Former Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz Addresses Infamous ‘Low Bathing Suit Picture’ Incident
Disgraced former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz has revealed his thoughts on the infamous snapshot of him walking with then-congregant Justin Bieber while wearing super immodest, ultra-low-slung swim trunks, dismissing the whole situation as not a big deal and suggesting that people were just picking on him without context.
Lentz was famously ousted from the pastorate of Hillsong NY, after it was revealed that he was having an adulterous affair with a New York City-based designer named Ranin Karim. Though this bombshell got him fired, it was only one of many affairs, with multiple instances of adultery and accusations of grooming and clergy sexual abuse being raised against him, most of which he has admitted to.
Following his canning, he spent some time out of the public eye altogether until he took a job as a “church strategist at Transformation Church, where he remained low-key until 2024, when he began making the rounds on the podcast circuit discussing his affair and the circumstances around it, including this most recent offering.
Speaking on the Mighty Pursuit Podcast, Lentz explains the photo and how he felt after Joe Rogan mocked him on air for exposing his “d***-root” and suggesting that this was a foretelling that Lentz would crash and burn.
Rather than admit he should not have been wearing them, on account of how immodest they were, Lentz suggests people are taking the situation out of context while making it about other issues.
“There’s nothing worse than listening to your favorite podcast and they launch into something about you. You’re like, oh, that’s a bummer. So that it’s funny to me because the story that became kind of our (unintelligible) swath of the community. It’s like, you know, shirtless guy, whatever. You’re not gonna find another photo of me walking around, you know, shirtless in that regard.
I think in that day, this is the truth of the story, me, Laura, and this individual, Justin, we were in that park. It was extraordinarily hot, we were walking back to a car, swinging my shirt, and that paparazzi guy was in the tree, in a tree. And I ended up, actually this is funny, we panicked just because when you start to see paparazzi come out, it can make your senses go crazy, it’s weird. Hopped in his car, I ended up backing into a parking stanchion, just crashing into it, trying to get out quick.
But I felt like it was harsh. It was unfortunate that what happened to me can look like “yeah, that’s true It was a prophecy from Joe Rogan.” That’s not necessarily the truth, but I get it. But the truth is it wasn’t, like, we’re not we’re not walking around shirtless in the streets LA. It was literally from a park right there around the corner into the car and we just didn’t think we knew anybody was there, you know? I did learn from hanging out with Justin that they pretty much always know where you are.
But you know that tree, that shot, my shorts were low, so, whatever, you know, people made fun of me, and it became something that you just go, “okay, it is what it is.” I’m not gonna sit here and explain to people,” I don’t wear my shorts like that.” Or, you know, if you wanted fuel to criticize us, you had it.
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