Justin Bieber Started His Own Church?

Justin Bieber never started his own church, despite a report from exactly one year ago today that maintained he was going to. In the days following Bieber's cancelation of his "Purpose Tour," there was widespread and wrong speculation he was going to shift gears and embark on a religious career. At the time, Gossip Cop debunked the rumors, and now a full 12 months later, our inside information was accurate and Bieber has not created a church.

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On July 26, 2017, Perez Hilton spread the false claim, even making up names for the nonexistent church including, "The Church of Bieber" or "Biebertology." The blogger's story was premised on a "Today Extra" reporter telling the Australian morning show, "The real reason [Bieber has] come off the road is because he wants to reconnect with his faith and maybe even start his own Church." Without even bothering to look into the assertion, Perez simply declared, as if it were fact, that the singer was going to "take his Beliebers to a higher ground with a church of his own."

Now, 365 days have passed and "Biebertology" still does not exist. A source close to the singer told us at the time that talk of him starting a church was "not true." Irrespective, Bieber himself explained a few days later the real reason for him canceling the remainder of his "Purpose" tour.

In a message Bieber posted on Instagram, he wrote, "Me taking this time right now is me saying I want to be SUSTAINABLE. I want my career to be sustainable, but I also want my mind heart and soul to be sustainable." It was clear then, and remains to this day, that after a year and a half of touring, Bieber was not looking to start his own church, but instead rest his body and soul.

Bieber, who sports numerous religious-themed tattoos, including Jesus' name in Hebrew, lines of Scripture, several crosses and an image of Christ himself, is indeed a devout Christian. For a while, the singer was active in the Hillsong Church and close to its pastor, Carl Lenz, but it appears he and Bieber have had a falling out. Mostly now, he worships at Churchome. Along with fiancee Hailey Baldwin, Bieber recently attended services at the church's headquarters in Washington State.

It should be abundantly clear that one year after Perez and others made false profits off an unsubstantiated claim about Bieber starting his own church that it remains untrue to this day. Gossip Cop looks back on occasion at stories from a year ago not to pat ourselves on the back for having solid sources or fact-checking, but rather to encourage our visitors to question whether what they read on other sites is accurate or not. In this instance, the entire rumor was predicated on just one reporter in Australia conjecturing that Bieber bailed out of his tour to "maybe even start his own Church." As we noted, it was just bad gossip and not the gospel truth.