HILLSONG'S NAKED COWBOY IS BACK~
EXCEPT NOW IT'S NAKED SANTA!
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Earlier this year Pulpit & Pen brought you the story of Hillsong, NYC’s youth pastor, Diego Simila, who posed as the infamous “Naked Cowboy” at a Hillsong women’s conference. There were also other more than questionable appearances of debauched characters at various other Hillsong conferences during that time, including the sex pervert, Austin Powers, who showed up at the London conference. Hillsong received quite a bit of backlash for these lewd acts of moral degeneracy including from Montanist apologist and noted Hillsong defender, Michael Brown.
As if these salacious acts weren’t enough to turn any biblically-minded Christian away from the perversion of the Bride of Christ that is Hillsong, Diego Simila is back–posing once again in an obscene display of lasciviousness, as a nearly-naked Santa.
On Esther Houston’s (wife of NYC Worship Leader, Joel Houston) Instagram site (click with caution), you’ll find the following festival of flesh.
This comes as no surprise since Hillsong is known for its debauchery and trashy performances, watered down gospel, and compromise on nearly everything Christians stand for. Several weeks ago, Joel Houston, son of Hillsong CEO, Brian Houston, posted on Twitter that he found Jen Hatmaker’s affirmation of gay marriage “refreshing.” In 2015, the same NY-based branch of Hillsong put on what many dubbed Hillsong’s Sleazy Silent Night, where a woman was paraded on stage in a seductive manner wearing provocative clothing. Carl Lentz, lead pastor of Hillsong NYC, was recently interviewed on Oprah’s television show where Lentz denied that you must be a Christian to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Lentz’ church also had two openly gay members of his congregation serving in the choir–one as the choir director.
All of this anti-Christian, anti-gospel vulgarity and compromise for the sake of pleasing man instead of God is what makes Hillsong famous. It’s no wonder SBTS president, Al Mohler says that Hillsong is “a prosperity movement for the millennials, in which the polyester and middle-class associations of Oral Roberts have given way to ripped jeans and sophisticated rock music…What has made Hillsong distinctive is a minimization of the actual content of the Gospel and a far more diffuse presentation of spirituality.”
Hillsong isn’t a church. Michael Brown says that this is simply an “exaggerated picture of the church of America.” But sadly, this is not exaggerated. This is commonplace and is quickly becoming the mainstream. The true church in America is the minority. It’s time the true church separate completely from the world and Hillsong.
For the time is coming when people
will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will
accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. –2 Timothy 4:3-4
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Hillsong’s ‘Naked Cowboy’ Appears as Half-Naked Santa at ‘Christmas Tropical Party’
BY HEATHER CLARK
SEE: http://christiannews.net/2016/12/24/hillsongs-naked-cowboy-appears-as-half-naked-santa-at-christmas-tropical-party/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The youth leader at Hillsong NYC, who generated controversy earlier this year after appearing at a Christian women’s conference as a look-alike to the city’s famed “Naked Cowboy,” recently was photographed at a “Christmas tropical party” again half-naked—a photo that was later deleted following concerns.Esther Houston, the wife of Joel Houston, who serves as the leader of the popular worship band Hillsong United and co-pastor of Hillsong NYC, posted the photo to her Instagram this week with the caption “When the Christmas tropical party is lit.”
The photo featured youth leader Diego Simila with his shirt completely unbuttoned to bear his chest and short cut-off jean shorts, while wearing a Santa hat and having a tropical drink. Adjacent to Simila is Houston, a former Brazilian model, posing in a manner that exposed up her thigh.
Some of the commenters under the photo found the snapshot to be humorous.
“Hahahaha @diegosimila!! I’m crying!” one wrote. “Diego, you make my life complete.”
“@diegosimila me and @strazzabeatdown are dying right now!!!” another exclaimed.
But one woman expressed concern about the example that Simila and Houston were setting as professing Christians.
“How is this glorifying to Jesus Christ?” she asked, and pointed to 1 Thessalonians 5:22, which admonishes Christians to “abstain from all appearance of evil.”
“God will hold you accountable for your poor example to young Christians,” she opined.
One viewer shot back at the woman, stating that she was being “ridiculous,” and contending that there was nothing sinful about the photograph.
But blog sites also picked up on the matter, noting a pattern of concerning behavior within Hillsong.
“Still no sign of Hillsong bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. Just a false Jesus endorsing their sinful lifestyle,” opined the site Church Watch Central.
Houston has since deleted the photograph without explanation.
As previously reported, Simila raised controversy in May when he appeared at Hillsong’s Colour Conference as a “Naked Cowboy” lookalike—a popular New York City figure who walks the streets shirtless and without pants.
“I usually don’t expect to see a near-naked cowboy gyrating from the stage of a Christian women’s conference. … Indeed if I were of the world, I’d expect these sights and sounds to come from a giant bachelorette party at a strip club,” wrote Amy Spreeman of Berean Research.
Hillsong Co-Founder Brian Houston, while expressing concern, refuted those who referred to Simila as being the “Naked Cowboy” since he wasn’t completely naked.
“He was wearing proper shorts, not underwear, and he had a flag draped over him—bare-chested and perhaps inappropriate, certainly unexpected and unauthorized; but not naked,” he said in defense, adding that he and others were not aware of the plan.
“Some well-meaning person just made a silly decision,” Houston asserted. “It won’t happen again.”
Hillsong likewise raised controversy last year over its sold-out Christmas services in London, which included dancing elves, mini-skirt-wearing flappers, shirtless men pounding on drums, Santa Claus and more.
