Which fashion icons, former Disney kids, and Marvel stars have been associated with the
controversial Hillsong church? And why won't other celebs talk about it? Keep watching to find out.
Justin Bieber once had a super public friendship with Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz. According to GQ,
Bieber lived with Lentz for a month and a half as he got his life together after a
period of extremely negative publicity, and Lentz helped Bieber get baptized.
Justin shared a snap of himself and his pastor on Instagram, captioning the selfie,
"THIS IS MY DOG TIL THE DAY I DIE .. he's the biggest Brodog,
ride or die.. til the wheels fall off!!"
Hillsong was even reportedly behind Bieber's decision to cancel
some dates on his "Purpose" World Tour, according to sources who told Us Weekly,
"Members of the Hillsong Church said he didn't have to go and that God will protect him."
However, TMZ reported in 2018 that the two had experienced a falling-out.
They reached out to Carl Lentz for comment on Bieber's engagement to model Hailey Baldwin,
and were told that he would not be commenting on his former friend.
According to a Hillsong statement obtained by People, Lentz was fired from Hillsong in 2020
following "moral failures," which seems to have been code for an extramarital affair.
It seems that Bieber followed him out the door soon after. He announced on Instagram
Stories in early 2021 that he was no longer a part of Lentz's former congregation, writing,
"BTW HILLSONG IS NOT MY CHURCH."
Hailey Bieber, formerly Baldwin, is a model; and just like her pop star husband Justin,
she was a devoted attendee of Hillsong. Hailey told Elle that
she first found the church at age 16 while living in New York City,
and that it appealed to her because it wasn't like other churches, which she said tended to
be "boring." Hillsong, on the other hand, was exciting and appealed to young people, saying,
"It started to feel like my own little community of people who were also young and following God
and just immersed in a church community [...] Then I developed my own relationship to church
and my own relationship with God, separate from being raised that way by my parents.
That's been a cool journey for me."
In 2020, Justin shared photos on Instagram depicting a joint baptism, performed by
Churchome pastor Judah Smith, even though Justin was previously already baptized into Hillsong.
Alongside photos showing the Vogue cover model submerged in water, Justin wrote:
"The moment @haileybieber my wife and I got baptized together! This was one of most special
moments of my life. Confessing our love and trust in Jesus publicly with our friends and family."
Like many other Hillsong celebs, Hailey has also appeared on The Hillsong Channel
several times, discussing topics ranging from married life and shame to finding her purpose.
Her husband no longer attends Hillsong as of 2021, so it's safe to assume Hailey has left as well.
Ahead of the release of The Lego Movie 2, Chris Pratt appeared on The Late Show with Stephen
Colbert and mentioned completing a 21-day fast patterned after the Biblical figure of Daniel.
"The book of Daniel?"
"The book of Daniel"
"The prophet?"
"The prophet Daniel, from the book of..."
"Yeah from the Old Testament the book of Daniel."
Pratt's outspoken faith wasn't a total surprise,
considering he once spent an Easter Sunday with a giant cross, but this time The Umbrella Academy
star Elliot Page called out Pratt's ties to Hillsong. In a viral tweet, he wrote:
"Oh. K. Um. But his church is infamously anti lgbtq so maybe address that too?"
After much discussion online, Pratt responded to the accusation, saying in a wordy Instagram Story,
"Nothing could be further from the truth."
He noted that the church had been helpful to him during his divorce from ex-wife Anna Faris,
even though divorce is frowned upon, and he tried to say that the church is accepting
of all people. However, Hillsong's own disgraced founder, Brian Houston,
admitted to excluding LGBTQ-identifying people from holding leadership positions.
In a blog post entitled "Do I Love Gay People?" Houston wrote,
"Hillsong Church welcomes ALL people but does not affirm all lifestyles.
Put clearly, we do not affirm a gay lifestyle and because of this
we do not knowingly have actively gay people in positions of leadership, either paid or unpaid."
Pratt's membership at Hillsong has continued to follow him. Because of his association, he went
viral in 2020 as the "worst Chris," prompting defenses from many of his Avengers co-stars.
Chris Pratt is one of Hillsong's best-known attendees, and his current wife,
Katherine Schwarzenegger-Pratt, seems to have joined him. Though her action-star husband told
Extra that the two met in church, it's unclear exactly which church he was referring to. But now
that the two are married, Katherine has increased her involvement in Hillsong along with Chris.
The two have been spotted leaving Zoe Church — a Hillsong sister church — by paparazzi. Plus,
in 2020, she appeared on The Hillsong Channel on YouTube to promote her book
"The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable."
Schwarzenegger-Pratt did, however, note that her book relayed stories
from "different people of all ages, from all backgrounds, all walks of life, all faiths."
Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber's on-again, off-again relationship
throughout their early careers was the stuff of pop culture legend. One tidbit
about the status of their relationship came in 2017 from People, as sources claimed the
couple was seeking counseling from Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz. The magazine reported :
"They don't want to repeat the same patterns as before.
They've clearly had issues in the past, so they're receiving some guidance from Carl."
By 2019, however, a lot had changed. Jelena was done for good,
because Justin married Hailey Baldwin. Bieber and Lentz were no longer speaking to one another,
Lentz himself was embroiled in scandal, and it seems Selena had enough.
Sources told The Daily Telegraph that Gomez doesn't want anything to do with Hillsong anymore.
Gomez opened up about her views on spirituality to Vogue in 2021. She clarified,
"I'm very, very spiritual. I believe in God,
but I'm not religious. [...] I've been a Christian for a while now. I don't talk
about it too much. [...] I just want to make it clear that I love being able to have my faith,
and believe in what I believe in, and that truly is what gets me through."
Vanessa Hudgens grew up Catholic, but she told The New York Times she didn't feel
particularly connected to religion until she and her then-boyfriend, actor Austin Butler,
found Hillsong. They attended the New York City branch of the Pentecostal church,
since Hudgens was starring in a Broadway production of Gigi,
and she found herself won over by Hillsong's flashy concerts. She told the newspaper,
"It feels like Arcade Fire — it's epic like that."
However, it wasn't just the megachurch's theatrics that drew her back to religion
after years spent "mean" and "fed up" with fame, as she described herself. Instead,
she clarified, she liked Hillsong's approach to spirituality, saying,
"They really focus on you having your own personal relationship with Jesus, which is wonderful."
Hudgens doesn't appear to have spoken publicly about Hillsong since that 2015 interview,
and she and Butler broke up after almost a decade together.
It's unclear whether she's still a member; Hillsong has gone through
numerous scandals and public-relations disasters since those early days,
so it may make sense for Hudgens to distance herself from the church she once loved.
Austin Butler, the star of the hit Elvis biopic, was once a devoted attendee of Hillsong Church,
and he appears to have been a close personal friend of former pastor Carl Lentz. Though Butler
doesn't seem to have spoken about his relationship to the church publicly, various photos across
social media tell the story of his involvement with the much-hyped religious institution.
Years before Vanessa Hudgens opened up about her "personal relationship with Jesus,"
a fan shared a selfie alongside her and Austin at what they said was a Hillsong conference.
Lentz himself posted a picture with his wife Laura alongside them in a car; in the caption, he wrote,
"Today is a fantastic day to thank God for what you DO HAVE
and be mindful of people immersed in various trials."
It also seems that, as much as Butler may have been a fan of Lentz's church,
Lentz was also a fan of the star's acting ability. In the caption of a 2013 photo with Butler,
Lentz wrote that Butler was "James Dean 2.0."
Like his ex-girlfriend Vanessa, Austin has not publicly disavowed
Lentz after the cheating scandal that saw him resign from Hillsong.
Like many other celebs who have attended services at Hillsong Church, it's difficult
to know the current status of Hawkeye star Hailee Steinfeld's relationship with the
controversial house of worship. Steinfeld doesn't discuss her personal life much, but back in 2017,
she was rumored to be dating a certain infamous member of the congregation: Justin Bieber.
TMZ initially reported on the relationship, noting that Bieber had broken up with Hailey Baldwin. In
the meantime, sources told them that he had been introduced to Hailee Steinfeld through Carl Lentz.
Steinfeld's reps denied the crux of the article,
insisting she and Bieber were only friends; they did not deny that Steinfeld was a Hillsong
attendee. However, in an unusual move, TMZ did not redact the piece, instead doubling down on
the insistence that this was an actual relationship and not just a friendship.
"Well, that was a bit of a letdown."
During the height of Hillsong in the mid-2010s, many celebs stopped by the church to check out
why so many of their peers had felt the calling. One such star was Lil Wayne,
who appeared in a photo with Justin Bieber and Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz. Anticipating
that the musicians would face backlash for linking up with him, Carl wrote on Instagram,
"Because these individuals are 'well known',
immediately it will elicit reactions… mostly harsh, because it's easier/lazy
to classify that which you can't fully understand, than to pursue depth and reasoning."
Bieber shared the photo as well, choosing a different sentiment to convey. He wrote,
"Not about what you do but who u do it with. Love these guys!"
Weezy may or may not have been a devoted Hillsong attendee, but shortly after posing for the pic,
the rapper released a memoir called "Gone 'Til November,"
a collection of writing he'd done in his journal while incarcerated.
He wrote that he received a letter from a church that urged him to consider "rapping for the Lord,"
and he says that for a time, he did consider what his life might be like if he became a
Christian rapper instead of continuing down the path that led him to prison. He mused,
"I would truly have the power of pop culture turning to God. [...] I would
have straight killers in church every Sunday."
Ultimately, he decided against it.
Hillsong Church is controversial for numerous reasons, which is why so many celebrity attendees
tend to be pretty quiet about their attendance. Still, that didn't stop several members of
the Kardashian-Jenner family from going, or from posting about their experiences online.
Back in 2014, pre-Justin, Hailey Bieber shared a selfie on Instagram,
posing alongside Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz, and his wife Laura.
Kendall was photographed attending a mid-week Hillsong service alongside Kourtney Kardashian
and Kanye West, who The Mirror noted may have been inspired by Hillsong's music-centric
approach to worship in starting his own Sunday Services concert series.
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