In a statement on Hillsong’s website, the Houstons said they heard about Kimes’s allegations in the course of the East Coast investigation. (He later deleted the tweet and apologized for it.) He added that he “wasn’t aware of the moral failures until late last year.” Houston recently tweeted that the assault by Jason Mays was a sad story and that the victim had been previously abused at her father’s church in Pennsylvania. In November, Houston announced an investigation of the Hillsong East Coast locations that Lentz led, and in February, he said the investigation was complete, though the results were not publicly disclosed. In 2018 a group of Hillsong volunteers emailed the Lentzes and the Houstons claiming that church staffers were engaging in unchecked sexual misconduct and bullying. She said that she was “met with compassion” when she subsequently reported her experience to leadership, “particularly by Brian and Bobbie Houston,” and that she plans to remain on staff at Hillsong “working toward a stronger future.” Kimes said in her statement that she told her husband about the alleged abuse after she learned of Lentz’s departure from Hillsong, and she told Religion News Service that she had previously kept quiet because she feared both losing her family and Josh losing his job. “I was told that if his reputation was ruined,” Kimes wrote, “my reputation would be too.” Later, Kimes said, Laura told her she should repent and dismissed her from her household duties, and Kimes and her husband moved to Boston to lead its Hillsong church. She wrote that she told Carl that she would find a new job outside Hillsong, and that he responded by “asking me who would possibly hire me.” “I won’t forget how that made me feel,” Kimes wrote, “so alone, so worth absolutely nothing, so fearful of my future, so fearful for my husband’s future.” A year later, she said, Lentz told her “he took full responsibility for taking advantage of me and putting me in a situation that was so heavy for me.” According to Kimes, Lentz said that he discussed the matter with Laura and that the couple decided not to confess his conduct to church leadership. Kimes said that she twice discussed the alleged abuse with the Lentzes. Hillsong founder Brian Houston fired Lentz over what he said were “moral failures”-including, most explosively, Lentz’s cheating-and has claimed in public statements and a recent interview on the Today show that Lentz’s behavior was an aberration for the church. The Grammy-winning group Hillsong Worship, one of the church’s three musical acts, recently broke the record for a Hillsong streaming debut in the U.S. Every time, I froze.” A legal representative for the Lentzes told RNS that the two “vehemently deny the allegations and, in addition to that, have irrefutable proof the events did not happen as they are being described.”Īside from its celebrity congregants, Hillsong, which was founded in Australia in the 1980s and now has 131 locations across the world, has bolstered its visibility with a vast multimedia operation. She wrote in her statement that “I was physically violated by his unwanted and repeated sexual touching of my intimate areas. I also felt so ashamed and I had been told not to say anything or tell anyone,” Kimes told Religion News Service, which first reported the allegations. She wrote in a statement on Medium that during the seven years she spent as a nanny for Lentz and his wife, Laura, “I was subjected to manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power, and sexual abuse.” Leona Kimes and her husband, Josh, both worked under Lentz at Hillsong NYC and are currently pastors at Hillsong Boston. Lentz, who garnered fame for himself and Hillsong via his friendships with celebrities, led the church’s locations on the East Coast until his firing in November. Following months of scandal surrounding Hillsong, a pastor at the megachurch alleged on Monday that Carl Lentz repeatedly sexually abused her and threatened her during conversations about his conduct.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |