An audio recording between Hillsong founder Brian Houston and Church executives has leaked, revealing that disgraced Pastor Carl Lentz, who cheated on his wife with model Ranin Karim, had engaged in multiple sexual affairs and committed adultery with many women, and not just with the one that was known, with Brian Houston saying “It was more than one affair, they were significant. And at least some bad moral behavior had gone back historically”
The meeting, which was recorded around November 19, took place between founder Houston, church executives, and top donors. During the meeting, Houston rips Lentz six ways to Sunday, describing him as possessing:
general narcissistic behavior, manipulating, mistreating people, I think sometimes other hurtful things, the breaches of trust… constantly lying.
In fact, Houston describes how Lentz was spiraling and that he likely would have been terminated even before the adulterous affair came about.
[Carl was a] difficult man to have any kind of direct conversation with, because it was always defensive, it would always be put back on the other person, as though they’re the ones with the problem. And so they were not easy meetings, and I was already at the point at the end of summer that I felt like (unintelligible) Carl and Laura’s time in New York was coming to an end.
And then of course what actually happened was Tolu [Hillsong East Coast Chief Operating Officer Tolu Badders] had a conversation with one of the staff members, and that staff member had found a very compromising chain of text messages on Carl’s laptop or computer. And so that person went straight to Tolu. And Tolu, to her credit, the first thing she did was call me. I knew it was an urgent call because it was very late at night, and you know she needed to talk, and we did talk, and then the next day Tolu spoke to John.In what would have been an extremely difficult thing to do, John and Tolu drove straight across town to talk to Carl and confronted him, and that was the beginning of the process where we’re at the point where we are now…
It was more than one affair, they were significant. And at least some bad moral behavior had gone back historically, but not necessarily those affairs. I can honestly say before God the first time I heard any moral complaint against Carl was when Tolu contacted me, and so if anyone’s wondering whether this was something we knew about, no it’s not.
In the meeting, members also discuss that Lentz will likely be getting a very hefty severance package, though it appears in part to help out Laura and the kids:
We’re working on a severance package which we’re negotiating with them on…
They haven’t accepted that at this point in time.
We are trying to care for them as far as they are letting us care for them. And certainly our heart is to look after the children, to look after [Lentz’s wife] Laura, and even Carl who needs a lot of help.
And the purpose of that is really to get them the help they need, and to help them through this difficult process, to work on their marriage.
We’re doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes, it’s not anything we’re going to promote publicly.
The Lentz’s, however, don’t seem to be hurting for money after recently their home for $1.5 million dollars and moving into a $16,000 a month beachfront home.
This is breaking news and we will update this post accordingly as we transcribe more of the audio to get the most clarity and context possible.
