Hillsong Puts on a Circus

Hillsong is a coalition of churches, loosely headquartered at Hillsong Sydney where Brian and Bobby Houston are the senior co-pastors. The Hillsong churches produce some of the most popular and influential contemporary worship music, but their brazen worldliness is breathtaking. In August 2019, Hillsong Gold Coast in Australia put on a worldly circus. “Level-headed biblically-minded Christians have oft referred to Hillsong as a circus. But what they may not realize is that Hillsong isn’t just a circus metaphorically speaking--Hillsong is literally a circus. Hillsong Gold Coast, led by James & Elida Turner, recently put on a circus performance at their campus. Not kidding. In a program they call #SundayNightAtTheMovies, they put on such an outlandish and ridiculous stunt that even the most biblically-ignorant unbelievers can look at this and tell it has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. It’s a freak show” (“Hillsong Puts on Circus Performance,” Reformationcharlotte.org, Aug. 23, 2019). In May 2016, Hillsong New York City hosted a Hillsong Women’s Conference that featured, among other things, scantily-dressed ‘cheerleaders,’ an Elvis impersonator, and a naked cowboy wearing only a cowboy hat, boots, and a guitar. The cowboy was Hillsong New York City’s own youth pastor, Diego Simla. This year (2019) Yelp identified Hillsong Los Angeles as one of the top ten “gay friendly churches” in the city. “This says something about Hillsong. A homosexual can walk in, sit down, be entertained, and not have their conscience pricked by the preaching of the biblical gospel and a call to repent of sins and come to Christ” (“Hillsong Listed in Top Ten,” Reformationcharlotte, Sept. 3, 2019).

(Friday Church News Notes, September 13, 2019, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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