Still, Lentz was invited to the religious wedding ceremony that Bieber and Baldwin hosted at a South Carolina resort in — after the couple already officially tied the knot at a New York City courthouse the previous September. Fast forward to November when Lentz was fired from Hillsong, and become the topic of widespread reports about his downfall.
Lentz admitted he had cheated on his wife, fellow pastor Laura Lentz, and a Brooklyn woman subsequently came forward to say that she and Lentz had been involved in a steamy affair. In less than a month, Justin Bieber's song Holy has racked up more than 50 million views. The figure itself isn't too surprising. After all, the Canadian popstar has been at the top of music charts — and accumulating billions of YouTube views — for the past decade.
But unlike many of his hits, which usually reflect on relationship wins or woes, Holy is unflinchingly Christian, in both its lyrics and visuals. According to Carl Morris, a lecturer in religion and culture at the University of Central Lancashire, the song Holy — which features fellow Christian Chance The Rapper — references two sacred sacraments.
Dr Morris says the other Christian rite — which is reflected upon lyrically — is baptism. Finding Jesus is the implication with that," he points out. Daniel White Hodge, a professor in the arts department of Chicago's North Park University, is more sceptical of overt religiosity in pop music. Dr Hodge says there are many artists, including Tupac, Lauryn Hill and, more recently, Kendrick Lamar, who have wrestled with deeper spiritual themes — more than tokenistic nods — in their music.
But he explains that those artistic works are not always understood to have Christian references, because they don't fit the traditional mould. However, when it comes to Bieber's collaborator, Chicago-born Chance The Rapper, Dr Hodge says he's well-known in the community for his Christian acts, not just lyrics. In , the Grammy-winning artist founded a charity aiming to empower youth through arts, education, and civic engagement. It has raised millions of dollars for Chicago Public Schools, where Chance himself was a pupil.
At an event on the night of the Paris attacks, Bieber stopped to lead the crowd of tens of thousands, as well as millions watching at home, in prayer. Help us to just focus on you through it all. So, what do we do with Bieber? Invite him to our churches to preach? Hail him as the 21st-century Cliff Richard — a pop star reaching the masses with a Christian testimony? As tempting as it is, we need to avoid that. We heralded them when they had a conversion experience, then castigated them when they failed to live up to our expectations.
And gloriously, his baptism seems to have resulted in him hitting his artistic peak. Click here to request a free copy of Premier Christianity magazine. Find out more. Midnight Mass contains some of the fairest treatments of Christian characters ever seen, says our reviewer. Vicky Walker is a writer and speaker, among other things. She writes about life, arts and culture, faith, and awkward moments in the form of books, articles, stories, and more, and she tweets a lot. Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, biographer and broadcaster.
He is the author of a number of books, including most recently, Dominion: The making of the Western Mind Little, Brown. Site powered by Webvision Cloud. Hot Songs. Billboard Top Videos. Top Articles. By Billboard Staff.
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