Speaker 1: Hillsong is a major dumpster fire. This is a story
Speaker 1: of a mecca church and its followers, a church that
Speaker 1: started small and became a global brand. I was introduced
Speaker 1: by two friends that I went to high school with,
Speaker 1: and they introduced me in the Whole Song, and that
Speaker 1: first day is the date that I have tattooed on
Speaker 1: my collar bone. Hillsong created a winning formula, a concert vibe.
Speaker 1: It looked and felt different from the traditional church that
Speaker 1: I grew up in. Like it's at a bar. It
Speaker 1: appears unconventional, but at the court it's a Pentecostal church.
Speaker 1: It's a lesson in how to make religion cool. It's
Speaker 1: a lesson in power, money and abuse. I would like
Speaker 1: Hillsong to to stop existing, but even more than that,
Speaker 1: I would like for it to account for what it's done.
Speaker 1: I'm no Emmy would even I was a part of
Speaker 1: Hillsong Church, but I left. Now I'm telling my story.
Speaker 1: While Song started with a few followers in Australia and
Speaker 1: now it's in more than thirty countries. Thousands of people
Speaker 1: say Whole Song brought them to Jesus. The message is simple,
Speaker 1: welcome home, you belong. I felt like I was building
Speaker 1: God's Church, and I felt like included and it felt
Speaker 1: like a family. I felt like a part of something,
Speaker 1: even just for the first time. Emotional, financial and sexual
Speaker 1: abuse are at the heart of the story, and star
Speaker 1: preachers who thought they were untouchable. They never saw the
Speaker 1: worth in us, never suspected that we would say anything,
Speaker 1: or than anyone would listen. And where some of the
Speaker 1: loudest voices out here because we just saw so much
Speaker 1: because they never saw us, and they just felt free
Speaker 1: to just be bad actors. In this series, we get
Speaker 1: access to information hill Song never wanted the public to see,
Speaker 1: and access to people prepared to speak out. I remember
Speaker 1: sometimes looking around and being like that, I get myself
Speaker 1: into The church says it's changed, but has it truly
Speaker 1: owned the past? And our Hillsong scandals a symptom of
Speaker 1: a deeper problem in Christianity. There's something much bigger than
Speaker 1: just this particular institution. In my opinion, it has everything
Speaker 1: to do with modern Christendom, especially within the evangelical world.
Speaker 1: There's something really rotten at the core within evangelicalism. Listen
Speaker 1: to False Prophets starting February two on the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts