Hillsong Church has been accused of ignoring allegations of sexual misconduct against disgraced pastor Carl Lentz. The father of three was fired from the mega-church last month after it emerged that he had been cheating on his wife of 17 years. Page Six is reporting that, in 2017, a Hillsong member reported to the megachurch's directors that Lentz had "been involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with different women." He was also "extremely flirtatious" with one female volunteer and made her feel "extremely uncomfortable" after he "acted inappropriately."
In a now-deleted tweet, another Hillsong member made similar statements.
"While Carl Lentz messed up, I have no issues with him and I’m praying for him and his family. It’s the pastors that handled the whole incident that need to be fired for real. Cos all this could’ve stopped or handled back then," she wrote, per Page Six. "What Carl Lentz got fired over has been happening for years."
The allegations come days after leaked audio emerged in which Hillsong founder Brian Houston accused Lentz of having several affairs. Houston reportedly made the claims last month during a meeting with church executives and donors.
"A staff member found a very compromising chain of text messages on Carl’s laptop … [we] drove right across town to talk to Carl and confront him and that was the beginning of the process we are at now," he said, according to Page Six. "When we talk about an affair. These issues were more than one affair, they were significant. And at least some bad moral behavior had gone back historically, but not necessarily those affairs."
Hillsong addressed the 2017 allegations in a statement.
"At the time, our team in cooperation with legal counsel spent five weeks investigating the claims and could find no corroborating evidence for any of the allegations made," the statement read. "For this reason, it was not escalated to Pastor Brian at that time. However, our independent investigator is revisiting these allegations, and we await their findings."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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