This is part two of a series on Hillsong. Read part one here.
When it comes to the religion market, the United States is the biggest show on Earth. It’s where Hillsong is now effectively based — way beyond its Australian roots.
It is part of a years-long transition in which it has created an identity quite separate from the Australian Christian Churches movement, which covers Pentecostal churches in Australia.
This week Hillsong’s “global” pastor, Brian Houston, was forced to publicly confront scandal which has erupted in the US after one of its high profile celebrity pastors, Carl Lentz, confessed to cheating on his wife. In a string of scandals, another (married) pastor reportedly resigned after allegedly sexting a church volunteer, its Dallas, Texas church was closed after reports emerged of its pastors’ lavish lifestyle. That came on top of reports that one of Hillsong’s senior Australian administrators had indecently assaulted the daughter of a US pastor.
Speaking on the Today program on the US network NBC, Houston defended his church’s relationship with fame and denied the church had grown too big.
“I’m not sure a church can be too big,” Houston said. “I just think we have to grow into ourselves.”
How big is the US market?
“It’s been estimated that religion contributes up to $1.2 trillion in socioeconomic value to the US economy,” said Alec Spencer, a lawyer and former executive officer in the Assemblies of God (AOG) movement, who is completing a PhD on the public funding of religious organisations. “That would equate to being the world’s 15th-largest national economy and is more than the global annual revenues of the world’s top 10 tech companies, including Apple, Amazon and Google.
“Hillsong is an emerging denomination in that market.”
The $1.2 trillion figure comes from a report published by the World Economic Forum which in turn draws on a 2016 study by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation in the US.
The study is five years old and the figure is at the top of the estimated impact. Yet it serves to underline the potential dollar value for Hillsong in the US. The church is headquartered in Virginia — which offers favourable tax and regulation conditions — and was granted charity status by the Internal Revenue Service in 2011.
A reward of great blessings
Hillsong’s websites covering Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East show how pervasive the call for donations is. The church urges the giving of tithes by drawing on biblical authority.
“In Malachi, the Bible talks about bringing the first 10% (tithe) of our income into the storehouse (church). If you do, ‘I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in!’”
The pitch concludes: “Let’s believe for God to provide for us as a church, as we obey His Word in bringing our tithes.”
In the US it is possible to make a donation to the church via text, online or by downloading the Hillsong app. You can also attend a weekend service which accepts payment by cash, credit card and cheque.
Hillsong offers donation tiers: you can join the “Army of Faithful Believers” for up to $2499 a year, become a “Vision Impactor” for $2500 to $4999 a year, or a “Kingdom Builder” for $5000-plus a year. And it can all be done in three easy steps: ask God what part you can play, decide which monthly contribution is right for you, and activate your giving online.
By the end of 2019 Hillsong’s east coast US churches reported receiving tax-free tithes of just under US$13 million.
A fortune in music rights
The music which provides the trademark glamour of a Hillsong service has amassed a fortune in overseas sales. Albums have dominated US and Australian music awards and the church has sold millions of recordings.
Its media and performing arts charity which produces the music is run almost entirely by volunteers — an estimated 1855 unpaid workers — and profits from music sales going primarily to Hillsong.
“While Hillsong has waxed the regulators have waned,” Spencer told Inq. “They have simply outgrown the government’s capacity to regulate for greater accountability and transparency in exchange for publicly funded grants and tax concessions.
“In terms of digital evangelism, they are the world leaders. Hillsong is an emerging Christian denomination in the world in its own right — though of course the Catholic church is by far the biggest.
“Not bad for [Brian Houston,] a former window cleaner with no prior qualifications.”
The power of the call for donations
Spencer speaks from long experience with Australia’s religious institutions — not all of it good.
Twenty years ago Spencer went public as one of a group of sex abuse victims of the Anglican church, alleging that then-governor-general Peter Hollingworth had failed to deal appropriately with sex abuse allegations within the church when he was archbishop of Brisbane. (Hollingworth denied the claims but later resigned as governor-general.)
As Queensland executive officer in the AOG, Spencer worked with then-Queensland president Wayne Alcorn — the current head of the AOG’s successor organisation, Australian Christian Churches, and a member of the AOG national committee criticised in a royal commission for its part in the handling of sex abuse allegations against pastor Frank Houston. Spencer says he knew nothing of the allegations.
“If I had known I would have been outraged and gone straight to the police without [the executive’s] consent — and they knew it,” he told Inq. Spencer walked away from the church “and eventually the faith altogether”.
“I could not reconcile the Jesus of the Bible and their conduct,” he said. “It was summed up for me when a pastor proudly said: ‘There’s so much money to be made in poverty.'”
As a one-time insider he is aware of the power of the call for donations.
“The appeal for money at a service is weaponised,” he told Inq. “It’s always made when people are high on good feelings, powerful world-class music and the love of the crowd and the preacher. It’s a very powerful strategy and much more to do with the brain chemicals than spirituality. It’s like going to a rave and the music is the ka-ching factor.”
Spencer says money from members made up about 10% of the revenue for established churches, but about 90% for emerging Pentecostal churches.
Exactly how much money flows around the Hillsong movement internationally is impossible to know. It’s also impossible to know how much has ended up in the pockets of the Houstons: Brian, his wife Bobbie, and their two sons.
Estimates have put the personal wealth of leading US preacher and televangelist Kenneth Copeland at more than $1 billion, primarily from donations.
When it comes to Australian regulations Spencer argues for more public information from religious organisations such as Hillsong if they receive public funds or tax breaks.
“They hide behind this ridiculous argument of religious freedom,” he said. “There should be no shield from public transparency in exchange for public funds and concessions.”
Inq approached Hillsong for comment but received no reply. Brian Houston has previously rejected the claims of his critics that he is a “prosperity gospel” preacher. His lawyers have previously issued this statement in relation to his royal commission evidence.
Does the Hillsong spirit move you? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say section.
Continues to amuse me that no matter which religion you look at, it always needs a bit more money. Like a well-known and wonderful, comedian once said: “there’s this mysterious unseen man in the sky, who created everything and everyone, and who loves you dearly but if you fail to live by his commandments he will send you to eternal fire and damnation, and, oh yea, he’s not good with money, and always needs just a bit more…” Give me a break…
Hope for $ale.
This is not a religion, it’s a pyramid scheme.
A dangerous pyramid scheme with the PM their pin up boy.
At least the ancient Egyptian tomb robbers didn’t believe in the pyramid scheme….and they didn’t vote for it neither 😉
Probably worth mentioning that leading researchers into psychopathy, such as Robert Hare and Paul Babiak, have pointed out that psychopaths are drawn to religion, especially the more born again sects. There are a few reasons for this, but they all relate to the fact, that psychopaths are generally obsessed with creating positive images of themselves through words, rather than actions.
For instance, by attaching themself to a religion, people often perceive them as sharing the professed values of that religion. People may think that they’re somebody with a strong moral centre, who’s motivated by the desire to participate in the church’s charitable works, even if they are only a grudging participant, who’s motivated by what’s in it for them. This can lead others to trust a psychopath; when they really shouldn’t.
Another related reason why religions are attractive to psychopaths, is that they provide a large pool of trusting souls, who can be easily exploited. If people attend a church because they want to do some good, they tend to assume that the other attendees also want to do some good. They are not on the lookout, for people who may want to help themselves to some easily gotten funds. And evangelical churches tend to be more susceptible to that, because the emphasis is on being born again; or returning to religion after a period in the wilderness. It doesn’t really matter if a psychopath has been charged with embezzlement or had previous businesses collapse, because they can claim that those things occurred before they found God. Essentially, they’re able to claim goodness, even when their previous record demonstrates otherwise.
And preaching also offers plenty of scope for advancement. Psychopaths are often charming individuals, who love nothing more than spinning stories. They will gladly promise anything and are shameless in how they go about it. There’s possibly very few things that would be more appealing to a psychopath, than to go out on stage, in front of a largely gullible audience, to cover themselves in glory and raise finances, by selling the concept of eternal salvation. A concept that can not be disproven, by dissatisfied customers coming back from the dead.
obsessed with creating positive images of themselves through words, rather than actions.
This reminds me of another Australian in the public eye.
And I don’t even have to ask who you’re thinking about.
There are so many about that I am not sure who is being singled out.
What amazes me is it takes only one look at Houston the younger swindler, and his father the elder swindler and sexual abuser, plus Morrispin the narcissistic swindler yo see that they are most definitely religeous as we know it to mean. It stands out ahugely that they should not be trusted for one second, ever on anything. What the hell happened to people and listening to their instincts, are they all dead from the neck up?
There is a guy in Melbourne who fleeced an Eastern European community in Vic….he set up a church using his own initials! It doesn’t seem to exist any more….maybe he got found out! He had been wanted for fraud in 3 States many years ago. Maybe we need to stop getting our kids to believe in Santa Claus. It seems to set them up to be gullible for the rest of their lives.
Hillsong has done to religion what fast food has done to health. A dense carb rich sugar hit that is toxic to all.
Yeh but with modern medicine & surgery survival rates today, you could live on fast food without a half step of exercise & have a reasonable good chance of living 82.3 years…
Crikey’s next article on this ‘church’ should delve more deeply into the opulent lifestyles of the owners, I hesitate to call them preachers, more smart marketers. Over the years there have been exposés on the American experience, not so much here.
Indeed, Bref. Most so called Pentecostal “churches” are but privately owned businesses where all revenues, profits and assets are the personal property of the owner. It is a great tax effective way to make an income for the founding pastor / owner. This is very different to the Catholic, Anglican and Uniting faith organisations which are essentially non-profit and whose “ownership” is an ongoing entity that just goes on from generation to generation without any owner or shareholders.
Franchises of FaItH…..