Shocked by this, just shocked.

[ElectricSoftParade]

twitpic.com/a52lt9

Has anyone read the interview?

[LadySybil]

he's a kid, chosen by the media types for his looks, his questionble singing ability, and thats it. I wouldnt give the slightest bit of time to his thinking

[CalamityJones]

He said it when he was 16 - not to diminish the stupidity of what he said, but he was a child.

[CowboysGal]

The saddest thing is that I'm not shocked in the slightest that a young boy with a strong Christian faith thinks this way.

[ElectricSoftParade]

So it's an older interview? I hope his views have been changed by now, although I understand what you mean Cowboys.

[MerlinScot]

I always thought that Bieber is dumb as a hoover (no, the hoover could get offended). So that doesn't surprise me at all.

[KRITIQ]

As Cowboys says, there are plenty of 16 year old North American kids who would say exactly the same thing (sad.) Any idea if his views have changed, or at least he's stopped talking about them to the media?

[CalamityJones]

It's from early 2010. I'm not a Beiber fan by any means, honest, but I can remember some very stupid opinions I held as a teenager.

[Magneto]

Actually, I'm not sure if I'm reading this the same way as everyone else but "Everything happens for a reason" is something my catholic mother says all the time. In this context she wouldn't say it to mean that the woman was raped for a reason but that maybe there was a reason why any potential child should be in the world. I always understood it as seeing the good (the baby) that could come out of the bad.

I really hope I don't offend anyone saying that, it's just how I know my mum would mean it if she said that.

[Lougle]

I also don't think he was saying that rape happens for a reason. He was saying that in the face of the resultant pregnancy. I personally have strong feelings about abortion, and hope that were I to find myself in that situation I wouldn't terminate a resultant pregnancy simply because of the reason for it's being there.

[Lougle]

But of course, I'm not saying that I would - I couldn't know until I was there, and hope I never will be.

[Krumbum]

Fucking hell. I know he's a kid but that is awful. When I was 16 I knew that rape is awful and wrong and was pro choice.

[duchesse]

Slightly dim 18 yo, very uninformed views, put on the spot. Not trying to be an apologist but hardly feel the Bieber is in a position to reinforce any kind of patriarchy.

[ecclesvet]

Excerpts from the interview. From that page:

"Due to an editing error, this rollingstone.com news item originally included an incomplete quote from our Justin Bieber cover story. The actual quote, which appears in full in the March 3 print edition of Rolling Stone, reads: "Um. Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don't know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that." For the record: Bieber was quoted correctly by writer Vanessa Grigoriadis in her feature."

[EdithWeston]

So outrage should surely be directed at the editorial staff who sensationalised a pretty inarticulate comment in order to have something on their front cover they thought would appeal to their readership and sell copies?

[lastnerve]

I don't really blame him for his views more his parents who have indoctrinated him, children like wouldn't even know how to form an opinion of their own.

[flibbertigibbert]

His mother was only 18 when she had him, so I think that might also have shaped his views on the subject

[LynetteScavo]

I think he was saying conception happened for a reason, not rape. (As Magneto said)

Why he was even speaking about this subject in a interview, I've no idea. I would have thought one of his people would have stepped quickly in. Teenage boys have some very odd opinions on all sorts of things. Mostly they grow out of it.

[Greythorne]

Totally agree with Magneto.

Also, he is a singer, not a politician or philosopher.

I would let this one go.

[modifiedmum]

Tbh his still a kid now, we've all said stupid things at that age, I know I did, I insisted I be referred to as a "woman" when i was 16 years old and I really was just a little girl.

[EclecticShock]

I think he's been exploited for media sales.