People: Bieber criticizes ‘celebrity worship.’
Justin Bieber has finally addressed the scandal that engulfed the church he once famously attended, without directly naming the church, international Hillsong megachurch or its disgraced pastor Carl Lentz, whom the singer once considered his “second father.”
In a lengthy new interview with G Q, Bieber said he’ s unfortunately become familiar with how faith, in its various institutional forms, can “morph into just another kind of celebrity worship.”
“I think so many pastors put themselves on this pedestal,” Bieber told GQ, not naming Lentz, who was fired from Hillsong in 2020 for “moral failures” and “breaches of trust.
“And it’s basically, church can be surrounded around the man, the pastor, the guy, and it’s like, ‘This guy has this ultimate relationship with God that we all want but we can’t get because we’re not this guy.’”
“That’s not the reality, though. The reality is, every human being has the same access to God.”
The GQ profile, “The Redemption of Justin Bieber,” focuses extensively on the importance of God and faith in Bieber’s life. The story, which comes a month after Bieber released his new album, “Justice,” describes the view of people close to the pop star that his faith helped him overcome his struggles with drug addiction, depression, anti-social behavior and all the other hazards of the fame that overtook his life.
The GQ profile notes that Bieber “has been around different churches” in his efforts “to work on himself” over the years. One of those churches, of course, was Hillsong, the celebrity-friendly megachurch that originated in Australia and has New York City and L.A. branches.
Bieber was one of Hillsong’s famous congregants and was said to have developed a bond with Lentz.
During Bieber’s “dark” days of drugs and public meltdowns in 2017, Lentz reportedly helped Bieber, guiding him as he “rededicated his life to Christ,” as the New York Times said.
Following Bieber’s reported spiritual awakening, he and Lentz were “inseparable.” Bieber and Lentz reportedly had a falling out, perhaps because Lentz was displeased that Bieber got engaged to supermodel Hailey Baldwin without consulting him.