“We were growing so quickly that we didn’t really have the things that are supposed to protect against situations like this,” Kimes wrote in her statement.
Former congregants have said that, in part by instructing volunteers not to talk to or look at Lentz, Kimes helped maintain his status in the church. reported in February, Kimes paid a former Hillsong College student $150 a week to look after her own daughter. 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.Īfter Lentz’s firing, Kimes and her husband appeared in several reports about Hillsong’s labor practices. 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 kommentar(er)
