'Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed' reveals something more sinister than hypocrisy

[Zorro]

For the first two decades of my life, there was very little I did that wasn’t touched somehow by evangelical churches. I can still sing a random smattering of Bible verses, thanks to catchy little melodies we played on cassette tapes in the car. If I squeeze my eyes shut hard enough, I can reach down into the primordial dregs of my memory and find some of the pledge to the Christian Flag, bringing up with it the Play-Doh smell of my preschool classroom at a church-adjacent academy in Scottsdale, Ariz. I still remember the first time I ever felt so overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit that I wept during a church service — I was 11, and it was during a rendition of “Shout to the Lord,” a beloved praise anthem from none other than Hillsong, the Australia-based global charismatic church network known best at the time for its stirring, internationally popular worship songs.

I’m still working out why exactly I quit going to church in my early 20s, about a decade ago; for a long time, all I could really muster was that I could no longer ignore the gnawing suspicion that I’d be happier if I did. (I was.) As an adult, though, I’ve started to piece together that perhaps it had less to do with God or the Bible or Christianity itself than with the fallible, corruptible, misguidable human beings I answered to every Sunday.

So when I watched Discovery Plus’s new three-part documentary “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed,” some of what it uncovered felt wholly, sadly familiar. Other revelations, though, were uniquely horrifying.

“A Megachurch Exposed” aims to spotlight the many alleged wrongdoings of Hillsong, which now has locations in 30 countries. It airs allegations that Hillsong’s leadership got rich off donations while heavily exploiting volunteer labor. And it argues that pastors have engaged in extramarital affairs and mishandled accusations of sexual misconduct by church staff, despite teaching the evils of impurity and lying.

https://wapo.st/3tIJmde

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. Look up Young life

A evilgelical youth ministry.
I almost got sucked into that shit when I was a teen bullied at school by another kid
who I was friends with who was bullied in school. day in day out.
Luckily I figured out their scheme when I went to one of their overnight camps.

They don't ask for parental consent to indoctrinate minors they just do it on the sly.
20-40 year old guys hanging with teenagers
just spreading the good news..although it looks like fun and games until you become part of it.

Look into Assemblies of god they are an insidious christian cult that reaches into our government and our social policy
and have cell churches scheming on how to insert religion everywhere and skirt the law,.

These churches are mainstream cults pushing their worldview on vulnerable people who just need friends or someone to listen..
They don't need jesus they need help,human kindness

Funny how when you leave the organizations the people who you thought cared about you,liked you,will shun you.It hurts.
and when your friend is who gets sucked in abandons the friendship it hurts too.A friend I knew for a decade got sucked into a fundie christian cult
He told me he could not be my friend anymore because I was not a believer. It broke my heart. He left while I was crying my eyes out.
After all these years I still wonder has he gotten out? Is he okay..and I still miss him.

[czarjak]

3. Look into the AOG? Lived it. Momma tried.

[Missn-Hitch]

8. Same. Escaped when I turned 18.

Most of my family are still in it. Hell, my siblings were/are pastors in the AoG.

I can't stand it.

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. So the implication is that there's no appreciable difference between

Christians and atheists or agnostics in terms of moral character? That Christian sinning is the same as non-Christian sinning? And how do other religions reflect moral character? Which country with which dominant religion has the worst behavioral or criminal outcomes?
Crimes per 100,000 per convicted person rated by religious affiliation might tell a clear story.

[multigraincracker]

6. Old saying that is mostly true, but not always.

There are no Atheist in jail.

[slightlv]

4. I remember in my mid 20's,

being unemployed, unhoused, and with a four-year-old in tow. I tried moving back home and trying to find a job in the Midwest. No go. Went back down south, and my sister had arranged for me to stay a few weeks with one of her girlfriends who'd moved down there.

We were good houseguests, even my daughter was well behaved. But the girlfriend came home from work one afternoon and told us we had to move immediately. She'd just joined an evangelical church a week or so earlier, and could no longer have us living in her house. The reason why? I was an out-of-the-closet witch. And, although I'd not done any "witchy" things around her, she couldn't have evil living in her house.

As I was packing my stuff up, I (for once) played MY music and chose a particular song... "I Can't Take Anymore" by Genesis. And, as I walked out the door with the last box and she made to shut the door, I turned back to her and said, "Where do you think YOUR religion came from? Look it up, darling. You might learn a few things." And then proceeded to live out of my car with my daughter for a little while.

Christianity has always ended up leaving a bad taste in my mouth... as do most organized religions.

[Ziggysmom]

5. I read many articles which listed all of the local businesses in my state that received PPP

COVID assistance $$$ from tax payers; many churches and other religious institutions received hundreds of thousands of dollars. The immense wealth of many churches, priests and ministers is sickening as it is. If they received assistance as businesses, they should be taxed as businesses!

Just like corporations, they use their wealth to steer elections and ruin the lives of people who oppose them. We need to tax the property and profits of so called churches.

[Aristus]

7. Hillsong is emblematic of the excruciating banality of evangelical Christianity.

I was pretty much compelled to attend my wife's conservative evangelical church for the first eighteen years of our marriage. (She wouldn't attend a liberal church; long-time DU-ers know about her miraculous transformation into a liberal Democrat in 2016; the one good thing Trump ever did.)

They didn't sing hymns, they sang "worship songs". The hymns I grew up with were written by Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and others. "Worship songs" sound like they were written by some tone-deaf, untalented wannabe poet, whom I guess worked for Hillsong. The songs droned on and on and on for as long as forty-five minutes, making me wonder if they were ever going to come in for a landing.