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<\/a><\/p>\nIn answer to to the question, \u201cCan Justin Bieber be saved?\u201d, you might say, \u201cWho cares?\u201d<\/p>\n
My answer would be, \u201cMillions of young, impressionable girls, some of whom might go right off the deep end if anything truly bad happened to their pop-star idol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just look at the wailing around the world over Zayn Malik leaving the boy band One Direction.<\/p>\n
From Th<\/em>e Oakland Press<\/em> (via the Washington Post<\/em>)<\/a>:<\/p>\n Wednesday was a weird day in the American school system.<\/p>\n Students by the hundreds were afflicted by inexplicable bouts of wailing normally reserved for natural disasters and train wrecks. The cause was the departure of 22-year-old Zayn Malik from the mega boy band One Direction. The stakes, students bleated, couldn\u2019t be higher. What does this mean for Zayn? Does he still love us? Did he ever? Why is he leaving?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And all he did was leave a band, not get arrested<\/a>, sued<\/a>, accused of fathering children<\/a>, filmed peeing in a restaurant mop bucket<\/a>, or out drinking while being underage<\/a> \u2014 all things that have happened to now-21-year-old Justin Bieber.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just the grace of God or dumb luck that Canadian-born Bieber hasn\u2019t fallen into hard drugs or gotten himself killed in some ridiculous way, and it\u2019s probably because of very good, very expensive lawyers that he\u2019s not sitting in prison somewhere or permanently deported from the U.S.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen just the tiniest slice of Bieber-mania, having been at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills one day \u2014 to interview \u201cAmerican Bible Challenge\u201d host Jeff Foxworthy<\/a>, of all things \u2014 when Bieber was also there. We never crossed paths, but there was a throng of \u201cBeliebers\u201d on the sidewalk at the hotel entrance. When I left, it was challenging not to sideswipe one on the way out, so eager were they to see if he might be in any exiting vehicle.<\/p>\n For a moment, I imagined what might happen to these hysterical young women if word came out that Bieber had slipped in the bathtub or choked on a chicken wing. It\u2019s not a stretch to think that at least a few of them might harm themselves in grief over the loss of their fantasy boyfriend.<\/p>\n A star in his early teens when his singing videos hit on YouTube, Bieber is a case study of what happens when you\u2019re a young guy, famous, have scads of money (and scads of hangers-on) and no strong paternal figure (Bieber\u2019s parents never married, and his father is in his life, but sometimes, it seems, more as an accomplice<\/a> than a parent).<\/p>\n He occupies a strange position in the rarefied air of celebrity, as outlined in a Vulture story from 2014, titled \u201cJustin Bieber: A Case Study in Growing up Cosseted and Feral\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n As we spoke, Bieber struck me as a \u00adprecocious kid, talking about mastering the Rubik\u2019s Cube and spewing forth lines memorized from rap songs and Will \u00adFerrell comedies. \u201cJustin is just freakishly good at everything he did or does,\u201d said his mother, Pattie Mallette, a thoughtful, soft-spoken woman so tiny she stood at least a head shorter than her son. \u201cAt 1 year old, he could carry on a conversation. At 2, he was having full conversations on the phone. He played all-star travel soccer, all-star travel hockey, was chess and golf champion of our region\u2014and he\u2019s amazing at Hacky Sack.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bieber\u2019s phone buzzed with a call from Selena Gomez, whom he had just started dating\u2014and whom, in a weird moment, a member of his \u00adentourage, led by his charismatic, self-\u00admythologizing manager Scooter Braun, asked me not to mention, lest the Be\u00adliebers lose faith he was a gift from God exclusively for them\u2014but Bieber said, in what felt like an act of superhuman control, \u201cI\u2019ll talk to her later. I\u2019mma finish this.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Bieber was born\u00a0to an unwed, 18-year-old mother (who got pregnant despite being on The Pill) who had psychological problems of her own, but who had found solace in Christianity. Bieber has not abandoned the idea of faith<\/a>, even attending a Pittsburgh Steelers Bible study<\/a> late last year, and being associated with some pastors, including Carl Lentz of Hillsong NYC <\/a>and Judah Smith of The City Church, who was quoted in a recent piece<\/a> in the\u00a0Christian Post<\/em>:<\/p>\n Smith also said that Bieber \u201ccertainly loves God and is passionate about being\u2026 the man that he wants to be.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As for Lentz, the New York Post<\/em> reported last November\u00a0<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s on a journey,\u201d explains Lentz, who is rumored to have baptized Bieber this past June in a friend\u2019s bathtub (Lentz wouldn\u2019t comment). \u201cIf he\u2019s not doing good, should we abandon him?\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n On Monday, March 30, at 10 p.m. ET\/PT (considering the content, it couldn\u2019t air earlier), the \u201cComedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber\u201d <\/a>exposes the singer \u2014 who lobbied to do this special \u2014 to some withering criticism from such celebrity guests as \u201croastmaster\u201d Kevin Hart, Ludacris, Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Jeffrey Ross, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart.<\/p>\n When the announcement came out in January, Bieber tweeted to his 62-million-plus followers:<\/p>\n For years I have wanted Comedy Central to roast me. They said only if I provided them w\/ more material so for a year now I have worked hard<\/p>\n