Andrew Bolt: Hillsong founder Brian Houston crucified by anti-church media

Hillsong founder Brian Houston seems the latest Christian leader to be crucified, dragged through the courts and then – only after his reputation is destroyed – declared innocent.

Hillsong founder Brian Houston seems the latest Christian leader to be crucified, dragged through the courts and then – only after his reputation is destroyed – declared innocent.

As Houston told me last week, he’s been the target of an “anti-church, anti-Christian” media, that “no doubt” also savaged him for being called an inspiration by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

But it’s not just the media …

Last Thursday Houston was cleared by a magistrate of concealing his father’s sexual assault of a seven-year-old boy in 1970 – but how did he ever get charged?

Houston first learned his father was a pedophile in 1999. He confronted his father, got him to stop preaching, and told his church’s board, but the militant Royal Commission into child sex abuse in institutions attacked him for not also going to the police.

Houston was then charged – some 20 years after his alleged crime, and more than 50 after his father’s.

Yet Houston repeated in court he’d been told by the victim, Brett Sengstock, not to tell police.

Indeed, Sengstock, then 36, hadn’t told police himself, and was angry when his mother told Hillsong worshippers without his consent after learning about the abuse in 1998.

As the court heard, she wrote in her diary: “Brett got on the phone and abused me dreadfully … because I spilled my guts.”.

Magistrate Gareth Christofi ruled Houston knew or believed on reasonable grounds that Sengstock didn’t want police told.

He added that Houston’s conduct had been “the exact opposite of a cover-up”.

He’d even preached about his father’s sins “to large gatherings of thousands of people”.

So why was he charged?

Houston became a media target after turning Hillsong into Australia’s biggest single church, judged by its weekly congregation, expanding to more than 30 other countries.

True, the Houston-style annoyed even other Christians, with all that money coming in and all that preaching about success.

But they got him. Houston, under enormous pressure, cracked. Last year he was charged with drink-driving in the US, where he’s been sheltering.

His church also investigated him for sending a flirty text to one female staffer and spending time in the hotel room of another – he blames a sleeping tablet addiction – and Houston resigned as pastor.

I asked if he and his wife would return to Australia now he’d been cleared. Houston, looking drained, said he doubted it: “We both love Australia, but Australia in many ways has not loved us.”