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Scotty From Marketing has today distanced himself from a man once described as his close personal friend and spiritual mentor, Hillsong pastor Brian Houston, who has resigned from the church over allegedly inappropriate behaviour towards two women.
Australia’s first Pentecostal Prime Minister said it was “entirely appropriate” for Houston to resign from the global church after complaints about his conduct by two women that led to an internal investigation, in the middle of a police investigation into allegations that he hid his father’s alleged child abuse from both authorities and the church.
However, the Prime Minister insists this most recent scandal has nothing to do with him, as he went on to play down his association with the controversial Hillsong founder, insisting that “I haven’t been at Hillsong now for about 15 years”.
Morrison said that he now attended a Pentecostal church in his own community, ShireLive, which means he has absolutely NOTHING to do with the man he honoured on stage at the Australian Christian Churches conference in April last year, before leading a prayer for the millions of happy clappers in the audience and streaming in online.
The PM made no mention of this one-off appearance at the conference, or the fact that he also attended the opening session of the Hillsong annual conference shortly after the May federal election, where Morrison stood on stage with Houston and called for more love and more prayer to embody “the amazing love of God”.
““I must admit we were very disappointed and shocked to hear the news” Morrison said, about this man that he has very little to do with, despite referencing him In his maiden speech to Parliament in 2008, when he said he had been “greatly assisted by the pastoral work of many dedicated church leaders, in particular the Rev Ray Green and pastors Brian Houston and Leigh Coleman”.
“But yeah. 15 years.” he said.
“Don’t try and act like I’m best mates with the man”
“We were supposed to meet up in Washington back in 2019 when I asked the Trump administration to invite Houston to a state dinner at the White House as part of his official visit to the US”
“But the White House rudely declined my suggestion so I had to take Gina Rhinehart instead”
“A woman who I also don’t know very well”
