‘It’s your fault,’ Hillsong founder told victim of child sexual abuse

By Dan Box
Australian
October 7, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/its-your-fault-hillsong-founder-told-victim-of-child-sexual-abuse/story-e6frg6n6-1227082596451

Brian Houston; Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church at a convention in sydney in 2005.

A FOUNDER of the Hillsong Church told a victim of child sexual abuse: “It’s your fault all this happened, you tempted my father,” a royal commission has heard.

Brian Houston, whose family “were considered to be almost like royalty” in the Pentecostal Christian movement was speaking to the victim after his father agreed to pay him $10,000 over his abuse, the commission heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard evidence that Brian Houston’s father, William Francis ‘Frank’ Houston abused several children in Australia and New Zealand.

One victim, who was abused by the late Frank Houston for several years during the 1960s and 1970s, said the pastor “would be touching me inappropriately, I would be petrified and would just lay very still”.

The abuse took place in his family home, the victim said, and when he finally told his mother, he said: “It was difficult for her to accept ... all of her friends were involved in the church and the Houstons were considered to be almost like royalty in those circles.”

After the allegations became public within the church during 1999, Frank Houston met his victim offering him $10,000 and saying: “I want your forgiveness for this. I don’t want to die and have to face God with this on my head,” the commission heard.

Months later, when the money had not arrived, his victim called Frank Houston’s son Brian, who was then the national president of the Assemblies of God in Australia Pentecostal movement.

The victim said Brian told him: “You know, it’s your fault all this happened. You tempted my father”.

“Brian got very angry after that. He slammed the phone down after saying words to the effect of ‘You’ll be getting your money’,” the victim told the commission. He received a cheque for $10,000 about two weeks later.

The commission has heard Brian Houston suspended his father from preaching after the allegations came to light. Further investigations by the Assemblies of God, now known as Australian Christian Churches, uncovered other evidence that Frank Houston had abused young boys.

“The evidence is likely to reveal that no allegations of child sexual abuse against Frank Houston have been referred to the police,” council assisting the commission, Simeon Beckett said.

Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie took over the running of his father’s Sydney Christian Life Centre in 1999, merging it with their own Hills Christian Life Centre in the city’s northwest. The organisation was renamed Hillsong Church in 2001, the commission heard.

Today, Hillsong Church is active in 12 countries, with tens of thousands of people attending its services across Australia every weekend, the commission heard. Brian and Bobbie Houston remain central to its operations.

In a statement released outside the commission, Brian Houston said: “I disagree with (the victim’s) perception of the phone call with me and I strongly refute that I - at any time - accused him of tempting my father.”