“I am responsible for allowing an inappropriate relationship to develop in my house with someone that worked for us,” he says. Lentz also admits an inappropriate relationship with Kimes, who was co-pastor of Hillsong in Boston, in addition to being the family’s nanny, but insists that it was consensual. What I’ve done is my fault, but where that thing started, I have no control over. "I think this moment of quiet must be disorientating for him," director Stacey Lee said. Lentz in 2017 during an interview in New York, around the height of his fame. “The Secrets of Hillsong,” a four-part docuseries premiering Friday on FX, makes the case that Lentz, although flawed, was a convenient, high-profile scapegoat for an institution that went much deeper than a single wayward pastor. To many, it seemed like a predictable twist in an all-too-familiar tale: Lentz, despite his hipster trappings, was just another hypocritical religious leader caught up in a sex scandal and ultimately undone by his own hubris. "I was subjected to manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power and sexual abuse," she wrote in a 2021 blog post. Then, he disappeared from public view, even as Ranin Karim talked about her affair with Lentz on “Good Morning America,” and the family’s former nanny, Leona Kimes, publicly accused Carl Lentz of misdeeds. Then, in late 2020, he was fired from Hillsong for “moral failures.” On Instagram, Lentz apologized for cheating on his wife, Laura, disappointing the thousands of congregants who looked to him for spiritual guidance. In the process, Lentz turned into a star himself, a “ hypepriest” to the rich and famous who was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and profiled in major magazines.Īs a white Evangelical who lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, and wasn’t afraid to say Black lives matter - even on "The 700 Club" - he seemed to represent a new, more progressive strain of Christianity, even as he skillfully dodged questions about the church’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues and did little to increase diversity in the organization's leadership. Known for his designer skinny jeans, plunging V-neck shirts and wildly charismatic sermons, Lentz attracted numerous celebrities to his flock and in 2014, famously baptized Justin Bieber in a bathtub belonging to NBA player Tyson Chandler. Over the following decade, the church became a sensation, drawing thousands of diverse, young congregants every Sunday to services at Irving Plaza in Manhattan. The pastor had founded the New York City outpost of Hillsong, a Pentecostal megachurch with roots in Australia, in 2010. Just a few years ago, Carl Lentz was on top of the world.
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