This is part three of a series on the Hillsong whistleblower files. Read the full series here.
Hillsong is known for a lot of things. It is the biggest, most successful megachurch Australia has produced and it is famous in the Christian world for its music.
But it has also earned a reputation for keeping scandal under wraps and pushing off any effective accountability from outsiders. It goes with the territory of being answerable to God alone as Satan works with your secular enemies.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie’s parliamentary allegations are guaranteed to be covered not just by Australian media but by outlets in the US, the UK and European countries where Hillsong remains a force. As such it will light a hundred fires.
Hillsong is not used to this. It has always controlled the public narrative and has always responded on its own terms — usually by offering the very least it can to those who complain.
In 1999, church figures dealt with a serious child sexual abuse case by promising to pay survivor Brett Sengstock $10,000 in a deal struck in a McDonald’s restaurant and recorded on the back of a soiled napkin.
In 2013, a junior Hillsong employee who complained about sexually suggestive texts she had received from Hillsong founder Brian Houston left her job and was paid a month’s wages by Houston to get on with. This was dealt with internally and kept secret for close to 10 years.
In 2019, a woman complained about a drunken Houston arriving at her hotel room and staying for some 40 minutes one night during Hillsong’s annual conference. Hillsong returned her conference fee and a donation she had made. That episode was dealt with internally and kept secret for three years.
In 2021, serious claims of cronyism and favouritism at Hillsong College were investigated by a Hillsong-appointed law firm specialising in crisis management. The findings were publicly managed by Hillsong.
In the US in 2021, a female employee’s claim that she was raped by a Hillsong pastor was dealt with by a Hillsong-appointed law firm. Its findings were kept secret until they were leaked to Crikey.
With the Hillsong whistleblower’s information going public, the potentially damaging information will no longer be kept under the control of Hillsong. Instead the church will find itself on the wrong end of building momentum.
The release of the information comes at an intriguing time. This week the husband of Natalie Moses — a Hillsong employee who has taken Federal Court action against the church, claiming she was mistreated as a whistleblower — made a public appeal for funding to support her case.
In a GoFundMe appeal, which was briefly online on Tuesday, Glen Moses wrote that since taking legal action the couple had lost “almost our entire spiritual and social network”.
“Life as we knew it disappeared overnight,” he wrote. “And now our financial future is at risk — simply for standing up for what is right.”
After receiving a letter from Hillsong’s lawyers, Moses suspended the GoFundMe call for donations. “It seems Hillsong won’t be happy until we are living on the street,” he wrote. “I have words I would like to say but…”
Natalie Moses filed her claim in August last year and has been under court-ordered mediation.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
