Is 'The Righteous Gemstones' Based on Hillsong Church? There Are Some Similarities
'The Righteous Gemstones' offers with corrupt megachurches and the ability of spiritual leaders, no longer not like Hillsong Church. Is the show based on Hillsong?

When The Righteous Gemstones lovers tuned into the first season, many thought the tradition presented about megachurches and the mega-rich other folks behind them appeared awfully acquainted. No one could somewhat put a finger on it until Season 2 when Kelvin Gemstone's (Adam Devine) style began to look an increasing number of very similar to that of a certain real-life pastor from Hillsong Church, Carl Lentz.
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But is The Righteous Gemstones in truth based on Hillsong Church? The church started in Australia in the '80s, and the HBO comedy premiered in 2019. Hillsong is known for a couple of scandals, like the allegations of sexual abuse in opposition to kids by the hands of its founder Brian Houston's late father. It's also infamous for Carl Lentz's transgressions outdoor of his marriage and rumors of his cult-like mentality prior to he was once fired in 2020.
There are no doubt similarities between the display and the true existence church, and now that the Discovery Plus docuseries Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed has premiered, many are curious concerning the similarities.
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Is 'The Righteous Gemstones' based on Hillsong Church?
According to Adam Divine's podcast, This Is Important, which he co-hosts with his former Workaholics co-stars, he in truth based some of his persona's appearance in The Righteous Gemstones off of Carl Lentz. But is the show formally based on the disgraced church?
Danny McBride, who co-created and co-stars in The Righteous Gemstones, advised the New York Post that his upbringing within his personal church impressed him to make the show. He additionally informed the outlet that many of the storylines within the show got here ahead of Hillsong Church scandals in real existence.
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"It actually stresses me out when these stories come out," he mentioned. "Because I'm like, 'People are going to think we're copying them – and they're copying us!' It is kind of crazy when you'll see headlines and you're like, 'Wow, this stuff isn't too far off [from the show].' But I try to stay away from what's in the headlines, because people already got that when they read that news article. So, I try to find new ways to shock people."
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Where is Carl Lentz now?
Carl was once fired from his position because the pastor of the New York City bankruptcy of Hillsong Church in 2020 because of "moral failures," in keeping with a press free up from Hillsong founder Brian Houston that has since been removed from the web site. It was once later revealed that the moral screw ups referred to Carl being unfaithful in his marriage.
The following year, Carl's circle of relatives's nanny accused him of sexual misconduct. Although he denied those claims, Carl has been absent from social media ever since.
Today, Carl appears to still be running on his marriage regardless of his affair and different allegations inside the church he used to be once aligned with. Carl's spouse, Laura Lentz, shared an Instagram post in November 2021 during which she mentioned proceeding the "journey" of "growing" in her marriage.
Carl is nonetheless off social media and out of the general public eye, which is a some distance cry from the celebrity pastor within the welcome spotlight that he as soon as was.
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