Pop icon Justin Bieber, known outside of his music for his wild lifestyle and run-ins with the law, as well as his relationship with NYC Hillsong ‘Pastor’ Carl Lentz, told Complex Magazine this month that Christians are often “overly churchy and religious,” and that he wants to just “live like Jesus.”
“At this point, my faith has gotten me to where I am. My faith has brought me to a whole other level. I love talking about my faith,” he said.
Bieber stated that he believes some churches and Christians turn people away by being “overly pushy.”
“I think that with Christians, they’ve left such a bad taste in people’s mouths. Just like, overly pushy with the subject, overly churchy and religious,” he opined. “There’s a lot of really weird stuff going on at churches. You ever flicked on a channel and a late-night church show is on? Sometimes it’s like, ‘You better do this or you gon’ die and you gon’ burn in hell!’ And you’re like, I don’t want anything to do with this.”
Bieber outlined, however, that he desires to speak more about his faith out of his belief that everyone should be able to share their point of view.
“I personally love Jesus and that was my salvation. I want to share what I’m going through and what I’m feeling and I think it shouldn’t be ostracized,” he said. “I think that everybody should get their chance to share what they’re doing or where their journey is headed, whether they’re straight or gay or what they believe in. We’re in a place now in 2015 where people have gotta be open-minded.”
“I think that people, as soon as they start hearing me saying I’m a Christian, they’re like, ‘Whoa Justin, back up, take a step back.’ Also, I do not want to shove this down anyone’s throat. I just wanna honestly live like Jesus,” Bieber continued. “He created a pretty awesome template of how to love people and how to be gracious and kind. If you believe it, he died for our sins.”
Using profanity, the pop star compared his relationship with God to that of a girlfriend.
“If I have an awesome, bomb girlfriend, I’m gonna wanna show her off and go around and tell people my girl is the [expletive]. I’m not gonna cheat on her because she’s the best,” he stated. “It’s like with God: The whole thing with religion is you present yourself holy and bring your offerings so that God can bless you, when the whole point of the relationship [should be], ‘No, I’m gonna do this because He loves me.'”
Bieber opposes abortion, but says he is uncertain about exceptions. He believes that homosexuality is “everyone’s own decision” and in regard to abstinence once said, “I don’t think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them.” He has made headlines over the past few years regarding his friendship with Hillsong New York’s Carl Lentz, who is stated to have baptized Bieber last year after he came under fire for racist comments.