and receive drugs to hear from God? Can you please explain why Noah put faith in demons (the Watchers) to fight for him? Why did god send the rainbow after Noah wrapped the serpent-skin around his arm to bless his family?

It makes no logical sense why Brian Houston has endorsed this pagan film. But when you read this article, it makes sense why the film industry would target false teachers to groom churches to promote their merchandise.

The Hollywood Reporter writes,

Rough Seas on ‘Noah’: Darren Aronofsky Opens Up on the Biblical Battle to Woo Christians (and Everyone Else)

“I was upset — of course,” the director says of Paramount testing alternate versions of the $125 million epic as he and the studio break their silence on efforts to appease a small but vocal segment of the faith-based audience: “Those people can be noisy.”

This story first appeared in the Feb. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

When Darren Aronofsky was a 13-year old in Brooklyn, he had one of those unforgettable teachers. Mrs. Fried dressed in pink and drove a pink Mustang; Aronofsky says she was “magical.” When she assigned his English class to write about peace, Aronofsky produced a poem about the dove that wings its way to Noah aboard the ark in the Bible. When the poem won a United Nations contest, it sparked Aronofsky’s nascent faith in his creative powers.

More than three decades later, the 44-year-old director is completing his epic take on the Noah story, a project he’s contemplated ever since he made his breakout indie film Pi in 1998. At that time, he says, he talked to producer Lynda Obst about the idea, prompting her to ask, “Do you realize what you’re getting into?”

He didn’t. The making of Noah, with Russell Crowe as the lead, turned into a head-on collision between an auteur filmmaker coming off a career-defining success in Black Swan ($330 million global, five Oscar nominations) and a studio working to protect a major investment that is intended to appeal to believers of every religion as well as those without any faith. Paramount Pictures, in partnership with New Regency Productions, is shouldering a budget on the March 28 release of more than $125 million, by far the costliest movie Aronofsky has made. (His previous high was $35 million for The Fountain, which foundered for Warner Bros. in 2006. Black Swan was independently financed and cost just $13 million.)

The trouble began when Paramount, nervous about how audiences would respond to Aronofsky’s fantastical world and his deeply conflicted Noah, insisted on conducting test screenings over the director’s vehement objections while the film was a work in progress.

Friction grew when a segment of the recruited Christian viewers, among whom the studio had hoped to find Noah’s most enthusiastic fans, questioned the film’s adherence to the Bible story and reacted negatively to the intensity and darkness of the lead character. Aronofsky’s Noah gets drunk, for example, and considers taking drastic measures to eradicate mankind from the planet. Hoping to woo the faith-based crowd, Paramount made and tested as many as half-a-dozen of its own cuts of the movie. “I was upset — of course,” Aronofsky tells The Hollywood Reporter in his first extensive interview about the film’s backstory. “No one’s ever done that to me.”

Both director and studio say that’s now all behind them. “There was a rough patch,” Aronofsky allows, but at this point, Paramount is fully supporting his version. Vice chair Rob Moore says the studio is launching an advertising campaign designed to communicate that this film — an exploration of Noah’s emotional journey — flows in large part from Aronofsky’s imagination.

Moore says Aronofsky’s Noah is not in the more literal vein of the blockbuster Bible series produced for the History channel by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. “They’ve been very effective in terms of communicating to and being embraced by a Christian audience,” says Moore. “This movie has a lot more creativity to it. And therefore, if you want to put it on the spectrum, it probably is more accurate to say this movie is inspired by the story of Noah.”

At the same time, he says the film reflects “the key themes of the Noah story in Genesis — of faith and hope and God’s promise to mankind.” The studio is aware that a vocal segment of Christian viewers might reject the film over accuracy. Still, Moore says, “Our anticipation is that the vast majority of the Christian community will embrace it.”

The studio and its faith-based consultant, Grace Hill Media, have reached out to a number of key figures, with some success. Special trailers were screened to positive reactions at U.S. Christian conferences, including Catalyst, the Global Leadership Conference and Women of Faith: Believe God Can Do Anything. In January, Pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston of Hillsong, a Pentecostal megachurch based in Australia and with outposts around the world, were invited to a screening on the studio lot. Ben Field, the church’s head of film and television, who was there, says the pastors will support the movie. “If you’re expecting it to be word for word from the Bible, you’re in for a shock,” he says. “There can be an opportunity for Christians to take offense. [But] we were pretty excited that a studio like Paramount would invest in a Bible-themed movie.” On Feb. 4, Pastor Brian, at the church’s Heart and Soul night in Sydney, spoke before a few thousand congregants and joked, “You’ll enjoy the film — if you’re not too religious.”

Still, big challenges lie ahead. Burnett and Downey attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Feb. 6 to tout their new Jesus film, Son of God, which hits theaters Feb. 28, and received an enthusiastic reception. By contrast, an informal poll by THR of attendees at the key gathering of religious leaders found little awareness that a Noah movie was weeks from release. Further, THR spoke with several people who saw an early test screening in Southern California’s Orange County and who identified themselves as religious. One viewer, who declined to give his name because Paramount required him to sign a nondisclosure agreement, echoed the sentiments of others by criticizing the depiction of Noah as a “crazy, irrational, religious nut” who is fixated on modern-day problems like overpopulation and environmental degradation.

Moore, one of the few top Hollywood executives who identifies as a devout Christian, says he isn’t worried. As reflected in the ad for Noah that ran during the Super Bowl, Paramount is selling amazing effects as well, especially to the foreign market. Already, Moore says, early tracking is encouraging overseas, where the studio intends to release the movie in 3D in 65 countries. “The one thing Darren hadn’t done before is those big visual-effects shots,” he says. “And he certainly did a great job to deliver spectacular visuals.”

The Bible’s account of Noah is not packed with detail. “From a storytelling perspective, the main points are that Noah is a man of faith who is picked by God, told to build an ark, builds the ark and survives,” says Moore. When the studio did early polling to explore the idea of a Noah movie, it found that audiences thought they knew the story and didn’t grasp what the movie might add.

But as anyone who has seen Aronofsky’s hallucinatory Black Swan or Requiem for a Dream might have guessed, his Noah was never going to be the white-bearded figure of popular imagination. “We wanted to smash expectations of who Noah is,” says Aronofsky during a break from finishing the picture. “The first thing I told Russell is, ‘I will never shoot you on a houseboat with two giraffes behind you.’ … You’re going to see Russell Crowe as a superhero, a guy who has this incredibly difficult challenge put in front of him and has to overcome it.”

It’s fair to say Aronofsky is singularly committed to his vision. Fox Searchlight production president Claudia Lewis, who released Black Swan, analogizes the director to Natalie Portman’s obsessed character in that film — “her drive, her perfectionism, her desire to give it all, never mind the consequences.” In an email, Lewis adds, “It’s a fierce artistic mind-set, slightly nerve-racking in audience previews (for him, not us, we’re used to it!) but energizing and mesmerizing in its single-mindedness. I found it oddly endearing.”

Aronofsky, who grew up in a conservative Jewish household, says his goal from the start was to make a Noah for everyone. For nonbelievers, he wanted to create “this fantastical world a la Middle-earth that they wouldn’t expect from their grandmother’s Bible school.” At the same time, he wanted to make a film for those “who take this very, very seriously as gospel.”

While he and co-writer Ari Handel dreamed up a world that included fallen angels with multiple arms and inventive, computer-rendered versions of animals, Aronofsky says, “I had no problem completely honoring and respecting everything in the Bible and accepting it as truth.” Genesis describes the ark as a giant box, he says, and that’s what he wanted for the film. “Of course, my production designer [Mark Friedberg] had a million ideas of what it could look like, but I said, ‘No, the measurements are right there.’ “

Aronofsky says Moore’s Christianity is one reason he set up the movie at Paramount when there were other suitors: “It was written by two Jewish kids, and to get his reaction gave us the confidence that there was a bigger audience for the film.” Moore concurs: “Certainly the conversations we had about the movie took place at a very different level than a lot of other people in terms of my understanding of the story.”

To Paramount, Noah seemed like an opportunity to do what Warner Bros. had done in entrusting Alfonso Cuaron with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as he came off of Y Tu Mama Tambien — take a chance on pairing an auteur talent with an important, big-budget project. At the same time, it represented an opportunity to go after the massive faith-based audience that drove The Passion of the Christ to $612 million in box office a decade ago (an audience that has since proved elusive for Hollywood).

But as work progressed, the studio wanted to do what studios invariably do when a lot of money is on the line: protect its investment. Aronofsky was vehemently opposed to test screening the film before it was done. “I imagine if I made comedies and horror films, it would be helpful,” he says. “In dramas, it’s very, very hard to do. I’ve never been open to it.” The studio also insisted that test audiences are sophisticated enough to evaluate movies without finished effects in place. “I don’t believe that,” he says.

Aronofsky went to a few of the early screenings, but it was terrible to him that audiences were seeing an unfinished film. He compares his approach with the work of a sculptor: “You start with a big piece of clay and keep going and going and going.” To show audiences an overlong, 2½-hour cut with only 20 minutes of music in place struck him as folly. (The final version of the film is 2 hours and 12 minutes.)

Tension grew as the studio became concerned about some of the feedback. One worry, says Moore, was that “significantly conservative folks who have a more literal expectation” from a movie about Noah might turn against it and become hostile. “There are some people where it’s a very emotional experience of, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa — a Hollywood studio is trying to tell a story from my faith, and I am skeptical,’ ” he says. “Not necessarily 50 percent of the people, but maybe 10 or 20 percent. And those people can be very noisy.”

The screenings revealed a range of issues for that group. Some in the audience found the Noah character too conflicted. Some needed clarification that Noah’s son Shem, played by Douglas Booth, was married to Emma Watson’s character, Ila. “It was important for a Christian audience that you affirmed that these two were married — which we took for granted,” says Moore. That was easy to address by adding a line, but there were more complicated problems.

In some cases, Moore says, “people had recollections of the story that weren’t actually correct.” For example, there was Noah’s ability to open and close the door to the ark. “People said the door to the ark is supposed to be so big that no man can close it. Well no, that’s not actually what it says. What it says is that God ultimately shut the door of the ark when the flood comes, so it wasn’t Noah shutting the door on the rest of humanity — it was God making a decision.”

And then there’s the scene — which actually is in the Bible — in which Noah, back on land after the flood, gets drunk by himself in a cave. “But most people do not remember or were never taught the fact that after Noah’s off the ark, there is a moment in the story where he is drunk,” says Moore. As Aronofsky worked on his version of the film, Paramount set out to make its own cut under the auspices of production president Adam Goodman. Moore says Goodman has demonstrated his talent for working with filmmakers to get the best version of a movie, citing last year’s G.I. Joe sequel and World War Z as examples. “Both ended up being hits when they could have easily not been,” he says. “When you’re in a movie that’s over $100 million, there is a level of process you go through because the stakes are so high.”

Aronofsky, who went without final cut approval on the film in exchange for Paramount greenlighting a nine-figure budget, says he was confident the studio’s efforts would fail. “My guys and I were pretty sure that because of the nature of the film and how we work, there wasn’t another version,” says Aronofsky. “That’s what I told them … the scenes were so interconnected — if you started unwinding scenes, I just knew there would be holes. I showed it to filmmaker friends, and they said the DNA was set in this film.”

Further, he felt confident that he knew where he wanted to go with his film. “I’m a great closer,” explains Aronofsky. “I’ve never reshot a frame, and I think that’s very odd on big-budget movies. We’re meticulous. We come from independent film, with limited resources.” Aronofsky says with pride that he kept the project on track despite the complex effects and a life-imitates-art storm — Superstorm Sandy — that delayed filming on one of his two massive ark sets, in Oyster Bay, N.Y. “It was pretty hard to keep working,” he says, adding that some of his crew who lived in the area had their lives upended. “But we still brought it in on time.”

As the studio and Aronofsky worked on different cuts, producer Mary Parent was caught in the middle. “To Darren, I said, ‘Listen, no one is impeding your process,’ ” she recalls. “‘Try to embrace their process as best you can and have faith that they’re going to do the right thing in the end.’ Which they did.” In fact, sources say the studio’s versions tested no better than Aronofsky’s. “They tried what they wanted to try, and eventually they came back,” the director says. He adds, “My version of the film hasn’t been tested … It’s what we wrote and what was greenlighted.”

Whatever happens with Noah, the story has had a happy ending in one respect. Aronofsky asked his mother, herself a retired schoolteacher, to track down Mrs. Fried. She found her in Florida, and Aronofsky invited her to the set. True to form all these years later, she arrived in a pink car, dressed in pink. Aronofsky gave her a cameo in the film. You can spot her playing a one-eyed crone in a scene with Crowe.

With the film poised to make headlines in the run-up to its release, Aronofsky says he hopes those who might have expected a certain version of the story will accept that Noah is for them, too. “For people who are very literal-minded, it would be great to communicate that the themes of the film are very much in line with the themes of the Bible — ideas about hope, second chances and family,” he says. “If they allow that, they’re going to have an incredible experience with the movie. If they don’t allow it, it’s theirs to lose.”

Source: By Kim Masters, Rough Seas on ‘Noah’: Darren Aronofsky Opens Up on the Biblical Battle to Woo Christians (and Everyone Else), http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rough-seas-noah-darren-aronofsky-679315?mobile_redirect=false, Published 7:00 AM PST 12/02/2014. (Accessed 02/04/2014.)

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