AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Monday 6 October 2014
The head of Hillsong Church, Brian Houston, told a man who was abused by Houston’s father that it was his fault for tempting the preacher, the victim has told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
It was also alleged that Frank Houston, a preacher who helped build Australia’s Pentecostal movement, which led to the establishment of Hillsong, met the victim in a McDonald’s and offered him $10,000, saying he did not want his actions hanging over his head when he stood before God.
The royal commission is examining the responses by the Sydney Christian Life Centre and Hills Christian Life Centre (now Hillsong Church) and Assemblies of God in Australia (now Australian Christian Churches) to allegations against the Pentecostal Christian pastor, and began by hearing from a victim of abuse.
Frank Houston, who died in 2004, confessed in 2000 to sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand more than 30 years earlier. He was immediately sacked by his son, Brian Houston, the high-profile founder of the Hillsong Church, who was then national president of the Assemblies of God.
It was also revealed on Tuesday that Frank Houston had allegedly abused up to nine boys in Australia and New Zealand and that no allegations were referred to police nor civil proceedings commenced in Australia.
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