
You may remember many of the famous pastors Karl Lenzthe trademarks of – the tats, the skinny jeans, the relationship with the mentor Justin Bieber and other big names – before his expulsion from Hillsong Church in late 2020 and news of his infidelity. Or maybe no remember much about Lentz or Hillsong, or that Carl’s ouster as one of the lead pastors of Hillsong’s New York branch was only the first visible crack in a dam holding back allegations of abuse, corruption and cover-up by the international megachurch and its Sydney-based powerful elite because two or more years can feel like 10 in post-Covid time. Fortunately Hillsong Secrets did you cover
Directed by Stacey Lee (Mocked), based on Alex French and Dan Adlerreport on Vanity Fair in “Carl Lentz and the Trouble at Hillsong” and co-produced by Scout Productions and Vanity Fair Studios, Hillsong Secrets traces the church’s beginnings, its rise and expansion, its troubling culture of alleged abuse and cover-up, and Lenz’s rapid rise and fall. French and Adler’s February 2021 report is a great place to start for background, and the reporters are on camera to help set the scene, along with former Hillsong congregants, cultural spirituality experts, Australian senators—and himself the ever-ubiquitous Lenz. Secrets seeing Carl and his wife of 20 years, Laura– sit down for their first interviews since the scandal sent them into functional exile.
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Breaking the Lentz family’s silence isn’t the only reason to make room Secrets in your weekend viewing schedule. Is this it main reason? Let’s review the biggest draws Hillsong Secretsthe first two episodes.
Carl enters the recording. The Lentz family interviews for Secrets are the pair’s first since leaving the Hillsong pastorate in the fall of 2020, and that prodigal son-tinged exclusivity is a big part of the documentaries’ appeal. What will Carl say? What could Karl say?
Well, he says a lot and I’ll get to the point in a moment, but Secrets handles another major component of its own appeal solidly, namely Carl himself—whether he’s giving a current interview or appearing in older footage. In 2010, Lenz was everywhere, and the first two episodes of the series reveal how that happened. More than one former Hillsong congregant interviewed for Secrets describes Lenz’s irresistible charisma, recalling his megawatt charm in sometimes regretful tones, and the fact is that whether you buy into Carl’s hipster gospel or think it’s silly, your eyes go straight to the man.
Hillsong Secrets understands that his short text is not only to see what Karl has to say or to update French and Adler’s investigative file. It is also to acknowledge and even invite the gloating that the Carl Lentz/Hillsong scandal—and all celebrity church scandals like it, going back at least to the disappearance of Amy Semple McPherson nearly 100 years ago—invokes in the culture of freedom. Karl christens Bieber an NBA player Tyson ChandlerXXL bathtub; this is not a person who do not do he wants people to pay attention to him. At one point in his interviews with director Lee, Karl adapted the Serenity Prayer to ask for the strength to get through the documentary. Whether the viewer sees such a moment as stupidly profound or deeply goofy will, of course, vary from person to person. But whatever one thinks of Lenz, as usual, he’s extremely attractive to watch.
Carl talks specifically about his past. I’ll avoid spoilers, but Carl tries to unravel the reasons, not the excuses, for some of his misdeeds, including the extramarital affair that brought down his house, as well as the “compromising position” his wife Laura previously found him in with the nanny of the family, Leona Kimes. Karl cites an unresolved trauma from his childhood as the catalyst for his acting out. (He also blames, to a lesser extent, that he married too young, which isn’t exactly an endorsement of Hillsong’s “purity-forward” approach to intimate relationships.)
And there is a fact that there still is is Carl and Laura. Laura Lenz’s presence is notable in its own right, but the fuller portrait of Lenz’s marriage presented in the series is full of subtext—especially through the background Secrets outlines the earlier years of Hillsong and Laura’s parents’ close friendship with Hillsong’s founders Brian and Bobby Huston. Secrets illuminates the ways in which Laura’s upbringing may have led her to her marriage/super couple status with Carl. Laura herself is exhausted. “I lost everything,” as she recalls the final months of 2020, it’s clear she didn’t see any paths leading from that setup. As with any marriage, much of the decision-making remains personal.
The secrets of the Lentz family are the least of Hillsong’s problems. Carl Lenz is a fascinating figure, but he is the height of the mess at Hillsong (despite the testimony of former New York branch congregants such as Ashley and Mary Jones, Janice Lagata, Abby Fitzsimmons, and Ajanet Roundtree, paint a detailed picture of the culture during Lenz’s time in the church). Secrets puts Carl’s scandal in context with descriptions of Hillsong’s wider history of sexist nepotism, not to mention allegations of sexual abuse (including assaults that Brian Huston’s father, Frank, admitted to decades ago, although he was never charged in crime) and cover-up (by Brian awaiting his fate in his native Australia in a criminal case related to his alleged cover-up of his father’s predatory behavior).
Expert commentators such as faith and culture writer Caitlin Beatty, locate Hillsong in a larger public history of faith-based misdeeds and draw slight parallels to other religious organizations that have a profit focus (Scientology, for example) without lecturing.
Some of the most illuminating material in the series comes from Lee’s interviews with former members of the Hillsong community. every few minutes, Secrets dryly reminds you through insider testimony that Hillsong’s progressive credentials belie a misogynistic, victim-blaming culture that erases the queer experience and engages in diversity showcases while skillfully avoiding questions on these points. Hillsong College alumni like Tiff Perez, and former congregants as choir director and survived racer Josh Canfield, spotlight Hillsong’s conservative teachings and white male-dominated power structure, describing their experiences with a mixture of nostalgia and bitter disappointment. Perez’s wry recollection of the glass ceiling that was sure she can crash and collect from kansas city Crystal roseHillsong’s bitter recollection of the amount of Hillsong “marketing material” in which she was included as one of the few black members in that congregation underscores the point that although the eye may be drawn first to Carl Lentz, Lentz is not what viewers should watch closely.
Hillsong Secrets premieres on FX tonight at 10 p.m.; the final two episodes air on May 26. All episodes will stream the following day on Hulu.