Thank you for your mahi in highlighting the exploitation and hypocrisy of these institutions. They just make me feel icky. It gives me a slight bit of encouragement to realise at least in a New Zealand context these mega churches have not completely embedded themselves into the various levels of government. I'm an American happily living my life down on the South Island having left the US five years ago after the universe sent enough signs telling me it was time to leave. I am very fortunate to call Aotearoa New Zealand home now, yet I've watched with horror the amount of power and influence evangelicals back in the US keep amassing. Please keep on poking that bear.
It’s definitely quite a different context here. From what I have seen in the last few years, outside of pentecostal spaces the focus is more likely to be welfare and social policy — I think of the State of the Nation reports by the Sallies to highlight pressing social needs and possible solutions (ie housing crisis).
Semi-related: Aotearoa also has, globally, one of the highest proportions of people who volunteer. As some of our recent natural disasters have demonstrated, a lot of people will go out of their way to care for their neighbours. Which is just so utterly beautiful to me. Kinda what it’s all about imho 💛❤️🩹💛
DO NOT STOP DAVID. Make Megachurches your next doco please (but maybe not while living in America 😳). It’s time they start paying tax like everyone else or better yet, shut down ASAP. And I agree with the comment - where is their code of ethics? Where is their formal training? DO NOT STOP THIS REPORTING! And thanks for being brave enough to do it. And go Andrew Wilkie. We need 5,000 more of him in parliament.
Gas-lighting 101: Attack the opponent’s credentials ✅ See if they go away ❎
Freeze them out 🥶(for a little while at least)
Threaten them with the law 📚
Unleash the full torrent l⚡️ of your displeasure ....
Feels like you’ve been here before...David. I think you’re in the little’freeze out’ hiatus before they can’t help themselves and continue. A narcissist needs AIR!
You know what - sometimes I wake up in the morning and read too much news and my heart is heavy with the amount of fuckwittery out there, but it always restores my faith in the world that you and other journos are driven to highlight this bs. To force positive change and to provide a voice to people damaged by these organisations. Thanks so much for all you do David 👏
I said yesterday that they’re more like corporations than churches and should be treated as such, but after reading this I’ve revised my opinion - they’re organised crime and should be charged as such 😒
This is only scratching the surface. It's like a thread hanging from a jumper sleeve, and as you keep pulling it, the entire thing starts to unravel.
The H$ (Hillsong) and Life network goes back to buddies in Lower Hutt, Houston and deJong being mentored by the old boy himself, Frank H at Sydney Christian Life Centre, then both going off to plant and grow their own empires.
The "gift giving" is massive amongst them and all of their networked "boys club" churches around the world - it's ingrained as "honour culture" so the congregation are conditioned not to see it as dodgy. Think of the massive H$ church network, but then add in many of the other mega churches over there: Casy Treat, Rick Godwin, Kevin Gerald, Steve Kelly - the list goes on and on and on and on.......... It's nothing for PdJ to have a paid "sabbatical" and head off overseas on wages, while collecting massive honourariums over there.
This expose has been decades in the making, with thousands of hurt, used and abused people discarded along the way. The church however has had ample opportunity to reflect, repent and mend broken relationships over the years, but chose instead to favour the machine over the individual. I cannot tell you how many times we were told that we were "dispensible." They were not prepared to clean house, so now that house is exposed to the world to be cleaned.
* Christian believer here proudly supporting Webworm with my subscription. If you get to check your presumably overflowing mailbox David, I have written you a far lengthier message, following on from a brief email conversation we had last year. Thank you for being the voice to bring this rubbish to the surface.
What about those who went to San Diego with 3C, Mathesius's, can't recall their new church name...they certainly live the high life in the name of Jesus along with the many others in NZ and across the ditch, wherever that may be.
And those who go overseas as apparent nanny's for pastors, and earn $$$ under the table in USA like that Reena girl did. Totally illegal. Said on her Dream Interpreter interview on YouTube that she went on a holiday and was offered a job. A few of us watched it, lied through her teeth. What a load of bollocks.
The stories that surrounded her and her mates were pretty massive but the churches just swept it under the carpet. Then they happily get their visa's and residency in the name of working for God....such a farce.
I guess they say if it looks too good to be true, it is and it's about time these people 'who clearly have NO INTEGRITY' were held accountable. It is time innocent people stop looking up to them. The messages surrounding give and you will be blessed need to stop because the average person very rarely gets 'blessed out of their socks' ...it's a load of emotional manipulation of the finest degree.
Interesting to see what all these guys, past and young in the present actually did for jobs prior to naming themselves 'pastors'....how much experience did they actually have....9 time's out of 10 -not an awful lot......
Well said. I well remember the "nannies" and "drivers" and "spear carriers" (another Old Testament concept taken out of context) - the favourites of the pastors and travelling evangelists, who would be offered religious visas to move overseas like you stated, expensive gifts and more while being "on call" for countless hours in some cases.
So much has been excused in these churches because hey - the music is good right?
All of NZ's mega churches have bought into the H$ methodology of "being relevant" by throwing millions into sound systems, lights and more - while most of the volunteer musicians and singers are burned out from hours of rehearsals, albums, Christmas events and multiple services a week.
So many of them have also jumped on the "in house training college / intern program" bandwagon which H$ led the way with years ago. Educational arms bring in all sorts of different tax breaks and benefits, as well, they provide a ready-made army to run the conferences and weekly services, plus they ensure that the students coming through are thoroughly immersed in the "DNA" of said church. No need to undo the pesky critical thinking skills that people might pick up from independent Bible Colleges like Laidlow, or even worse - a secular university!
I think they seem to have confused "40 days in the desert", with "40 days of desserts". But then, a lot of these pastors seem to have spelling difficulties.
O yes Emily...they lock arms like a chain and defend each other...very difficult to break the locks!!!
You see...they have a lot to lose especially..LIFESTYLE,
They play Good cop - bad cop....denial - justification...scripture after scripture...however...It was once said
'The higher you go the bigger you fall....may the dominoes keep tumbling...one by one - o heck take them all down at once!!!
Brian Houston once preached something like...you can have ALL the talent in the world but show me your integrity and I'll show you who I'd hire.....hhmmm
Mar 10, 2023·edited Mar 11, 2023Liked by David Farrier
On Life’s latest email to you, the whole thing makes me so mad. I was very involved at Life for a few years.
So while Phil’s name is at the bottom of the email (and as manager he’d be the first person to say he’s responsible for it) ... it very much reflects the attitude of Life leadership. So arrogant.
I believe what they mean is: “We don’t want to engage with you on this topic because we don’t believe we are accountable to you.”
But what about their congregation?
I think at the heart of it, the individuals in leadership at Life feel accountable to each other (and their ‘spiritual oversight’) rather than to their congregation. I would dearly love to be wrong on this.
And I think what the leadership at Life don’t seem to realise is that David is a kind of proxy/advocate for their former congregation members, who went to him willingly and openly with their stories.
Are Life accountable to David? No. But is he asking questions that any congestion member would have a right to ask and get a straight answer on? Absolutely. And would congregants have got any kind of communication about these issues without David’s questions? Probably not.
Just like the initial Arise responses (who finally issued a proper apology after maybe ten months of idiocy), what’s missing from the Life response is that focus on the welfare of those affected, plus what steps they have taken / will take to ensure they are taking good care of their current congregation. It’s PR 101.
How did Arise lose so many members? It refused to acknowledge the extent of the problem; ring-fenced issues; victim-blamed, put the needs of survivors (and congregants) at the bottom of the list, well below protecting the organisation and senior leaders’ image; all while pumping out social media and Sunday services as though everything was fine.
And the effect? Trust was broken.
That’s why people left.
I’m not sure those in Life leadership realise this, but currently they’re following the Arise playbook pretty closely.
Thanks, David (and for all your work here!). At this point I don’t think it’s a PR issue - although that’s part of it - it’s a leadership ethics issue.
Emily you are correct with their accountability policy.
They are accountable to 'each other', their mates as such.
Also strange that when something goes wrong, its the same 'team who goes in' to investigate' ie PdJ for BH's motel room oops. I can only imagine how they looked at the poor woman concerned. And the 'boys' certainly look after each other.
The accountability for the guys up top is certainly A VERY DIFFERENT type of accountability for the little staff, volunteers or congregation members.
And no doubt, they have called 'URGENT' staff meetings at Life for damage control, to tell people not to listen or speak etc, I know because I was told they had one about a very good friend of mine one day a few years back when she was thinking of getting a lawyer involved in something. The machine doesn't change its ways.
Some people will be sweating in their boots, high heels or sneakers, wondering what is going to be exposed about them. And so be it.
Hey Sunflower, thank you so much. Sadly, so much of what you write, resonates.
And as you highlight — how awful this probably was for the woman who had Houston in her hotel room while he was under the influence. I can only imagine how she was treated by people afterwards 😬
I quite enjoy this Web Log, or blog, if you will. It is informative and entertaining. And, most importantly, it maintains high levels of journalistic ethics that I crave from other mastheads which maintain Web Logs on The Internet, which some people call the World Wide Web. I am always delighted to receive this Web Log via the medium of Electronic Mail, some call this E-Mail, a communications protocol which I hear is catching on with people who want to exchange knowledge on the Information Superhighway (another popular term for The Internet). One can only assume that the name of this blog, "Web Worm" is derived from the term World Wide Web, and the author, David Farrier, envisaging himself as a giant member of some species of Clitellata burrowing through the depths of cyberspace (yet another inventive description of The Internet). Whether Farrier turns out to be more like an Earthworm or a tapeworm — he is a known associate of Serj Tankian who famously wrote a ballad about the violent removal of Eucestoda from ones body — awaits to be seen. We can only hope, and pray, that our lord and saviour, Jesus Christ, descends from heaven and blesses Farrier so these “Megachurches” finally see the error of their ways and cast aside their profit driven, fart-cupping ways etc.
Brilliantly said *applause*. Your comment - a response or reply on said Web Log - was well thought out and very precisely worded. Judging by the several "likes", approval markers left by other readers on the Web Log, other readers have also appreciated your message etc.
Paul De Jong and Chris Hodges... where have we heard those names before? Oh wait, they're the guys who were on John Cameron's 'oversight board' that John always said had the ability to fire him (but turns out that was maybe a lie?), and then denied having anything to do with John as soon as Arise started imploding.
“Hillsong followers believe the money they put in the poor box goes to the poor, but these documents show how that money is actually used to do the kind of shopping that would embarrass a Kardashian” –Andrew Wilkie, in his speech in parliament on Mar. 9, as quoted in the Guardian.
I am continually surprised and disgusted by the absolute corruption of these institutions who brain-wash and harm so many; and how they continue to just get away with it all. So thankful I began to question all the things and walked away when I did, before even more harm could occur in my own life.
Thank you David for continuing to report on these places and staying on top of all the madness of it all.
I cannot unsee NZers saying something nice before going into their negative reply now since your reporting alluded me to it! Webworm journalism is top notch.
Thanks for all the support in here, worms. This week has made me feel really angry and frustrated. Reading these comments gives me some encouragement.
Thank you for your mahi in highlighting the exploitation and hypocrisy of these institutions. They just make me feel icky. It gives me a slight bit of encouragement to realise at least in a New Zealand context these mega churches have not completely embedded themselves into the various levels of government. I'm an American happily living my life down on the South Island having left the US five years ago after the universe sent enough signs telling me it was time to leave. I am very fortunate to call Aotearoa New Zealand home now, yet I've watched with horror the amount of power and influence evangelicals back in the US keep amassing. Please keep on poking that bear.
It’s definitely quite a different context here. From what I have seen in the last few years, outside of pentecostal spaces the focus is more likely to be welfare and social policy — I think of the State of the Nation reports by the Sallies to highlight pressing social needs and possible solutions (ie housing crisis).
Semi-related: Aotearoa also has, globally, one of the highest proportions of people who volunteer. As some of our recent natural disasters have demonstrated, a lot of people will go out of their way to care for their neighbours. Which is just so utterly beautiful to me. Kinda what it’s all about imho 💛❤️🩹💛
You are absolutely right, and what a wonderful way to phrase it, that caring for your neighbours is utterly beautiful.
Thank you! The kindness of strangers🥹❤️🩹🥰
It’s not you, it’s them 💛
Worms! Love it! 🪱
DO NOT STOP DAVID. Make Megachurches your next doco please (but maybe not while living in America 😳). It’s time they start paying tax like everyone else or better yet, shut down ASAP. And I agree with the comment - where is their code of ethics? Where is their formal training? DO NOT STOP THIS REPORTING! And thanks for being brave enough to do it. And go Andrew Wilkie. We need 5,000 more of him in parliament.
Gas-lighting 101: Attack the opponent’s credentials ✅ See if they go away ❎
Freeze them out 🥶(for a little while at least)
Threaten them with the law 📚
Unleash the full torrent l⚡️ of your displeasure ....
Feels like you’ve been here before...David. I think you’re in the little’freeze out’ hiatus before they can’t help themselves and continue. A narcissist needs AIR!
Thanks Louise.
You know what - sometimes I wake up in the morning and read too much news and my heart is heavy with the amount of fuckwittery out there, but it always restores my faith in the world that you and other journos are driven to highlight this bs. To force positive change and to provide a voice to people damaged by these organisations. Thanks so much for all you do David 👏
I said yesterday that they’re more like corporations than churches and should be treated as such, but after reading this I’ve revised my opinion - they’re organised crime and should be charged as such 😒
Agree !
This is only scratching the surface. It's like a thread hanging from a jumper sleeve, and as you keep pulling it, the entire thing starts to unravel.
The H$ (Hillsong) and Life network goes back to buddies in Lower Hutt, Houston and deJong being mentored by the old boy himself, Frank H at Sydney Christian Life Centre, then both going off to plant and grow their own empires.
The "gift giving" is massive amongst them and all of their networked "boys club" churches around the world - it's ingrained as "honour culture" so the congregation are conditioned not to see it as dodgy. Think of the massive H$ church network, but then add in many of the other mega churches over there: Casy Treat, Rick Godwin, Kevin Gerald, Steve Kelly - the list goes on and on and on and on.......... It's nothing for PdJ to have a paid "sabbatical" and head off overseas on wages, while collecting massive honourariums over there.
This expose has been decades in the making, with thousands of hurt, used and abused people discarded along the way. The church however has had ample opportunity to reflect, repent and mend broken relationships over the years, but chose instead to favour the machine over the individual. I cannot tell you how many times we were told that we were "dispensible." They were not prepared to clean house, so now that house is exposed to the world to be cleaned.
* Christian believer here proudly supporting Webworm with my subscription. If you get to check your presumably overflowing mailbox David, I have written you a far lengthier message, following on from a brief email conversation we had last year. Thank you for being the voice to bring this rubbish to the surface.
What about those who went to San Diego with 3C, Mathesius's, can't recall their new church name...they certainly live the high life in the name of Jesus along with the many others in NZ and across the ditch, wherever that may be.
And those who go overseas as apparent nanny's for pastors, and earn $$$ under the table in USA like that Reena girl did. Totally illegal. Said on her Dream Interpreter interview on YouTube that she went on a holiday and was offered a job. A few of us watched it, lied through her teeth. What a load of bollocks.
The stories that surrounded her and her mates were pretty massive but the churches just swept it under the carpet. Then they happily get their visa's and residency in the name of working for God....such a farce.
I guess they say if it looks too good to be true, it is and it's about time these people 'who clearly have NO INTEGRITY' were held accountable. It is time innocent people stop looking up to them. The messages surrounding give and you will be blessed need to stop because the average person very rarely gets 'blessed out of their socks' ...it's a load of emotional manipulation of the finest degree.
Interesting to see what all these guys, past and young in the present actually did for jobs prior to naming themselves 'pastors'....how much experience did they actually have....9 time's out of 10 -not an awful lot......
Well said. I well remember the "nannies" and "drivers" and "spear carriers" (another Old Testament concept taken out of context) - the favourites of the pastors and travelling evangelists, who would be offered religious visas to move overseas like you stated, expensive gifts and more while being "on call" for countless hours in some cases.
So much has been excused in these churches because hey - the music is good right?
All of NZ's mega churches have bought into the H$ methodology of "being relevant" by throwing millions into sound systems, lights and more - while most of the volunteer musicians and singers are burned out from hours of rehearsals, albums, Christmas events and multiple services a week.
So many of them have also jumped on the "in house training college / intern program" bandwagon which H$ led the way with years ago. Educational arms bring in all sorts of different tax breaks and benefits, as well, they provide a ready-made army to run the conferences and weekly services, plus they ensure that the students coming through are thoroughly immersed in the "DNA" of said church. No need to undo the pesky critical thinking skills that people might pick up from independent Bible Colleges like Laidlow, or even worse - a secular university!
I think they seem to have confused "40 days in the desert", with "40 days of desserts". But then, a lot of these pastors seem to have spelling difficulties.
one of my favourite jokes is the one about CELIBATE being a typo... missing an R... and should've actually been CELEBRATE!
Hahahaha so good. All that money and they still can’t afford Grammerly. I guess you can’t buy common sense 🤷♀️ Or morals for that matter!
Love it!
This is so fascinating, and again the line “you can’t make this stuff up” comes to mind - especially the leaked documents.
I yelped. In excitement, frustration, anger, and a whole bunch of other emotions.
100%. Every time I thought things couldn’t get worse in terms of how the churches respond, they do.
O yes Emily...they lock arms like a chain and defend each other...very difficult to break the locks!!!
You see...they have a lot to lose especially..LIFESTYLE,
They play Good cop - bad cop....denial - justification...scripture after scripture...however...It was once said
'The higher you go the bigger you fall....may the dominoes keep tumbling...one by one - o heck take them all down at once!!!
Brian Houston once preached something like...you can have ALL the talent in the world but show me your integrity and I'll show you who I'd hire.....hhmmm
😳😳😳 it just gets better and better (worse and worse). Why am I not surprised though? 🤔
Thanks for your ongoing work David. There’s quite a few megachurch leaders sweating because you care so much
They have the government breathing down their backs now - because money is involved. MBIE for Arise here in NZ, now over in Australia.
Glad things are happening.
And all their links are coming out and being exposed much more clearly.
This story has been picked up by the abc here in Aus now.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-10/federal-mp-accuses-hillsong-money-laundering-tax-evasion/102077080
On Life’s latest email to you, the whole thing makes me so mad. I was very involved at Life for a few years.
So while Phil’s name is at the bottom of the email (and as manager he’d be the first person to say he’s responsible for it) ... it very much reflects the attitude of Life leadership. So arrogant.
I believe what they mean is: “We don’t want to engage with you on this topic because we don’t believe we are accountable to you.”
But what about their congregation?
I think at the heart of it, the individuals in leadership at Life feel accountable to each other (and their ‘spiritual oversight’) rather than to their congregation. I would dearly love to be wrong on this.
And I think what the leadership at Life don’t seem to realise is that David is a kind of proxy/advocate for their former congregation members, who went to him willingly and openly with their stories.
Are Life accountable to David? No. But is he asking questions that any congestion member would have a right to ask and get a straight answer on? Absolutely. And would congregants have got any kind of communication about these issues without David’s questions? Probably not.
Just like the initial Arise responses (who finally issued a proper apology after maybe ten months of idiocy), what’s missing from the Life response is that focus on the welfare of those affected, plus what steps they have taken / will take to ensure they are taking good care of their current congregation. It’s PR 101.
How did Arise lose so many members? It refused to acknowledge the extent of the problem; ring-fenced issues; victim-blamed, put the needs of survivors (and congregants) at the bottom of the list, well below protecting the organisation and senior leaders’ image; all while pumping out social media and Sunday services as though everything was fine.
And the effect? Trust was broken.
That’s why people left.
I’m not sure those in Life leadership realise this, but currently they’re following the Arise playbook pretty closely.
It’s their move.
Thanks for this incredible insight, Emily. I had not really seen it in that way - their mindset. I think you're on the money.
Thanks, David (and for all your work here!). At this point I don’t think it’s a PR issue - although that’s part of it - it’s a leadership ethics issue.
Maybe a Machiavellian ethic (in the name of Jesus, of course) isn’t the greatest approach after all... 🥸
Emily you are correct with their accountability policy.
They are accountable to 'each other', their mates as such.
Also strange that when something goes wrong, its the same 'team who goes in' to investigate' ie PdJ for BH's motel room oops. I can only imagine how they looked at the poor woman concerned. And the 'boys' certainly look after each other.
The accountability for the guys up top is certainly A VERY DIFFERENT type of accountability for the little staff, volunteers or congregation members.
And no doubt, they have called 'URGENT' staff meetings at Life for damage control, to tell people not to listen or speak etc, I know because I was told they had one about a very good friend of mine one day a few years back when she was thinking of getting a lawyer involved in something. The machine doesn't change its ways.
Some people will be sweating in their boots, high heels or sneakers, wondering what is going to be exposed about them. And so be it.
Hey Sunflower, thank you so much. Sadly, so much of what you write, resonates.
And as you highlight — how awful this probably was for the woman who had Houston in her hotel room while he was under the influence. I can only imagine how she was treated by people afterwards 😬
I quite enjoy this Web Log, or blog, if you will. It is informative and entertaining. And, most importantly, it maintains high levels of journalistic ethics that I crave from other mastheads which maintain Web Logs on The Internet, which some people call the World Wide Web. I am always delighted to receive this Web Log via the medium of Electronic Mail, some call this E-Mail, a communications protocol which I hear is catching on with people who want to exchange knowledge on the Information Superhighway (another popular term for The Internet). One can only assume that the name of this blog, "Web Worm" is derived from the term World Wide Web, and the author, David Farrier, envisaging himself as a giant member of some species of Clitellata burrowing through the depths of cyberspace (yet another inventive description of The Internet). Whether Farrier turns out to be more like an Earthworm or a tapeworm — he is a known associate of Serj Tankian who famously wrote a ballad about the violent removal of Eucestoda from ones body — awaits to be seen. We can only hope, and pray, that our lord and saviour, Jesus Christ, descends from heaven and blesses Farrier so these “Megachurches” finally see the error of their ways and cast aside their profit driven, fart-cupping ways etc.
Brilliantly said *applause*. Your comment - a response or reply on said Web Log - was well thought out and very precisely worded. Judging by the several "likes", approval markers left by other readers on the Web Log, other readers have also appreciated your message etc.
Hey Cyril, how do I print out a comment from The Internet?
Paul De Jong and Chris Hodges... where have we heard those names before? Oh wait, they're the guys who were on John Cameron's 'oversight board' that John always said had the ability to fire him (but turns out that was maybe a lie?), and then denied having anything to do with John as soon as Arise started imploding.
Crikey,
“Hillsong followers believe the money they put in the poor box goes to the poor, but these documents show how that money is actually used to do the kind of shopping that would embarrass a Kardashian” –Andrew Wilkie, in his speech in parliament on Mar. 9, as quoted in the Guardian.
I am continually surprised and disgusted by the absolute corruption of these institutions who brain-wash and harm so many; and how they continue to just get away with it all. So thankful I began to question all the things and walked away when I did, before even more harm could occur in my own life.
Thank you David for continuing to report on these places and staying on top of all the madness of it all.
It has once again been 0 days since last church based fuckery
"blog, etc"... ahem "cult, etc"
I cannot unsee NZers saying something nice before going into their negative reply now since your reporting alluded me to it! Webworm journalism is top notch.
It’s *everywhere*
And yeah - you can’t unsee it!