Former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz is acknowledging that his cheating scandal essentially “exploded” his longtime friendship with Justin Bieber.
“Our public relationship tied [Justin’s] faith journey to mine,” Lentz, 47, wrote in his and wife Laura Lentz‘s new book, Overcoming Infidelity: 10 Conversations to Help Heal the Hurt. “As the media stories about my infidelity unmasked me as a fraud, it dragged him and [his wife Hailey Bieber] into a publicity nightmare they never asked for.”
He added, “As the media stories implied, if I wasn’t who I’d seemed to be, then maybe my notable friends weren’t either.”
Justin, 32, had previously leaned on Carl as a spiritual adviser, with the pastor even performing a baptism on him in former NBA star Tyler Chandler‘s bathtub in 2014. The Biebers also let the Lentz family live in their New York City apartment when they moved out of their New Jersey home.
In November 2020, the Hillsong megachurch announced that Carl had been fired as its New York City pastor due to “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.” Laura’s employment with Hillsong was also terminated even though she was not implicated in any of her husband’s improprieties.
Carl subsequently publicly acknowledged that infidelity was “not an isolated incident” in his marriage.
In Overcoming Infidelity, Carl writes about an uncomfortable phone call he had with Justin’s representatives over his affair putting the singer in a “precarious” position.
“I received the dreaded call from Justin’s team, asking us to move out of the apartment immediately,” he recalled. “I knew how disappointed and hurt he must have been.”
Carl likened the Biebers’ demand for him to move out to “one more kick in the ribs” at a time when his family was “already down for the count.”
“I deserved to be kicked to the curb, but I felt Laura and the kids were just innocent bystanders suffering once again for my sins,” he argued. “I was devastated on their behalf.”
However, Carl ultimately came to see “God’s hand” in Justin’s request since the New York City apartment was “near the woman [he’d] been cheating with” as well as the “entire church community I knew I’d let down and who seemed to want nothing to do with us now.”
Us has reached out to Justin’s representative for comment.
Before his public fall from grace, Carl spoke exclusively to Us in 2017 about how spirituality helped turn Justin’s life around during a difficult time.
“I think Justin has a really deep, mature relationship with Jesus. I don’t think my teaching or my preaching has made even remotely as big of an impact as his own desire and passion and love for Jesus,” Carl told Us at the time. “That’s how it should work. … I think all his changes are a credit to him and him allowing God to continue to use him. Nobody gets credit for that. I don’t know anybody … he’s done this. He’s worked really hard to put himself in a position to be the best Justin he can be, and I’m proud of him and inspired by him.”
