Is Bieber breaking bad?

In my last blog I spoke about zombies and The Walking Dead. This time i wonder if Justin Bieber is playing out the other huge american TV series Breaking Bad? The young Canadian rapidly rose to fame at age 13 when an agent spotted him on YouTube, now he has 49 million twitter followers, has a reported personal fortune of £70 million (notice pounds not dollars), and is one of the most recognisable teenage faces on the planet. Yet for the last year he seems to be turning from clean cut kid next door to a bad boy. Is this a marketing strategy? Or is he genuinely breaking bad as a result of all the toxic influences surrounding him? Last week he was been arrested in Miami for driving under the influence (alcohol or drugs we don't know). And according to some news reports, he is taking anti anxiety drug Xanex (his mom is apparently the source of this news). What has happened to him? Can we really believe this is a healthy direction for his life?

I cant help compare Justin Bieber with Miley Cyrus who has also courted a lot of controversy over her highly sexual new image and antics. This is not a new thought as you can tell from the photograph mixing their faces up. But lets be real here! How healthy is it for a teenager to be exposed to massive wealth, worldwide fame and an entourage of people who make money off them? And where are the people in their life giving them solid healthy advice? Are the people surrounding them in their direct pay or living on the gravy train that is brand Bieber?

Apparently Justin's dad was with them in Miami at the drag race. I don't think its fair that people judge him as a father, we dont know the situation, or the pressures the family are under. All I can suggest is that adults and teens need a mentor in their life, as John Donne famously said "no man is an island." His dad, Jeremy seems pretty close to him, and that's good, but parents are as vulnerable to toxic influences as their teenagers. There is a generational lack of mentors in the world. This is not a new problem, its as old as humanity itself.

In the bible, the apostle Paul saw this problem in his own generation. He wrote to the Corinthian church and told them "you have many teachers but not many fathers." In Paul's time wealthy families employed tutors to instruct boys (sorry girls you were often neglected at this time) to teach them about morals and philosophy. However, these were paid staff whose job it was to nurture a child. Many tutors were good men but they could never replace a healthy father figure.

The apostle Paul called himself a spiritual father, a dad figure who guided others towards a deeper more meaningful life with Jesus as the centre. I wonder if Justin Bieber and even his dad, Jeremy simply prove how necessary this is today for our time and our culture which is reproducing spiritual orphans who in turn produce a fatherless generation? Can we find ways to break this destructive cycle? Is it possible you are called to this, even if you are a teenager? Lets start a revolution of mentors, who are spiritual guides to a new generation.