Hillsong Church has decided to be culturally relevant by abandoning the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not unexpected. The church has been more a business for a while and does not want to affect its bottom line.

But now I find it is not at all a coincidence that the church ran out this week to get fawning press coverage over its wavering on the gay rights front. Why? Turns out the church covered up abuse and that came out last week.

Disturbing news surfaced last week that the founder and senior pastor of one of the largest churches in Australia, and a church well known in this country for its worship music, failed to report his father for sexually abusing children. Brian Houston of Hillsong Church, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse that in October of 1999, he learned that an adult had reported being sexually abused as a child by leading Pentecostal pastor, Frank Houston. The elder Houston was permanently suspended from preaching and given a “retirement package”. The victim was sent $10,000.00. The church eventually uncovered up to eight more cases of child sexual abuse by Frank Houston before he passed away in 2004. None of these cases were ever reported to law enforcement.

This week’s actions all make sense now. Kudos to their PR team for playing to the world so effectively.