There has long been a question that has dogged me regarding the world’s religions. Not which is true, but which is the biggest rip-off. Two cults that vie aggressively for this title are the Scientologists and Hillsong Church. In the next two weeks Big Blogger will investigate each of these outfits and, with your help, choose a winner.

In the Beginning…

Hillsong Church started where I grew up in the Hills district of north-west Sydney – the shire with the most cars and churches in Australia. My first exposure was at a week long ‘HSC Hype’ study camp. My mum allowed me to go, no doubt happy I would be actually working rather than clandestinely reading The Lord Of The Rings in my bedroom. And so I ended up with all these other 17 year-olds at a remote convention centre. We endured activities, lectures and speeches between bouts of study – all culminating in a late night ‘conversion session’ on the final evening.

We were all packed into a room, and seated cross-legged on the floor. In strode Christine Caine, now a senior pastor at the company. What followed was an exhausting two-hour marathon of fire and brimstone – a textbook example of extreme emotional manipulation. At the end, when we were all pale and adrenalised, we were told to bow our heads. If we wanted to be saved, all we had to do was raise our hand. That our hearts  thumping was God knocking on our souls – a physiological response to stress dressed up as a spiritual calling.

As meek hands were raised, we were whipped up further: “There’s more, I know it, Jesus may never knock again”. We were kept like that for over ten minutes. Then those who had raised their hands were removed from the room. The whole disgraceful episode led to the church being banned from advertising such camps at our school.

Ever since then, I’ve had some interest in the church. I’ve wondered, for example, how much of their tithing goes to ‘charitable’ projects and how much goes into bigger buildings, money-making schemes like CD and TV sales around the world and into senior pastors’ pockets. Because as a church there is no accounting for where their money goes – they pay no tax and file no financial documents with the ATO. Their emphasis on wealth and the individual is also a worry – people are encouraged to produce wealth to give to the church for charitable purposes (a skewed version of the teachings of Christ at best) but that money seems to go to perpetuation of the church, not towards doing good. Not to mention their increasing influence in politics and popular culture – their albums have been chart-toppers for years. So… it was with no bias whatsoever I went to their Hills ‘campus’ this month to check it out…

Heading to the Hills

I’m early and am met by a young welcoming committee rep, Rani. I give her my cover story that I’ve had a big year and am having a physical and spiritual detox. I’m given a tour of the complex by Ajenet, a young woman from Alabama. As we explore the two enormous convention centres, the kids crèche, and the shop (sorry ‘Resource Centre’) she explains she came out to Australia four years ago and paid $4100 to do a year of bible study – expensive tuition which she continued for some years. She’s currently an intern in the entertainment section of Hillsong, and spends many unpaid hours a week labelling and cataloguing products for the Hillsong Shop. She reminded me very much of a B.A. graduate.

Church begins. I’m invited by Rani to stand up the front of the amphitheatre with the young church leaders. For twenty minutes we all sing along with a band, seven attractive young singers and a thirty-person choir. Those on stage, none of whom were older than 35, have their eyes closed and hands raised in religious rapture as the concert-style lights sweep the room and smoke machines puff away. Two huge screens overlay the song lyrics about “surrendering to Christ” with images of the action on stage and close ups on the audience from multiple camera operators. One girl two seats down with her eyes closed keeps singing the songs long after they’ve finished, clearly trancing out to the max. The whole thing reminded me of my days standing in filthy warehouses in Alexandria in 1992 in a similar state of ecstasy.

This trademark Hillsong effect is highly visible in this clip (click here for Windows Media instead), which is from their most recent live DVD God He Reigns. As the clip shows, the music is an essential element in the Hillsong religious experience – so much so that they've named the church after it. It's a recording of a huge concert at the Entertainment Centre, and you can see in the footage here that a lot of the audience are overwhelmed by the music, the lights, and the whole experience, which have been designed to maximise this emotional impact. (Several of the girls pictured seem to be in a state of total ecstacy.) This highly emotive rock song 'Emmanuel' is purpose-driven to create the sensation that the Holy Spirit is present, and that it's all real – which is presumably why all the congregation have their hands up like spiritual antennae.

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