New York Post

Another Hillsong sour note

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SUPERCHURC­H Hillsong is accused of knowing about disgraced pastor Carl Lentz’s sexual misconduct as far back as 2017, Page Six has learned.

An alleged former church member, using Twitter handle @aurora_divva, tweeted about an alleged 2017 scandal where a church member accused Lentz of inappropri­ate behavior. She says this was covered up by church staff.

She tweeted: “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.” She added: “What Carl Lentz got fired over has been happening for years.”

According to one insider, in July 2017, a Hillsong member wrote to one of the church’s directors with allegation­s that some Hillsong leaders were texting nude photos to female volunteers, and Lentz was accused of making a volunteer “extremely uncomforta­ble.” As we reported, Hillsong founder Brian Houston publicly cited “moral failures” for Lentz’s exit.

Lentz is now working on his marriage by going through “intense therapy” with wife Laura. A friend said: “He is not working and plans to take time away from the church to work on his marriage . . . He never planned to leave his marriage nor asserted he would do so. That is completely inaccurate.” The source added: “He continues to have the utmost respect for Hillsong and everyone who works there. He recognizes he has put them in a bad spot but is appreciati­ve of all of the opportunit­ies that Hillsong afforded him. He is also reaffirmin­g his relationsh­ip with God.”

In a statement referring to the 2017 allegation­s, Hillsong told Page Six: “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. 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.”

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