From the Australian today:
INDIGENOUS development grants to Hillsong’s benevolent arm have gone almost entirely to employing and providing offices for church staff, with only a trickle reaching Aborigines.
In one case, Hillsong Emerge spent $315,000 in federal funds employing seven of its own staff in Sydney to administer a “micro-credit” project that made only six loans to Aborigines worth an average of $2856 each.
Hillsong also failed to enable a single Aborigine to become self-employed under a $610,968 federal grant to encourage indigenous entrepreneurship.…
They show that far more funds are spent on Hillsong staffers and administration than actual service delivery. One federal grant paid $965,421 to Hillsong Emerge to administer $280,000 in loan funds.
…
When The Australian visited the Redfern “enterprise hub” in December, it found flyers in the foyer encouraging local businesses to pay up to $1800 to advertise in the Christian Business Directory published by Hillsong Emerge, but no information on how Hillsong could help Aborigines.
For those who don’t know, Hillsong is an evangelical church in Sydney. The full article is here.
Now I hope this isn’t just a press beatup and I don’t have to eventually eat my words, but this stuff makes me SOOO angry. This church has been in the press a number of times, their leaders are millionaires who live on prime Sydney real estate and present a glossy image of an organisation who supposedly help so many people. I suspect they only really help people who are willing to “tow the line”. In my mind, these people aren’t real Christians. I suspect this church is little more than a cult with a lot of money. It’s a pity, this type of press does so much damage the real churches.
