By disease standards, ‘Bieber fever’ is approaching a global pandemic with the release of the 18-year-old pop stars latest album, “Believe,” last week.
-Melinda Beck, The Wall Street Journal, “Inside the Brains of Bieber Fans.”
Justin has a message beyond what many critics quickly dismiss as ‘puppy love.’ But it is about love—God’s love for everyone. And his fans are listening.
-Cathleen Falsani, Belieber, 17
I’m 33 years old. I’m a man. And I love Justin Bieber.
There. I said it. Now here’s why:
My love for the Biebs started last December when I read Cathleen Falsani’s book Belieber: Fame, Faith, and the Heart of Justin Bieber. It’s a wonderful little book about how Justin and his mother Pattie Mallette deal with fame, responsibility, and spirituality.
I’m a youth pastor, so I’d heard of Justin before reading Belieber. The girls in my youth group would swoon over him. “He’s so cute!” they would squeal. At this point, Justin annoyed me. I blamed him for the squealing. I mean, what shall I compare a 16 year old girl’s squealing to? Microphone feedback? A dentist’s drill? The proverbial fingernails scraping across a chalkboard?
But then I read Belieber. It is a powerful and engaging look at the intersections of faith and pop culture. It describes many of the ups and downs of a teenage superstar. Justin’s star power continues to grow, and has recently captured the attention of The Wall Street Journal. Last month’s article, “Inside the Brains of Bieber Fans” asks “What’s behind Bieber Fever?” and looks to neuroscience for an answer.
The article is worth reading, but it misses something crucial about Bieber fans.
(Okay. Right now you are asking why you should care about Bieber fans. Well, I’m about to tell you.)
Bieber fans exist because Justin has something they want. Justin is cool. And let’s face it. We all want to be cool. And what’s the easiest way to become cool? Associate with cool people. “Cool” can spread like, as The Wall Street Journal puts it, a disease. Ultimately, this is about social identity. Justin gives his fans a social identity that they can share – “cool.”
So, the reason those crazy 16 year old girls will crowd a Justin Bieber concert is the same reason those crazy 45 year old men will crowd football games in mid-winter. Being a fan gives us a sense of social identity. A sense of belonging to something bigger than yourself. A sense of cool.
But there is something even bigger going on at a Justin Bieber concert. An identity of “cool” can happen at a concert, but “cool” is fickle. It dwells upon the shifting sands of human culture. One day Justin is cool, the next day One Direction has taken his place. What I love about Belieber is that it provides a glimpse into Justin’s spiritual responsibility. He knows he is a major influence upon his fans. As one girl Cathleen interviewed for Belieber put it, “Justin Bieber has more sway over people right now than any pastor does, which is sad, but he actually has so much more impact on these young people.”
In a religious culture where pastors often fail to provide a solid spiritual message, Justin excels. As Cathleen states, “Rather than a pop ‘idol’ who points only to himself, time and again Justin uses the spectacular platform that superstardom … has given him to direct his fans toward something much, much bigger. ‘I feel I have an obligation to plant little seeds with my fans,’ Justin told Rolling Stone magazine in February 2011. ‘I’m not going to tell them, ‘You need Jesus,’ but I will say at the end of my show, ‘God loves you.’”
God loves you. Even more than a sense of being “cool,” that’s the identity Justin offers to his fans. It’s an identity that can’t be earned. It can’t be taken away. It’s not something you need to compete over with others. It’s simply who you are. And it’s simply who your neighbor is. As theologian James Alison says in his Forgiving Victim video series, what Christianity “is really all about is how much you are loved.” (See around 3 minutes 25 seconds in this video.)
That’s why I love the Biebs. Because whether you are a 16 year old girl at a concert or a 45 year old man at a football game, that’s a message that matters.
The post Why I Love Justin Bieber … And Why You Should Too appeared first on The Raven Foundation.