{"id":1551,"date":"2022-03-24T06:31:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T06:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/hillsong-church-founder-brian-houston-resigns-after-allegations-over-conduct-with-women-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2022-03-24T06:31:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T06:31:27","slug":"hillsong-church-founder-brian-houston-resigns-after-allegations-over-conduct-with-women-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/24\/hillsong-church-founder-brian-houston-resigns-after-allegations-over-conduct-with-women-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston resigns after allegations over conduct with women – USA TODAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hillsong Church co-founder Brian Houston has agreed to\u00a0resign from his position as global senior pastor amid complaints of inappropriate conduct with two women.\u00a0
According to a statement from the church’s board<\/a>\u00a0on Friday, the two complaints stem from incidents\u00a0within the last 10 years. The board was aware of the allegations when Houston stepped down in January<\/a> to focus on\u00a0fighting the charge of concealing\u00a0child sex abuse.
“These issues are now public, and therefore we would like to share with you the details,” the statement said.\u00a0
The first incident involved inappropriate text messages to a member of the staff from Houston “approximately a decade ago.”\u00a0The staff member resigned after the incident and the board said he was under the influence of sleeping tablets on\u00a0which he was dependent.
“He immediately apologized to the person. We also worked closely with Pastor Brian to ensure he received professional help to eliminate his dependency on this medication, and this was achieved successfully,” the statement said.\u00a0
‘Set the record straight’:<\/strong>Hillsong megachurch founder Brian Houston charged with concealing child sex offenses<\/a>
‘Every time, I froze’:<\/strong>Carl Lentz, former Hillsong pastor who baptized Justin Bieber, accused of sexual abuse<\/a>
The pastor received a second complaint in 2019 after becoming disoriented after a session at the Hillsong Conference. According to the board, Houston consumed anti-anxiety medicine and alcohol, then knocked on hotel room door and spent time with a female occupant.\u00a0
After an investigation of both incidents, the board found Houston was found in violation of\u00a0the Hillsong Pastor’s Code of Conduct.\u00a0
“We apologize unreservedly to the people affected by Pastor Brian\u2019s actions and commit to being available for any further assistance we can provide,” the board said.
On Wednesday, the board announced it had accepted Houston’s resignation<\/a>.
“We understand there will be much emotion at this news, and we all share these feelings,” the announcement said.\u00a0
What’s everyone talking about?\u00a0<\/strong>Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day<\/a>
Houston and his wife, Bobbie, founded Hillsong Church in\u00a0Australia\u00a0in 1983. For\u00a0nearly four decades, the church has grown to include celebrity attendees at locations in 30 countries.
The church has been through a number of\u00a0controversies in recent years, including the termination of pastor Carl Lentz in 2020<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Houston being accused of knowing that his pastor father, Frank, allegedly abused a boy in the 1970s\u00a0but did not come forward.\u00a0
Follow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha.\u00a0Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hillsong Church co-founder Brian Houston has agreed to\u00a0resign from his position as global senior pastor amid complaints of inappropriate conduct with two women.\u00a0According to a statement from the church’s board\u00a0on Friday, the two complaints stem from incidents\u00a0within the last 10 years. The board was aware of the allegations when Houston stepped down in January to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}