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An unholy current affair

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Last week Today Tonight ran two stories claiming Australian Idol was being hijacked by the Hillsong Church, stating that five of its nine finalists were church members: Matt Corby, Tarisai Vushe, Daniel Mifsud, Ben McKenzie and Mark da Costa.

Yesterday the Sunday Age wrote that “none was a devotee,” a fact that Idol producers told TT before the story aired.

While the religious beliefs of previous contestants including Guy Sebastian and Dean Geyer have been well-documented, this sounds more and more like another current affairs show jumping on the bandwagon of another hit show.

The Chaser, Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars anyone?

For the record, Mark de Costa was voted out last week, with no divine intervention saving his pop dreams.

14 Responses

  1. “Can you imagine one of the stars of Sea Patrol promoting it on a seven show?”

    Funny you should mention that, a while back on TGYH one of the actors from Sea Patrol was promoting their show. I thought it was a bit weird at the time.

  3. TT just showed footage of an Assembly of God (Hillsong) church encouraging their followers to vote for their christian singers.

    Proof is in the pudding.

  5. the Evangalical churches HATE gay people..they don’t want us to have equality in regards to the financial aspects that straight people have.I didn’t know that they sponsor “Mercy Ministries”.The 2 founders of Hillsong in Australia are multi-millionaires.Most of the money is tax free that religions earn.. the Founders of Hillsong tell their followers to earn as much money as possible as they believe that God will reward you financially if you dedicate your life to him (and Hillsong).Nabi Saleh is the Hillsong and Gloria Jeans guru,
    It is interesting to read about them in Wikipedia and also about Gloria Jeans on Wikipedia too

  7. Thanks anonymous.

    Looking into it, Hillsong owns Gloria Jeans and Gloria Jeans sponsors Mercy Ministries which counsels women out of reproductive choice, and runs an “ex-gay” clinic to “cure” lesbianism. [seriously]

    They really should put that on every coffee cup so we know where our money’s going….

    At least now I don’t buy Gloria Jeans!

  8. I believe the TT story .The more that young people get to know that an “Idol” contestant or winner is a Hillsong member, the more chance they have of other young people becoming members of the Church.The church is very wealthy and relies in tithing (10% of income paid to church), so the more successful a church member is, then more money the Church gets.It is a way for them to “witness” the message of Jesus.
    It’s also a way for the Hillsong Church to recruit young people because the young kids go to the Church in the hope of seeing some of the “stars”.
    Also Hillsong owns outright all Gloria Jeans coffee franchises in Australia, and they own the parent company worldwide.

  12. Agree it is sad.

    And yes they do seem more independant in the US. You get actors from rival networks promoting their shows on Letterman for eg. Wouldn’t happen here!

  13. This attacking programs just because it’s on another network is really sad.

    How does the system in the US work? As shows seem more independant from the network and “stars” often appear each other’s entertainment/talk shows etc.

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