Should Christians watch “Shiny Happy People,” and “Secrets of Hillsong?”
There’s seems to be a trend nowadays to make documentaries about Christians behaving badly. “The Way Down,” “Pray Away,” “Kidnapped for Christ,” and “The Family” are just a few of the offerings in recent years painting Christians in a negative light. I always find it interesting what content Netflix and the other streaming services choose to highlight on their platforms. While they love a good juicy scandal, they seem to have a special set of knives out for Christianity.
Two recent shows are a case in point. Shiny Happy People on Amazon Prime is about the infamous Duggar Family who were faithful members of Bill Gothard’s parachurch ministry “Institute in Basic Life Principles” (IBLP), and The Secrets of Hillsong is a Hulu documentary about the scandals surrounding the megachurch and its celebrity pastors Carl Lentz and Brian Houston.
There seems to be something quite cultish about IBLP and Hillsong—both have skewed Christian doctrine to serve their own ends and both have been marked by the sexually deviant behavior of their charismatic leaders, who have a god-like hold over their followers. These documentaries do a good job of bringing the crimes of their subjects to light, and letting the victims speak for themselves. But there is an underlying mission as well: to tear down the basic tenants of Christianity.
The Hillsong documentary features Carl Lentz himself who, while admitting his failures, passes along his guilt to Hillsong leader Brian Houston, who acted as a kind of enabler for Lentz’ bad behavior. The series focuses most of its venom on Houston, and while it takes note of his severe moral failings, it also indicts his Pentecostal, fundamentalist theology opposing gay marriage and homosexuality. This is, apparently, the real problem with Hillsong—not the moral failure of its leaders, but the doctrine it espouses.
Brian Houston is a charlatan who preaches the prosperity gospel. He wrote a book called “You Need More Money.” Carl Lentz is a serial adulterer who wears ten thousand dollar hoodies and had an affair with a Muslim woman. Yet their greatest sin, according to this docuseries, is representing a fundamentalist church masquerading as a hip, liberal place of self-worship.
(As an aside, if you want a more balanced and informative account of the Hillsong debacle, watch Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed on Discovery Plus.)
Shiny Happy People is a pretty accurate indictment of Bill Gothard’s wacky biblical interpretations that led to widespread abuse of women and children. Yet the series throws out that baby with the bathwater by condemning homeschooling, discipline, courtship, saving sex for marriage, and other Christian ideas meant to protect the most vulnerable members of the community. It also condemns the idea of Christians getting involved in politics by exposing the errors of the Joshua Generation, which was Gothard’s plan to get Christians into the highest levels of government. The plan might have been seriously flawed, but there is nothing wrong with Christians seeking political office.
I never watched “I9 Kids and Counting,” the TLC show about the Duggar family, and so I had no idea the Duggars were so steeped in the IBLP ministry. I found the whole business to be incredibly sad and disheartening. The one overtly Christian family that made it big on television turned out to be a complete fraud. The Hillsong story, as well, is a tragedy for our time, for it has probably soured thousands of young people on ever seeking Jesus Christ in a true and meaningful way.
We Christians are often good at casting stones at those outside the Church, but we are less inclined to deal with the sin within. Jesus said to take the log out of your own eye before taking the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. And we have a lot of logs to pluck. It’s important for us to watch and take note of the fatal flaws of those calling themselves Christians who do not in any way represent the true Christ. Still, I believe we should view docuseries like The Secrets of Hillsong and Shiny Happy People with a critical eye and a grain of salt, recognizing that the folks producing these shows are no friends of Christ either.
Gina Detwiler is the author of the Forlorn series and co-author of The Prince Warriors series with Priscilla Shirer. She’s also written The Ultimate Bible Character Guide and The Ultimate Bible Character Devotional. Find out more at www.ginadetwiler.com
