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MercurysBall2 ago

What I Learned By Joining Justin Bieber's Church

I'm watching a cross between Bill Murray and Bradley Cooper in all-black: a COS-style scoop-neck top, slim-fit trousers and suede desert boots. The man looks primed to deliver a TED talk, but his charismatic oratory is met with cries of "amen" and "preach it!" from faces lit up blue by the neons that surround him. He's not just talking, either. He's in rapture, his words are rough. It begins to sound like the creepiest dirty talk.

What I'm saying—what I'm telling you—is you messed up coming to church tonight," he growls, "cause God's about to wreck your little jungle life."

The man is Jentezen Franklin, founder of the ministry Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia. Tonight he is the headline act at Hillsong, which, every Sunday, holds four services at London's 2,000-capacity Dominion Theatre. It's on Tottenham Court Road, wedged between a Garfunkel's, a Dorothy Perkins and a bunch of Crossrail-related road-works.

Hillsong isn't a normal church. It's the international pentecostal mega-church that Justin Bieber allegedly quit his world tour for. It's been called "trendy," noted as an example of "hipster Christianity" and compared to "an Urban Outfitters stock room explosion."

As well as attending Zoe Church Conference, set up by pastor Chad Veach—an occasional Hillsong preacher who is so close to Bieber that Bieber has a tattoo dedicated to Veach's daughter—Bieber's been hanging out with other Hillsong preachers Judah Smith, founder of the Seattle's City Church, and Rich Wilkerson Jr, founder of Vous, an LA-based church. His closest friend in the church, though, is Hillsong's New York City lead pastor Carl Lentz. Justin first met the skinny-jeaned, unnecessarily-bespectacled preacher in 2008, and in a recent Instagram post on Bieber's account Lentz snuggles so close that his Dov Charney-style lensless aviators dent Bieber's cheek. The caption reads: "THIS IS MY DOG TIL THE DAY I DIE .. he's the biggest Brodog. ride or die.."

The pair were just as close at Australia's Hillsong Conference. Check out this one Hillsong-approved interview where Bieber, sitting between Veach and Lentz, wears a grey marl tracksuit bearing the slogan "Young & Free", the official name of the youth wing of Hillsong, and proclaims: "I just enjoy seeing people worship, praising God," before cleaning his teeth with a mini toothbrush. Wilkerson is interviewing, and he's patient, having had practice after sitting through the 45-minute groom's speech at Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's 2014 wedding, which he officiated. Bieber then rests his head onto Lentz's shoulder and says, "I just want to love people more, I just want to love Carl more," before adding: "I just think my faith grows every day, so my faith is stronger than it was two years ago: better, stronger, wiser, kinder."

It's a long article you can read the rest at the link.

Related voat post: Victim of Hillsong Church founder's father says childhood was destroyed by sexual abuse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g2FgAu1NYw