Reconciling With Harmful Sin In A Loved One's Life
This is a story I never knew. I landed on it only a few days ago. I felt it might be helpful to some who may struggle with the possibility of harmful sin on the part of their loved one. It describes very difficult news that almost cannot be humanly reconciled to those beloved of the sinner. I will briefly summarize, then list the three sources I found for this disappointingly true story.
A gifted evangelist founded and pastored a church for over 20 years. He had been involved in Christian ministries most of his life. His son told mourners at his passing that his dad was the greatest evangelical preacher he had ever seen. "In my biased opinion, he was in a class of his own."
One day when his father was still pastoring the son received news from a man that he had been sexually abused by his father thirty years earlier. The son was devasted to say the least and even entered into depression at this news. “I was never at any time in any way exposed to that, so it’s still hard to reconcile." “I had to confront my own father — my hero — we didn’t cover it up."...“We did tell people straight away. We did take his credentials away. He never did preach again and we did oversee and ensure that he was never put in a position...to be able to do that again."
It became darker for this son as other victims started coming forward. 'At that time I thought there was one (victim) and then 12 months later it became clear there were many more, mostly in....,' told Today.
'It's obvious he was a paedophile and that his behaviour was repetitive and it seems like it was over a period of a decade in the late sixties and seventies.' Another victim was a trainee pastor who was abused sexually during a counseling session with the father twenty years earlier. “And I don’t think we know to this day the full extent of it — I don’t know the full extent of it — I think I would be aware of about six, but listen, I have no idea — it could be much bigger than that, I just don’t know.”
The son "said he believed he was doing the right thing at the time by informing the church's elders and the overarching ...Christian Churches organization." One of the victim's definitely stated he did not want to involve the police. "The senior pastor defended his decision to not inform police after finding out about his father's alleged sexual abuse because the victim, referred to only as AHA, did not want a police or church investigation."
Recounting his struggle to deal with the truth about his father," he says “the dad that I knew, right up to really his dying day, was a totally different person than what now the world knows was an evil side of him”.
This very sad story is about the son, Brian Houston, founder of Hillsong Church, and his father, Frank Houston, evangelist and pastor. It is very encouraging to note that some time after Brian had painfully dealt with this discovery and realization, the Hillsong church became incredibly fruitful and has remained so for many years.
Theses are the links to the news quotes:
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/brian-houston-speaks-out-on-dealing-with-hillsongs-nasty-secret/news-story/bb55a4cb18302fff871f52f1b92cba55http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2790346/it-s-obvious-paedophile-behaviour-repetitive-hillsong-s-brian-houston-believes-father-sexually-abused-victims-decade-fears-more.htmlhttps://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Hillsong-farewells-a-lost-sheep-pioneer/2004/11/12/1100227581958.html
