The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has distanced himself from his friend and mentor, Hillsong pastor Brian Houston, who has resigned from the church over allegedly inappropriate behaviour towards two women.
As recently as last year, Morrison publicly acknowledged the spiritual influence of Houston on his life, and in his maiden speech to parliament credited him with the pastoral work that helped guide his faith at an early age.
On Thursday Morrison said it was “entirely appropriate” for Houston to resign from the global church after complaints about his conduct by two women that led to an internal investigation.
“I must admit we were very disappointed and shocked to hear the news,” Morrison said.
“My first thoughts were with the victims, as they’ve been rightly described and so I was very concerned.
“And the actions that have been taken are entirely appropriate.”
Morrison said that he now attended a Pentecostal church in his own community, ShireLive, and that “I haven’t been at Hillsong now for about 15 years”.
However, Morrison has made no secret about his close personal and spiritual connection to Houston, who founded the Hillsong church in Sydney in the early 1980s.
At a speech to the Australian Christian Churches conference in April last year, Morrison “honoured” Houston, saying he had taught him “to use what God has put in your hand, to do what God has put in your heart”.
In his maiden speech in 2008, Morrison said he had made a commitment to his faith at an early age, and had been “greatly assisted by the pastoral work of many dedicated church leaders, in particular the Rev Ray Green and pastors Brian Houston and Leigh Coleman”.
Morrison attended the opening session of the Hillsong annual conference shortly after the May federal election, where Morrison stood on stage with Houston and called for more love and more prayer to embody “the amazing love of God”.
Morrison’s friendship with Houston shot to prominence after it was revealed that he had asked the Trump administration to invite Houston to a state dinner at the White House as part of his official visit to Washington in 2019.
Morrison refused to comment on the Wall Street Journal report for months, deriding the story as gossip, but finally confirmed he had included Houston’s name on a list of potential guests for the dinner, which was ultimately decided by the White House.
“On that occasion, we put forward a number of names that included Brian, but not everybody whose names we put forward were invited,” Morrison said.
“I’ve known Brian for a long time and Hillsong church has a very big network of churches all across the United States, and the ministry, when it comes to the music and so many other things have been very big – it’s probably the single largest church organisation that is known in the United States.”
Houston stood down from his position as global senior pastor of the church last Friday, and after an emergency staff meeting on Wednesday the Sydney-based church issued a brief statement announcing his resignation.
Houston was found to have engaged in conduct “of serious concern” by the church, in two separate incidents over the past decade. One involved “inappropriate” text messages sent to a female staff member and the other involved him entering the hotel room of a female after he became “disoriented”.
The church’s statement revealed that alcohol and prescription drugs had been implicated in the behaviour that resulted in complaints to the church.
“We understand there will be much emotion at this news, and we all share these feelings,” the church said in a statement.
“Irrespective of the circumstances around this, we can all agree that Brian and Bobbie have served God faithfully over many decades and that their ministry has resulted in millions of people across the world being impacted by the power, grace and love of Jesus Christ.”
