For Kids and Young People Stuck in Churches with a Special Shout-out to Pastors' Kids.

This story was genuinely upsetting to me. Here we have a 9 year old who doesn’t feel like going to church. “We’re there all the time”, he tells his dad, who just so happens to be a Hillsong megachurch evangelist, Carl Lentz, and of course, it’s Dad’s brilliant response that gets the attention.

Ignore those feelings, son, says the pastor. Just bury them down deep down. Feelings are irrelevant. You’re going to have to suppress a lot of them if you want to be part of this cult.

“Loving your enemy does not always feel good. Sacrificial giving does not always feel good. Forgiving people who hurt you almost NEVER feels right,” Lentz continued.

The leader then responded to his junior’s “cute” remarks.

“Going to church doesn't always feel good! But these things are still RIGHT. When that day comes, when your feelings rage against your conviction, remember how blessed we are to control our feelings, rather than being controlled by them. It’s worth it every time!” the doting father taught.”

This is grooming a child to ignore their feelings, forgive, and give til it hurts, even if it feels bad. This is horrifically dangerous.

Makes me just want to run up to the 9 year old and tell him it can end one day. I’ve always, ALWAYS wondered how not one of these preachers’ kids ever grew up to notice that the snake oil healed no one? We’re way into second generation Hillsong and its network churches, and you mean to say not one of them did the numbers and realised not everyone can be a millionaire?

Or if they were aware of the gazillion broken marriages, and bank accounts and families and hearts, how do they sleep at night playing along?

It’s also been my theory that the main reason Mike Gugglimucci, from the video above, faked cancer was because it’s hard to impress anybody when you’re one of these guys’ kids. How the bell are you supposed to impress people? Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston’s father, the self-confessed child sex offender, claimed he could raise people from the dead! It’s no wonder the man is so driven and tormented.I think Mike faked the cancer under psychotic pressure, but I’m not a psychiatrist. And last I heard, the South Australian Police had not had one complaint filed, despite this being a crime, Facebook was only had “Pray for Mike” groups, and Mike spent the money he made from the #1 song The Healer on his own recording studio.

So, back to the 9-year-old who can see all his friends doing whatever kids do in the hipster part of Brooklyn where they live, and having fun on weekends and PLAYING LIKE 9-YEAR-OLDS ARE SUPPOSED TO, and he’s stuck in a stadium week after month after year of his life and he wants out for a while.

He wants to do something else besides hang around at rehearsals for the same old show. There seems no light at the end of this tunnel. So one day, he gets brave and says “i don’t wanna”. But, of course, what he wants has no bearing on his life.

Makes me want to send out a Public Service Announcement to Nickelodeon or interrupt Hillsong Kids for a very special announcement.

If you’re 6, or 9, or 12, you may not have a choice but to get out of the religious matrix you’re in. Maybe you feel weird or different or tired of making up excuses for why you can’t go out and play, or go to parties or sleepovers or Halloween or do yoga or any of the things that other kids think are every day life.

Maybe you’re adopted or fostered by the religious people who take you to the buildings every weekend and some week days or maybe all of them.

Maybe you feel like you’re the only one who has questions at all, like you’re the only one who can’t get with the program. Everybody else looks happy enough. And so you wonder if you’re the problem.

Well, the news is good. Eventually the years go by and you can walk out. Obviously, there’s all kinds of complications because so many of the people you love are heavily involved, but don’t worry about that now.

There are LITERALLY thousands of kids who’ve been stuck in churches having to attend strange meetings and smile at people they don’t like and subscribe to a belief system that doesn’t sit right with them that grew up and got out and now they are happier than ever. It gets better.

There’s loads and tons of support for people who grew up in churches and have made a bunch of different choices as to how they stayed involved with the people. or didn’t.

Trust me, your feelings are important. You’re not just a story for a Sunday night laugh in front of a crowd. You don’t have to end up faking cancer to escape the madness of what the church people say is real.

Google stuff, learn how to delete your history, because your feelings really do matter, and so does your truth, and the truth, like turning 18, will set you free.

Ellen Page, Chris Pratt, and whether Hillsong is Homophobic (Spoiler Alert!)

So the story of Ellen Page demanding that Chris Pratt explain why he goes to an “infamously anti-LGBT” church carries on, with @PrattPrattPratt (IKR?) responding with a picture of a sheep, and a random comparison to divorce. Possibly cos he just had one and possibly cos his parents-in-law-to-be have had a few issues with the topic. And that’s it’s wildly hypocritical that he’s moved in with his fiance but that it’s not OK to be gay at church. Not really. Well, not when it matters.

Why these two and why now, I’m not sure, because it’s obvious Hillsong is the House of Homophobia. I guess no one pressed the Biebs, because we were all just grateful he was keeping his clothes on, kind of, and not abandoning monkeys. Nobody questions Kourtney Kardashian’s attendance because she’s going there for the right reasons. To take her toy boys somewhere wholesome-looking, and to get some attention away from Khloe’s new face.

But this lady wants answers. And Chris Pratt has got them.

Nothing could be further from the truth, “ he wrote on Instagram, “I go to a church that opens their doors to absolutely everyone,”.

That in itself is a tad disturbing, given that Global Senior Pastor (IKR?) Brian Houston said that he felt his serial child sex offending father Frank was a closeted gay man , “who took out his frustrations on children.” So Global Brian doesn’t get it. Still.

Except he thinks he does. In the unmissable piece “Do I Love Gay People?” , curiously titled since historically the place was about “God”’s opinion, GB explains that he recently found out that the Pink Dollar works just as well as the Straight one! No other churches want it, so Hillsong may as well take it all.

No, he doesn’t. What he says is that he realises that people in the LGBT community have been damaged and traumatised by previous experiences with religion, and that they make perfect prey for a place that claims to “welcome everyone” by being so nice.

I got that wrong again. You have to read the whole thing, right up to the part where Brian and his wife Bobbie are trapped in an elevator with a Muslim woman and they don’t even flinch. If you could bottle bigotry of the worst kind, it’s in this piece.

If you have any doubt about the homophobia in Hiillsong after reading it, please, message me.

GB says:

Everyone is welcome at Hillsong church except for known predators, those who are disruptive, or those who have adversarial agendas.

Of course. Gotta look out for those people with agendas. Someone has to tell Mr Pratt that by “everyone’s welcome” they don’t mean, like, EVERYONE. And with those criteria, it’s surprising there’s anyone left in leadership at all.

The writings of the apostle Paul in scripture on the subject of homosexuality are also clear, as I have mentioned in previous public statements.

The writings of Paul also said that women should shut up in church and never, ever have authority over men. But that would prove profitless to cut out half the population.

Put clearly, we do not affirm a gay lifestyle and because of this we do not knowingly have actively gay people in positions of leadership, either paid or unpaid.

So if you are gay, are you welcome at Hillsong Church? Of course! You are welcome to attend, worship

with us, and participate as a congregation member with the assurance that you are personally included and accepted within our community. But (this is where it gets vexing), can you take an active leadership role? No.

Lifestyle. Please, can we leave 1985?

Let’s get this really clear. This is not vexing. This is apartheid. This is second-class citizen status for the LGBT community and individuals that attend Hillsong. This is called exploitation, thieving and deceiving

Hillsong is a show. It’s a one-way event. Some people find that and call it “God” and that’s their choice. But when one group of people is treated differently, it’s called discrimination. Of course, the LGBT market is right in their sights. They want the Greatest Show on Earth. And who better to help make them the most theatrical Christians off-Broadway? The talented and creative members of the gay community who have all that enthusiasm and trauma. Ripe from religious background where they’ve been told they’re bad for something beyond their control, Hillsong offers a false family and a permanent place in limbo. It is, essentially, a grooming process, where certain people must accept that they will never be good enough. And the only pattern that follows is one open to further abuse.

There’s nothing gay going on at Hillsong at all, apart from pretending you don’t know that the choir leaders are gay and engaged, since they’re doing such a great job.

There’s plenty of information on how anti-LGBT Hillsong is. That’s not the issue. It’s the welcoming, I-have-gay-friends pretense that is dangerous. Because the army is “welcoming” too, otherwise no one would sign up there, either. But just you drop and give ‘em 19, or stop saying “Sir!Yes Sir!” and see how welcoming they are.

And this is how Hillsong damages people beyond psychiatric repair. Direct abuse means your guard is up. When you’re being hugged and loved by people who only just stopped referring people for de-gaying, and who have explicitly stated that you’ll never be one of them, it’s a confusion all of its own.

Being welcomed as a second-class citizen has eternal effects. Hillsong doesn’t ‘hate’ LGBT people. That would be too obvious. Hated people don’t do what they’re told. Ellen Page has a lot more questions to ask.

Now I'm Upset

And no, it’s not just because of that stupid first knuckle ring that Katherine Schwarzenegger is wearing on her right hand. It’s about the one on the left, her engagement to avid Hillsonger, Chris Pratt. Katherine’s brother, Patrick, had been seen at Hillsong with the Biebs, but this is serious.

Now, everybody knows there’s nothing worse than a love story but it’s not even that.

Katherine Schwarzenegger is the daughter of Arnie, obvs, and Maria Shriver. Maria Shriver, In Case You Didn’t Know, is the daughter of Eunice Kennedy and Somebody Shriver. She’s the niece of Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy and all of that lot. American Royalty etc.

And afterall, Kath is getting on a bit at 29, and while Catholic Maria wouldn’t have once believed in divorce, she’s never divorced her own philanderer, so you probably just have to take what you can get after a while. She narrowly avoided having Taylor Swift join the compound, so she has to take control where she can, and can you blame her? She devised all of this with Jesus, apparently.

Now clearly Katherine, as the child of a Republican Terminator and a Democrat Kennedy, dearly needs god in some shape or another. I’m glad she’s got something to cling to, unlike her great-uncle Teddy’s dates, if ya know what I’m saying. And how scary would it have been for Chris to go ask Arnold Schwarznegger if he can marry his daughter?

But who exactly IS going to explain this to Brian, who probably thinks Chappaquiddick is a place he went on a book tour in Russia? That’s right. Brian and Bobbie and all their friends and relations are going to be hanging out with Kennedys.

It’s terrifying enough that VPOTUS supports one of their vague, unsubstantiated charities, but could this mean that some future Houston is going to be a Senator? Stranger things have happened.

Chris Pratt’s fans are not happy either, cos Hillsong is homphobic. That’s evangelicals. Hillsong lets the actual Living Whores of Babylon in, or modern American Royalty you could argue, and still discriminates against LGBT, so no one was hoping for much there. How far can Hillsong worm its way into American politics now?

And how many more meaningless, drab statements from the Brainwash Tree like ‘live boldly in faith with you’ are we supposed to cope with? Is that a marriage proposal or a movie trailer for TBN?

How come they’re allowed to move in together before marriage with his ex-wife if he’s on spiritual fasts and various other gimmicks of religion? What would Rose Kennedy say? Does Brian have an opinion on Caroline Bessette-Kennedy? This is a celebrity tragedy, for me, anyway.

In the words of the great Paul Simon, I don’t find this stuff amusing anymore. Does Maria Shriver have any idea who she’s invited into the Great Curse? Hmmm, wait a minute….President John F. Kennedy did visit Houston the day before he was assassinated. There’s plenty more conspiracy theories to fly now. Someone should tell Brian who a Rothschild is.