Justin Bieber's wife, Hailey Bieber, recently shared in a YouTube video that she has felt shamed by "super-judgmental" Christians.
"I've met Christian people that are just super-judgmental and made me feel like I'm a bad person because I don't live my life the way they think I should live my life," Hailey Bieber said in a conversation with actress and author Yvonne Orji.
Orji is a devout Christian. She was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the HBO show Insecure.
Bieber, a model, told Orji she sometimes feels conflicted about her work and her Christian faith, Church Leaders reports.
"Am I doing something wrong?" she said. "Am I setting a bad example [because] people in the church will see this? And the reality is—no."
Bieber said she has seen the hypocrisy of online "haters" who call themselves Christians.
"Your relationship with God is not going to be the same as mine," she said. "I believe that [Jesus] was about love and acceptance."
In the online video, Orji said she, too, has been criticized for starring in an HBO show that portrays sex and cursing. She has publicly said she plans to wait for sex until marriage.
"Your life is a ministry, whether you want it to be or not," she said.
Orji's new book, Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me Into the Life of My Dreams, was released earlier this year.
Bieber and her husband have been married since 2018. She said they "wouldn't even be together" if it weren't for their faith.
"They ask me all the time, 'What would you say is the biggest thing in your relationship? You guys are really happy,'" she said. "And I'm like, 'It's our faith.' It's what we believe in. If we didn't have that, we wouldn't even be here. We wouldn't even be together.
"Being able to share that with each other—to have that bond of faith and spirituality—is so [vital] for us," she said. "It's the most important part of our relationship, following Jesus together, being a part of the church community together. It's everything."
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Frazer Harrison/Staff
Video courtesy: Hailey Bieber
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.