2023-05-11 11:42:46
The research network CORRECTIV has viewed internal financial documents from Hillsong Germany. It’s about flights, hotels and birthday presents – as well as payments to the Mother Church.
The research network CORRECTIV Hillsong Germany accuses of having been “very generous” with donations for years. The lead pastor Freimut Haverkamp is said to have stayed in luxury hotels at the expense of the church. Other issues would also raise questions.
According to CORRECTIV, it was able to view internal financial documents from Hillsong Germany. In 2021 alone, the church is said to have received around four million euros in donations. According to CORRECTIV, the documents show: “The church paid its German board and other executives luxurious trips [sehr teure Flüge und Hotelübernachtungen; Anm. d. Red.]an expensive apartment in the best location in Düsseldorf, a company car, life insurance, visits to the gym and expensive gifts.” These expenses are said to have been financed by donations.
Hillsong denies allegations
Roland Mayrl, press spokesman for Hillsong, rejected the allegations “strongly”. A tax consultant ensures that donations are handled properly through an annual audit.
CORRECTIV interviewed two experts on church finances. “There is a certain probability that private matters were financed from the Church’s funds,” says Florian Köbler, Federal Chairman of the German Tax Union. Burkhard Wilke considers expensive trips and “unnecessarily expensive apartments” to be particularly problematic. He is the managing director of the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI).
Hillsong has long been criticized in Australia. The assemblyman Andrew Wilkie accused the church of corruption and tax evasion. He also criticized disproportionately high travel expenses and private expenses by executives at the expense of the church. This happened after gaining insight into pierced internal Documents had received. In addition, Hillsong founder Brian Houston is said to have withheld information about sexual abuse of a minor by his father Frank Houston, who died in 2004.
Expensive birthday gifts
In the past, almost paid to carry the Hillsong name 40 churches three percent of their donations worldwide to the Mother Church in Sydney. For this reason, Hillsong Germany is said to have transferred 130,000 euros to Australia in 2019 – without the knowledge of the donors. “In return, the global board has been generous with gifts to the regional leaders,” writes CORRECTIV. A birthday gift to Haverkamp for around 7,000 euros was found in the booking documents of the Australian Hillsong Church.
Before the internal accounting documents reached CORRECTIV, the whistleblower contacted Hillsong Germany itself and the Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstkirchen (BFP), to which the church belongs. When Hillsong denied the allegations, the BFP reportedly did not investigate, did not ask for evidence, but declared the matter closed. In addition, the deletion of the data and the naming of the source were requested. That was now a year and a half ago. The BFP told CORRECTIV: “All allegations were clarified by appropriate justifications or explanations or proved to be unfounded.”
Hillsong Germany wants to provide detailed information about donations and finances in the coming weeks. According to CORRECTIV, an invitation states: “At our Heart & Soul Night we would like to take the time to answer some open questions and bring transparency, truth and context to current media reports”.
Link: “Megachurch Hillsong: The Business of Faith” (CORRECTIV)
#CORRECTIV #criticizes #Hillsong #Freikirche #disagrees