Ten wary of false idols — and rivals

Is an evangelical church stacking the Australian Idol vote? John Elder investigates.

ONE of Australian Idol's producers is so freaked out that the talent show is being taken over by the Hillsong church, that he secretly contacted Channel Seven's Today Tonight to blow the scandal wide open. This is the claim made by TT's executive producer Craig McPherson to The Sunday Age after days of God-bothering controversy.

"Whether the struggling show was after publicity or not," Mr McPherson wrote in an email, "we then made a series of checks and found (Hillsong and affiliates) were very much involved in the whole of Idol."

The idea that happy-clappers have been stacking the Idol vote in favour of Jesus-loving contestants has been around since Guy Sebastian won the first series. That Sebastian, a church-goer, was the most talented singer in that series is beside the point.

The point being: a Hillsong conspiracy of satanic proportions. Today Tonight ran two stories last week to prove the notion true. The show claimed that five of the nine finalists — Matt Corby, Tarisai Vushe, Daniel Mifsud, Ben McKenzie and Mark da Costa who was voted off last Monday — were Hillsong members. Not true. They might be Christians, but none is a Hillsong devotee — a fact that Idol's producers Fremantle Media claim to have told TT before the report went to air.

TT was unbowed. In its second report, headlined "Mind Control", the remaining four Christian contestants were said to belong to churches under the huge Assemblies of God umbrella — which boasts Hillsong founder Brian Houston as its national president.

Two former Hillsong members told how Hillsong pastors "pressured" the congregation to vote for Sebastian and Paulini in previous series. They made no mention of the current contestants or mind control.

Hillsong's media officer Maria Ieroianni told TT that Idol was never mentioned in church services — but she admitted to The Sunday Age that "some of our pastors would have known Guy (Sebastian)" and may have encouraged their spiritual underlings to give "the Fro" a go.

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Says Ms Ieroianni: "But the whole idea that's what we're out to do (hijack the show) is ludicrous … Australian Idol is on at the same time that we're at church." She also denied that Hillsong were sponsors of the program despite Hillsong ads running during the series.

source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/ten-wary-of-false-idols-8212-and-rivals/2007/10/06/1191091426731.html