Bieber’s former friend fears he’s in Hollywood pastor’s ‘cult’

Another person once close to Justin Bieber has offered an explanation for ongoing concerns about the pop singer’s mental health and the state of his marriage, amid the 31-year-old’s public outbursts, vulnerable social media posts, questionable Coachella behavior and recent move to “torch” a lot of his longtime friendships and business associations.

That person is Ryan Good, Bieber’s former road manager, the best man at his wedding to Hailey Bieber and the co-founder of his fashion brand, Drew House. After Bieber announced that he had cut ties with Drew House, Good responded by voicing concerns that the singer has become part of a “cult,” according to TMZ. This supposed “cult” is built around Bieber’s religious faith and his allegiance to pastor Judah Smith and Churchome, Smith’s celebrity-friendly Christian mega-church, with which Bieber has been associated with since at least 2010.

Sources told TMZ that Good has not spoken to Bieber in more than a year, over his concerns about the influence that Smith has over the pop star. The sources told TMZ that Good and Bieber ended contact after Good left the Churchome community. Good reportedly wanted out of Churchome because it felt like a cult. A recent lengthy Hollywood Reporter story on Bieber possibly being in “crisis” and “lost” described how he had come come to rely on a tight-knit inner circle for personal and professional direction. Members of this circle share his faith and include include 44-year-old Smith, who serves as the singer’s spiritual adviser. Bieber’s association with Smith goes back to at least 2010, when he was 16, according to Marie Claire. Bieber’s mother, Pattie Mallette, introduced the two. Years earlier, she had heard a young and charismatic Smith preach on Jesus and the Bible when he was the young co-leader of the youth ministry at the Seattle-based City Church.

In the next decade, City Church was rebranded as Churchome and it expanded to Los Angeles after Judah Smith’s wife, Chelsea Smith, had an epiphany while sitting on the toilet, reading about troubled celebrities in People magazine, Marie Claire also reported. Chelsea Smith thought that celebrities, feeling empty and hopeless even with all their success, could benefit from the Gospel. Soon, Judah and Chelsea Smith were leading “one of the most influential Christian congregations in Hollywood,” Marie Claire also said.

The Hollywood Reporter noted the ways that Smith has “seemingly benefited” from his public association with the globally famous pop star. Among other things, weekly attendance at Churchmen’s five locations draw more than 10,000 parishioners a week, with celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian and Ciara and Russell Wilson being spotted at the Beverly Hills services. But if Bieber counts Smith as one of his main advisers, it wouldn’t be the first time he has looked to guidance from a charismatic religious leader. Bieber also was a member of another celebrity mega-church, Hillsong, and he looked to its hipster New York City-based pastor, Carl Lentz, to be his “second father.” Lentz saved Bieber from his “dark” youthful days of drugs and public meltdowns and helped him “rededicate his life to Christ,” as the New York Times reported.

But Bieber announced in 2021 that he had left Hillsong, after Lentz was embroiled in scandals over an extramarital affair and other “moral failures” and “breaches of trust.” Now, Bieber is under scrutiny for his association with Smith, and questions about whether the pastor is being helpful to him or not. Good certainly doesn’t think so, according to TMZ.

Good was dismayed that Bieber had added Smith to the Drew House board of directors a few years ago, despite Smith’s lack of experience in business and the fact that he and Good don’t get along, TMZ also said. Good’s reported concerns about Bieber follow the singer’s announcement on Instagram Stories on April 10 that Drew House “doesn’t represent me or my family or life,” Page Six reported.

Tribune News Service