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Brian Houston’s First Day in Court Goes Poorly as Sex Abuse Victim Denies Pastor’s Testimony

Hillsong’s former Global Senior Leader Brian Houston had his first day in court today, responding to charges that he concealed the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy by his deceased father more than 30 years ago- a case which investigators took two years to build.

He has pled ‘not guilty’ and if convicted, faces 5 years in prison.

In 2014, a Royal Commission confirmed that Brian Houston’s father, Pastor Frank Houston, was a pedophile who confessed to abusing a young boy, now revealed as Brett Sengstock, in 1969 and 1970. Brian Houston was made aware of the allegations in 1999, five years before his father passed, but did not go to the police and turn his father in.

Brian previously claimed that Sengstock told him he didn’t want anyone knowing, a claim the victim vehemently rejected in court. According to News 9:

On Monday, (Sengstock) described a phone call he made to Brian Houston after not receiving $10,000 from Frank Houston, which he felt pressured to accept and considered payment for his silence.

“(Brian) turned around and said to me ‘you know this is all your fault’. I didn’t say anything, and he said ‘you tempted my father’,” he told the court.

(Houston’s Lawyer) asked on Tuesday whether he recalled another phone conversation, where Houston had told him he was believed, Frank Houston had confessed, and his wishes for privacy and no further investigation from the police or the church would be honored.

“That’s not any conversation I recall with him at all,”(Sengstock) said.

Houston’s defence is relying on whether he had a reasonable excuse to not report his father’s abuse to police in the five years between him confessing it to his son and his death in 2004.

Houston’s lawyer has argued Houston was respecting the survivor’s wishes not to involve police.

Crown prosecutor Gareth Harrison on Monday told the court the witness had never told Houston he did not want the police involved.

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‘Christian’ Seminary Pays Homage to Great Zen Master by Inviting Hindu Monks to Lead Worship

(The Dissenter) Recently reported that Union Theological Seminary, the home of the arch-heretic of Liberation Theology, James Cone, is now offering a Master of Arts in Social Justice.  The Master of Arts in Social Justice program at Union Seminary consists of “build[ing] theological, theoretical, historical, ethical, critical, practical and contextually accountable foundations for the work of pursuing a more just and equitable world,” and studying “existing power dynamics and structures in terms of gender, sexuality, race, class, and identities targeted for oppression, and how they shape, and are shaped by, religion, spirituality, and theology.”

In other words, that’s a rather lengthy way to define “apostasy.” Union Theological Seminary is known for its climate control activism, plant, animal, and earth worship, diverse intersectionality, its advancement of abortion theology, and how they lecture Southern Baptist leaders like Russell Moore on the dangers of “Christian homophobia.”

So it should not surprise us that the school not only demonstrates its love for everything God hates, but it also practices false religions while mocking the Scriptures. On Instagram, the school posted how they celebrated the re-release of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire—by practicing Hinduism.

“Last night we celebrated the re-release of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire with…Blue Cliff Monastery…. to continue reading, click here

This article was originally written and published at the Dissenter.

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Pastor David E. Taylor Claims Followers Can See Jesus and God the Father Face-to-Face at Zoom Conference

Pastor David E. Taylor is known for his name-it-and-claim-it faith-healing and prosperity gospel antics. The ministry of fleecing the desperate, ill, and elderly has been so good to Taylor that his ministry recently purchased an $8.3 million Tampa mansion. Taylor, who self-identifies as an “apostle”, claims that in 1997 he was “given the keys to the Kingdom of heaven by Jesus in a face-to-face appearance in a dream.” Taylor has parlayed the alleged experience to sell his book Face to Face Appearances from Jesus: The Ultimate Intimacy, in which he claims to offer readers the formula to “Meet Christ face-to-face in person”, as well as several other more typical name-it-and-claim-it promises:

When the self-proclaimed apostle isn’t pedaling self-centered Gnosticism or interpreting dreams on his 24/7 dream interpretation hotline, Taylor likes to pose with wheelchairs and medical devices that he claims belong to those who have been healed at his conferences. 

In a recent promotional video for his upcoming online conference, “One Night With The King”, Taylor reiterated his ongoing claim to be a gatekeeper to Jesus. In the fever pitch of the promotional video, which sounds quite like a late-night television infomercial, Taylor presented clear evidence that Jesus has indeed been in attendance at his previous conferences in the form of this definitive high-definition cell phone photo of Jesus on stage, taken by one of the conference attendees.

But wait, there’s more! At this year’s conference, which can be viewed online only, Taylor says that he has “covenanted” with God to make big things happen. 

 The promotional video hype-man promises this year will be even greater than last year’s zoom adventure.

“Jesus Promised that when you’re watching online, he’s going to make a personal visit to your home and walk through it in order to bring healing and release of the supernatural open heavens to your entire house for the next year. How amazing is this! But it Gets Better. Jesus told Apostle Taylor that the Greater One, the Father, is coming to visit you.”

Never mind that God specifically told Moses in Exodus 33:20 “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” Never mind that any man in his unglorified state, who entered the presence of God, would be utterly undone in the presence of God the Father, as Isaiah described his sense of depravity in the presence of God in Isaiah 6:5. 

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Those who believe that David E. Taylor is an Apostle should compare his pompous self-aggrandizement to the disposition of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, when he described the sacrificial call of an Apostle who lived a life that emulated the life of Christ.

 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

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Uh Oh. ‘The Chosen’ TV Show To Be Translated into 600 Languages

The blockbuster TV show The Chosen is set to be dubbed into 100 new languages and subtitled into 500 more, designed to expand its reach worldwide, according to a new group formed to further that end, which will “allow 95% of the people worldwide to experience The Chosen in their own, heart language.” 

The Come and See foundation has been “established by a group of passionate believers and experienced professionals to come alongside The Chosen to grow its reach and impact globally” Their goal is to “provide resources, technology, ministry connections and expertise to help The Chosen reach its goal of having a billion people experience an authentic Jesus through this series and related content.”

Their first order of business has seen them launch a new app, which lets users watch all three seasons for free. They also have “extensive relationships around the world with ministry partners who will be able to assist in getting The Chosen in places that traditional distribution channel partners do not pursue.”

While we haven’t written about The Chosen much, we have written about its creator, Dallas Jenkins, who does not understand the gospel and has steadfastly insisted that Mormons are Christians, despite having a different Jesus and a completely different gospel.

For a brief overview of the Mormon views on Jesus and other things, they believe that Jesus was once a regular sinful man who became exalted and turned into a God after doing many good deeds. ‘God the Father’ himself was also once a man on another planet, but because he likewise was such a good Mormon, he was granted the right to become a God over this earth. They believe that they too can become capital ‘G’ Gods of their own planet one day, and in fact, hold that there are millions of Gods. For them, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all and individual separate Gods, and they all have human bodies of flesh- they are not Spirits.

Mormons categorically deny the idea of salvation by grace alone and believe Jesus and Lucifer are ‘spirit brothers.’ They believe the scriptures we have are all corrupted and that’s why they have the new revelation of Joseph Smith.





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Matt Chandler Returns to the Pulpit, Receives Standing Ovation + His Critics Go Nuts

Three months ago, it was announced that Lead Pastor Matt Chandler would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from preaching and teaching at The Village Church after it was revealed he was engaged in an inappropriate texting conversation with a woman not his wife, (the conversation, while not romantic or sexual, was described as “overly familiar” and involved “coarse and foolish jesting.” 

Yesterday Chandler, who was earlier restored by the elder team, took to the stage and received an extended standing ovation, taking a few minutes to apologize to his congregants, telling them, “I’m sorry, I failed you…” while lamenting that his “foolishness” might have caused his congregants hardship and pain. 

Chandler also explained that he’d spent the last few months undergoing “intensives,” which are extended counseling sessions delving into his personality, thoughts and motivations, and even had a neurological exam on account of not being able to recognize his error and wondering whether or not his brain cancer a decade ago where he had his frontal lobe removed might have something to do with it (This is a stretch). He told them:

“Of course I’m sick like I’m just- a couple of things. I very much know that the Christian life is a marathon and there are times in that run where you’re uphill in the snow and not sure if you’re gonna make it, and then there are other times you’re running downhill in the sun and it feels like nothing could ever hinder your love for Jesus and your bold witness.

And if in my foolishness I created any more weight on you, or made this any more difficult on you, please forgive me.

I said on the 28th that really the situation disoriented me, it scared me. I’m a man who’s very serious about his life and doctrine and that I didn’t see what I didn’t see really was disorienting to me. And I said I needed to understand that, it revealed some unhealth in me. And so the elders care plan involved a couple of intensives and I actually went even got a neurological exam. I don’t know if you were around for that, but I actually don’t have a right frontal lobe. I had a tumour taken out 13 years ago and radiation and all that, so we needed like, ‘hey, is there something wrong with my brain?’

And that’s the work I’ve been doing over the last three months. Some intensives with some experts and then is my brain okay. And I don’t I don’t have like here the eight takeaways…

Matt did not offer more details on what caused him to be suspended, but we covered that previously here:

Prominent Friend of Matt Chandler Says Situation is Overblown, Explains Nature of the ‘Coarse Jesting’ + Reveals Reaction From Woman He Was DMing

In response to his restoration, social media is alight with criticism, with comments from survivor bloggers being emblematic of the greater whole.

We also got ridiculous videos , which are loaded with assumptions, conclusion jumping and gossipy innuendo.

We’ve had our share of issues with Chandler in the past. We’ve been on the record sayin that the leaky charismatic has been drifting for years, such as when he compared BLM leaders to prophets- saying that not participating in BLM Marches is ‘giving up our inheritance’, then denounced America as ‘demonic’, while saying that racism is theologically woven into our foundation and finally declared after January 6th that ‘everyone is complicit in the unrest and destruction of our nation’. These are all troubling and worthy of rebuke.

But this restoration? Nothing about the situation would indicate that it is not appropriate.

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ICYMI: Hillsong Church Does Satanic Buddhist Dance During Christmas Service

A recently unearthed video from Hillsong Sweden shows their 2018 Christmas service extravaganza featured a dance routine on the stage traditionally done to honor the Buddhist deity Kuan Shi Yin, incorporating the “dance of a thousand hands” into a service designed to worship Christ.

For reference, Kuan Shi Yin, also known as some variation of Guan Yin, Guan Yim, Kuan Yim, or Kuan Yin, is the Goddess of Compassion, Mercy, and Kindness. According to legend, she vowed never to rest until she saved all unhappy beings. Realizing that she could not do it as she was, the Buddha gave her multiple heads and arms to help so many. She is frequently depicted with varying degrees of arms and heads but always sitting on a lotus flower while wearing a headdress of some kind.

Naturally, this led the church, led by senior pastors Andreas and Lina Nielsen, to incorporate this bizarre dance routine into their Christmas service, performed by members of Hillsong in the act of pure show and pageantry.

After a performance by the children’s choir, one of the men is asked why he is so grumpy and is told he needs to get down with the kids, promising to “show him some moves.” This transitioned to an Asian-inspired version of Drake’s In My Feelings (Kiki do you love me?) song, cleaned up and sanitized to exclude copious amounts of f-bombs, n-bombs, and sexually explicit language this song features.

While the troupe dances, you’ll notice that they have the same hand and finger positioning as the goddess depicted in the portraits, statues, and graven images of her. A large lotus is featured prominently in the background screen, the same as Kuan Shi Yin.

All happening in front of the entire congregation.

Hillsong has put on a lot of awful productions in their time. There was the insane one we just featured, the one depicting Jesus born in a riotous bar (since deleted), Hillsong’s sensuality Christmas show with fleshly dancers, the Hillsong show with women writhing in nothing but towels, and their infamous ‘Silent Night Sleazy Night’ Christmas special from several years ago (also since deleted).

In terms of pure blasphemy, this puts all those to shame. To see a typical dance of a thousand hands, click here.

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Aimee Byrd says Complementarianism is ‘Misogynist’, ‘Rot’, and ‘Harmonizes with Racism’

Theologian and author Aimee Byrd has released a blistering article condemning complementarianism and those who hold the position, castigating them as brutes hell-bent on subjugating women while mixing their motivations with racism and white supremacy.

Once part of The Mortification of Spin, a podcast she co-hosted with Carl Trueman and Todd Pruitt, Aimee Byrd was sent packing and expunged from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals due to dissatisfaction with her polemical publications, particularly after her views of complementarian went from hard, to soft, to non-existent, which is merely another example of how ‘soft-complementarianism’ is just another word for “egalitarianism.”

For years the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s version of Beth Moore rebuffed any notion or concerns that she was on a progressive trajectory- a claim she categorically denied and then became upset that it was even suggested in the first place, despite ample evidence to the contrary. We noted our concerns with her four years ago, after we removed her book from our recommended reading list, two years before she was relieved of her duties on the show.

Byrd used to be far more conservative in her beliefs, hiding behind her denomination until she left it last year. Since then has cast off all restraint and tossed away the shackles of her former beliefs, putting her newfound egalitarianism to work by openly preaching and teaching during Sunday morning services, all the while growing more bold with her criticism.

In a new blog post, Byrd continues to sink into depths of disillusionment, Interacting with a Christianity Today post where author Chris Davis says that the restoration of Johnny Hunt (which we’ve roundly criticized as well) is “a mirror that shows us what happens when our convictions about complementarity rot into misogyny,” Byrd writes:

That is a loaded sentence.

It’s a brave post and plea. Complementarians don’t even listen to women, much less seek them for any positions of leadership. It is basic misogyny. Rot. Male superiority. And it harmonizes with racism. Of course it does, the common denominator is becoming quite an embarrassing elephant of disillusionment.

But here’s the problem. Davis’s plea is vulnerable and sincere. I don’t want to question that. Yet there’s still something he doesn’t see. He is still disillusioned in his very plea. Complementarians just can’t listen. It’s taken me many years and a lot of personal cost to accept this. They can’t. Because they foreground the (white) male voice. This is their posture.

She continues:

…if you are too busy feeling superior with your sole self, and your own version of the perfect Christian, you don’t see the underground. And that is where this movement of complementarianism is. Up there. It’s busy keeping others underfoot rather than seeing the crowded underground in their own death. Complementarianism sacrifices its own for their false security in “leadership.”

…Complementarians can’t listen because women’s voices are too disruptive to their sense of power, control, and male competence. To recognize their incompetence and need would counter their constructed value system of masculinity… 

And concludes:

…it is a gift for any to see the rot in the complementarian system, and all other systems of false belonging  .

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Johnny Hunt Picks up a New Preaching Gig+ Modern Day Simony

(Pulpit & Pen) Benny Tate is the pastor of Rock Spring Church, a four-campus Congregational Methodist Church based in Milner, Georgia. In addition to pastoring that 8,000 member megachurch, he has also served as the President of the Congregational Methodist Denomination. He most recently made news for being a part of a group of four prominent pastors who declared disgraced former pastor Johnny Hunt to be “restored” and once again fit for Christian ministry.

In May of 2022, Hunt, a former Southern Baptist Convention President and the long-time pastor of the First Baptist Church of Woodstock, was suspended from his role as Pastor Emeritus of FBC Woodstock and forced to resign from his Vice President of Evangelism position at the North American Mission Board. Hunt’s alma mater, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, took measures to remove his name “from any association with programs, facilities, and other items” connected with the seminary.

Hunt’s downfall was a result of a Guidepost Solutions investigation into the SBC’s handling of sexual abuse. That investigation concluded that Hunt had engaged in extramarital sexual activity in July of 2010 (controversially deemed “sexual assault” in Guidepost’s report). This activity was not reported to his church at large. When his past actions finally caught up to him, Hunt’s reputation in Baptist life was ruined.

Nevertheless, Benny Tate has chosen to try and help Hunt rebuild it. Tate describes his motivations for doing so as pure, wanting to be a “good Samaritan” and come along side a man, Hunt, “who has done more to help preachers” than anybody. However, when the professional relationship between Tate and Hunt is examined more closely, it appears that Tate is engaging in little more than modern day simony.

The Men who “Restored” Johnny Hunt

Simony is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. During the Middle Ages especially it was a widespread problem in the Catholic Church. Rather than granting church offices and privileges to the most spiritually gifted and qualified individual, corrupt church officials sold them to the highest bidder. Outrage over such corrupt practices help to ignite and sustain the Protestant Reformation.

Simony itself is named after Simon the Sorcerer, who was condemned in the eighth chapter of the books of Acts, for attempting to purchase Apostolic power from Peter and John. The Apostle Peter, disgusted with Simon’s attempt to buy God’s gifts, famously responded to Simon’s offer by saying, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.” Tate acts like his heart is right before God in the matter of Johnny Hunt’s restoration.

However, evidence has emerged that he stands to profit from it. In April 2023, Benny Tate is scheduled to preach with Johnny Hunt at the “Springtime Jubilee” conference in Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. This conference is one of three Springtime Jubilee conferences set to take place in the popular vacation destinations of Myrtle Beach and Branson, Missouri. The Jubilee Conferences are enterprise of “It’s a New Day Ministries, Inc”, a company based in Hunt’s hometown of Woodstock, Georgia and operated by Hunt’s family. Its corporate officers include Hunt’s wife, daughter, and son-in-law.

Hunt’s Jubilee conferences are nothing new; a Facebook page for the events indicates that seasonal Jubilee conferences were taking place as early as 2016. Each conference has featured a lineup of Christian entertainers, Christian celebrities, and mega preachers. Hunt and his preaching have been at the center of it all. This spring a freshly “restored” Hunt is preaching again, but was their ever a doubt his conferences would continue?

Conferences like the Springtime Jubilee take months to plan. Speakers must be booked and accommodations for conference guests must be reserved well in advance. Is anyone to believe that Johnny Hunt’s conference business was ever going to cease? Benny Tate saw fit to “restore” Johnny Hunt. Benny Tate is preaching with Johnny Hunt. It strains credulity to think that Benny Tate was scheduled to preach with Hunt only after Hunt was restored to ministry (by Tate himself and other friends of Hunt!)

Tate was clearly scheduled to preach with Hunt before Hunt’s so-called restoration was ever announced (by Tate himself and other friends of Hunt!). One thing Tate said about Hunt is certainly true; Hunt does a lot for his fellow preachers. He gets them thousands in speaking fees! This spring, Hunt’s family business will be paying Tate to preach with him at the Springtime Jubilee. For Tate’s bank account, it sure is a good thing that he first restored Hunt.

May their money perish with them.

This article was written by Seth Dunn and posted at Pulpit & Pen. Reposted with permission.

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Podcasts: The False Gospel of the Church Growth Movement and Do Dead Babies *Really* Go to Heaven?

On Protestia Tonight, David reviews a sermon very close to home, discussing the false gospel of the church growth movement and the pragmatism that leads to a profound lack of love for God and for sinners – demonstrated by failing to preach God’s Word.


On Bible Bashed, Tim and Harrison have a follow up to their discussion with Conley Owens on what happens to babies after they die, talking age of accountability, hell for children, original sin, and everything about the subject.

If you haven’t watched part 1, watch it below first.

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Tish Harrison Warren Says Christians Have a Duty to Defend and Uphold Same-Sex Marriage

In an op-ed in the New York Times, author Tish Harrison Warren, who was last seen bashing “White Evangelicals” and the “White American Church” as a bunch of violence-loving racists, defends the practice of LBGTQ matrimony by saying that Christians have a duty to ensure gay people can be legally married.

Warren is a priestess in the Anglican Church in North America. (ACNA) and a regular contributor at Christianity Today. The founder of the Pelican Project, she can frequently be found arguing against complementarian ecclesiology and doing things like calling the Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel, “stupid” (that tweet was ‘liked’ by Russell Moore, by the way).

In her article, in the same breath as claiming conservative creds, she writes:

“…though I respect secular same-sex marriage, I am a priest in a denomination that understands holy matrimony to be the spiritual and sexual union of a man and a woman and that I would not preside over a same-sex wedding.”

She notes that “We must find ways to preserve and protect the civil rights of gay people” while suggesting that Christians in business should make gay wedding takes or photograph gay weddings as a matter of “hospitality” and “moral duty.” Warren concludes:

We need to ensure that gay people can continue to be legally married and live according to their deepest values. We also need to ensure that religious people are not compelled to participate in an event or voice approval of a marriage they object to and that they can form churches, schools and other ministries in line with their beliefs.

Gay marriages” are just as wicked and foul as marriage between siblings or marriages between a 30 and 13-year-old. Yet because Warren does not see them as particularity vile and grievous whose implementation and acceptance has paved the way for every sort of perversion a decade on- from not knowing what a woman is to the grooming of children, she argues that so long as society insists on calling them ‘marriages’, we ought to defend their right to do so, with seemingly no limiting factors. 

There’s not a single defense made for sodomite marriages that could not be made for incestuous marriages if and when they gain social acceptance. Would Warren argue that “We need to ensure that a father and his adult daughter can continue to be legally married and live according to their deepest values“? 

We suspect she wouldn’t, putting the lie to the whole article and betraying how theologically compromised she actually is.