A high-level Hillsong Church executive dismissed founder Brian Houston’s explanation for why he visited the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes during the church’s annual conference in 2019 as insulting “dribble” just days before Houston resigned, a leaked letter suggests.

Days before Houston’s resignation as the megachurch network's global senior pastor on March 23, Hillsong's head of people and development, John Mays, recommended in a March 19 letter obtained by The Guardian that Houston and his wife, Bobbie, be fired from their positions due to leadership failures. 

Houston’s resignation came after it was revealed that two women, including the unidentified women in the hotel room, made serious complaints of misconduct against him in the last 10 years.

Before announcing Houston’s resignation, the Austrailia-based church said Houston violated Hillsong's pastoral code of conduct by entering the hotel room of the unidentified woman for 40 minutes while under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs during the church’s annual conference in 2019.

Houston doesn’t recall having sex with the woman, and the woman has not said if they had sex.

Hillsong Church’s Interim Global Senior Pastor Phil Dooley told Hillsong Church staffers in a meeting that the accounts of what happened from Houston and the woman are not entirely reliable because they were impaired by alcohol. Houston was also reportedly under the influence of anxiety medication during the hotel room visit. 

In his letter, however, Mays, whose son Jason Mays pleaded guilty to indecent assault of former Hillsong College student Anna Crenshaw in January 2020, said there were “obvious information gaps and anomalies” in what the Hillsong Church board told staff.

“I do not believe our employees have bought the narrative within the statement made in the staff meeting,” Mays wrote.  He said the narrative was met with “skepticism and mistrust despite urgings to avoid gossip and talk to leadership about any concerns.”

“One insulting example (of many) is that Brian lost his room key so knocked on the lady’s door, a detail he no doubt recalls despite memory loss during the following 40 minutes. Are we really asking our staff to accept such dribble and defend our Church with such?” he asked.

Hillsong Church also revealed in March that Houston exchanged an “inappropriate text message” with a church staffer in 2013. According to Dooley, the text message was “along the lines of, ‘If I was with you I would like to give you a kiss and a cuddle or a hug.’” The staffer resigned shortly after. Hillsong Church blamed Houston’s actions in this case on “sleeping tablets.”

READ MORE:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/hillsong-executive-calls-out-churchs-handling-of-brian-houston.html

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Meanwhile remembering Jesus Brian...:

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse heard that in 1999, Houston’s father, Frank, had confessed to him when confronted that he had abused a child in the 1970s. There are several other cases from around the same time in both New Zealand and Australia.

Houston did not report his father’s confession to the NSW police, the royal commission found.

Houston has maintained he believed it was not his place to report the crime, because the victim, Brett Sengstock, was an adult at the time Houston became aware of the abuse and could report the crime himself. Sengstock has refuted this claim.

The report on the potential invite came while Morrison was in the United States with an Australian press pack which immediately questioned the prime minister about the story. Morrison refused to answer any questions on it:

Journalist: It was reported in the Wall Street Journal that an invitation was sought to the White House for Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston who’s a friend of yours and that was not backed? Can you tell us what happened there?

PM: I don’t comment on gossip.

J: So it’s not true?

J: Did you actually put a request in for him to…

PM: I don’t comment on gossip or stories about other stories.

J: Does that mean it’s not true though?

PM: It means it’s gossip.

J: But it…

PM: It means it’s gossip.

J: But not true?

PM: I’ve answered the question.

J: True or not true?

Then on 2 October, the PM again refused to answer the question when asked by then Sky News host David Speers, and suggested there were “rather aggressive statements” being made about Houston.

“I’ve found that all a very unfortunate incident and particularly for those who are very upset about some issues that have occurred many years ago as well,” he said.

“But it’s a straightforward question whether you suggested his name for this dinner?” Speers asked.

“No I don’t think it’s helpful David. I mean there’s one unpublished source, comment, coming out of allegedly…,” the PM responded.

Speers: But you can clarify this?

PM: Well I don’t feel the need to comment on those things David, I really don’t. If people want to put their –

Speers: But why is that though?

PM: Because David I’m not going to go into the habit of just because one journalist somewhere in the world talks to someone who won’t put their name to it, and all of a sudden apparently we got to play 20 questions. That’s just not how I’m going operate. If people have an established source who’s prepared to put their names to things well that’s a different matter.

When Labor raised the story in question time in mid-October, Morrison accused Labor of casting aspersions on Houston.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/24/gossip-how-scott-...

SEE ALSO: https://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/36580 

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