Justin Bieber is trying to right his wrongs and decided to get baptized over the weekend, according to a new report. A source told TMZ that the 20-year-old singer had a baptism performed in his friend's bathroom by his pastor Carl Lentz.
Reportedly Bieber had been taking "intense" Bible study classes since last month, in anticipation of the racist videos being leaked. According to TMZ, Bieber's team was approached two months ago by a man who demanded they pay him one million dollars for the videos or he would leak them to the public.
Bieber's camp refused to pay the man. The source told TMZ that the pop star started studying the Bible and attending church services before making the decision to get baptized. According to the site, the "Boyfriend" singer wanted the spiritual ceremony to be performed in a church but because of his fame, it kept getting leaked.
To try and keep the baptism private, Bieber had his pastor perform it in a friend's bathtub. A source told the Daily Mail that the singer is extremely upset over the videos and has been "crying non-stop." Last week two video emerged of a 14-year-old Bieber making racist comments about African Americans.
In the first video, Bieber told an offensive joke about black people and chainsaws, using the N-word several times as the punch line. In the second clip, he sings about killing black people when he changes the words to his hit 2009 song "One Less Lonely Girl" to "One Less Lonely N**er."
The pop star released two statements apologizing for the videos.
"Facing my mistakes from years ago has been one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with," he said in one statement. "But I feel now that I need to take responsibility for those mistakes and not let them linger. I just hope that the next 14-year-old kid who doesn't understand the power of these words does not make the same mistake I made years ago. At the end of the day I just need to step up and own what I did."
A number of celebrities have stood by Bieber in wake of the scandal including his mentors Usher and Will Smith. According to the New York Post's Page Six, a third video is expected to be released where Bieber allegedly is seen asking a friend "if his parents are as black as [rapper] Akon" and jokes about "black people liking watermelons."
The source the third video is 15 to 20 minutes long.
