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@lauratoggs (instagram)
Laura Toggs.png
@lauratoggs (instagram)
World News

Hillsong founders daughter hits out against media following youth camp controversy

by Sophie Drew

The daughter of Brian and Bobble Houston - founders of Hillsong - took to social media in an anti-media tyrade following a dispute surrounding Covid regulations. 

The church found itself at the centre of a media storm after it was believed to have exploited coronavirus exeptions for their church youth camp.

Despite the strict regulations in Australia's New South Wales, videos surfaced of crowds of young people singing at the beach-side event. 

At the time, a state-wide ban had been placed on large gatherings, but churches and places of worship were allowed to continue operating. 

The megachurch issued a statement denying that they broke coronavirus rules.

However, others argued that the gathering was in poor taste, and not in the spirit of the ongoing regulations. 

The couple's daughter, Laura Toggs, uploaded a video criticising the media for their response to the event. 

The video was then deleted before being reuploaded, captioned "will probably/maybe/defintely delete this later."

“I personally didn't know - I wasn't aware - that the rules had changed around music festivals mid-way through our camp that we were hosting.

"I would have been more sensitive regarding the singing had I known, and admittedly the small segment where we played music over our sound system during our games...it was unwise irregardless.

"Our youth were pumped up, they were excited and I think that's forgiveable, honestly. 

"Alas, I didn't know about the changes to music gigs until my whole social media feed suddenly turned into the entire Australian music industry just expressing their frustration.

"But then it blew up into some sort of international cotroversy, making basically every major media network worldwide, and - I'm sorry - what? 

"A couple of hundred teenagers singing and dancing for a few moments after the last couple of years that they have had to endure is really that terrible and newsworthy? 

"Let's be honest here, this is not about that. This is because there is a clear agenda to drag Hillsong through the mud any chance that the media can get, and to destroy our name.

"Look - the cheap shots are getting boring in my opinion and I feel like we need to stop insulting the Australian public with these petty shots that are fired our way constantly."

The 15-minute video ends with Laura asking the media to "please leave our teenagers - leave our kids - out of it, out of this mess."

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