Carl Lentz, former Hillsong pastor, is in the news these days because he and his wife, Laura Lentz, participated in a FX and HULU documentary “The Secrets of Hillsong.”
Lentz was caught in an “affair”–more on this later–that eventually resulted in his termination from the church. He and his wife are still married.
This “affair” really is better categorized as Clergy Sexual Abuse since it was with an employee whose husband was also employed by the church. It is predatory behavior, in my opinion.
An article says this about how Carl Lentz sees the relationship with the former nanny:
“In the new docuseries, produced in partnership with Vanity Fair and based on their early reporting of scandals at Hillsong’s Manhattan branch, Lentz acknowledges a power dynamic at play in his relationship with Kimes [the family nanny] but denies his behavior was abusive and suggests the relationship was consensual.”
The article goes on to quote Lentz from the documentary saying,
“Any notion of abuse is categorically false,” he claimed…. “There were mutual adult decisions made by two people who lied profusely, mainly to my wife.”
One–of many things–that bothers me about this article and situation is how it erases Leona Grimes’ husband. Certainly, he did not consent to that relationship–(as if he could as a church employee).
Carl Lentz talks about how his lies impacted his wife, but he spares no sympathy for Grimes’ husband. This strikes me as similar to King David abusively taking Bathsheba.
Lentz abused his power in this situation. I will say it again: it is Clergy Sexual Abuse.
Leona Grimes could not consent due to both her and her husband being employed by the church under Lentz. If Carl Lentz truly understood what he did, then he would understand this. He is still making excuses per the quote from the documentary.
