(Image: Private Media)

A high-ranking Hillsong pastor who allegedly raped a junior female staff member while conducting an extramarital affair was subsequently promoted to a position of more authority in the church, despite Hillsong’s leadership knowing of the affair.

The revelation is contained in an internal Hillsong investigation obtained by Crikey.

The investigation, conducted by Hillsong lawyers in the United States and finalised at the beginning of last year, probed allegations from the young woman that she had not consented to sex with the senior pastor, Reed Bogard, at their initial encounter. Bogard was married at the time.

Law firm Zukerman Gore Brandeis and Crossman made a number of findings critical of Hillsong’s actions after it was made aware several years ago that Bogard had engaged in the extramarital affair with the junior female employee.

The firm found the church leadership had failed to conduct “any meaningful inquiry” at the time it became aware and that it appeared to “uniformly assume” the relationship had been consensual from the outset, even though it occurred between “a powerful church leader and a young, low-level staff person”.

The revelation of Hillsong’s flawed approach to investigating Bogard’s behaviour follows damaging disclosures made last week about church founder and figurehead Pastor Brian Houston. The revelations also raise further questions about the ability of Hillsong’s leadership to protect young women from abuse or the church’s willingness to discipline sexual transgressors.

The leaking of the confidential 30-page report to Crikey is also a signal of how determined some senior Hillsong figures have become to change a culture of protection around those who are close to the Houstons. They also want to see a change to the boys’ club mentality at Hillsong, where there are virtually no women in leadership roles.

The US investigation found the young woman who was then working at Hillsong’s New York church as an office assistant had “confessed” about the affair to a long-serving Hillsong global board member. She had said initially it was consensual. but several years later alleged that Bogard had raped her in their first encounter. 

This led to an investigation that found that “no one at any time ever probed for more information, to try to discern how one of the most powerful men in the New York church could have found himself in a sexual relationship with a young, vulnerable junior staff member”.  

“And no one appears to have questioned whether meaningful consent was possible let alone present, given the obvious power dynamic.”

The investigation also pointed to the nature of the sexual activity, which was dictated by Bogard, was marked by a lack of intimacy, and appeared to suggest that the acts were “designed to reinforce the power imbalance between them”.

It also found that Bogard had “used his position” to force the woman to sign a confidentiality agreement and non-disparagement clause “at a time that the affair was in high gear”.

Bogard had been part of the Hillsong team that established New York’s Hillsong church, working with celebrity pastor Carl Lentz. He was later promoted by Hillsong to establish a branch in Dallas, Texas, in 2019, after the church’s hierarchy knew of his affair with the young woman.

Bogard’s appointment soon ended in scandal. The Dallas branch was closed early last year and Bogard and his wife resigned amid allegations they had misused church money to fund a lavish lifestyle.

This happened shortly Lentz’s fall from grace at the end of 2020 when it was revealed he too had been involved in an extramarital affair.

The law firm concluded that it was “difficult if not impossible” to say with certainty whether “the initial sexual acts between … Bogard and [the young woman] occurred notwithstanding an express, verbal objection (“No”) uttered by [the young woman] in the moment. 

“But there can be no doubt that given the extreme power imbalance between the two, as well as the ‘Don’t say no’ culture which permeated the New York church at that time, there was ample opportunity for … Bogard to take advantage of a systemic inability for [the young woman] to have meaningfully consented at the time in question. 

“Accordingly, without discounting the strength of a prosecution case due to the passage of time, it is likely that a jury, evaluating the interplay, would have found that … Bogard acted without obtaining (or, under the circumstances, having any reasonable expectation of being able to obtain) actual consent by [the young woman]. The fact that no church leader appears to have even considered this issue is a cause for concern.”

(Crikey has sent several messages to Bogard seeking his response but has had no response. When asked by the law firm investigating the allegation of rape, Bogard said he did not recall the woman saying “no” at any time. He also claimed he had lost some of his memory of that night due to how much alcohol he had drunk. The investigating attorneys reported their impression that Bogard had seemed “less than entirely reliable and forthcoming” when interviewed.)