Selena Gomez is known for many things, including her amazing vocals, her three hit solo albums, her work as an actress and television producer, and more. But is this fan-favorite star religious?
Selena Gomez is Christian, but does not consider herself religious. She instead focuses on her faith and relationship with God, used to attend Hillsong Church in Los Angeles, and has covered songs by Christian artists. One of her latest songs was also written about God.
Read more below to find out about Gomez’s faith, and how she likes to talk about and express it.
Gomez’s Background
Selena Gomez was born in Grand Prairie, Texas, and was raised Catholic. “My family does have Quinceañeras, and we go to the communion church. We do everything that’s Catholic, but we don’t really have anything traditional except [that we] go to the park and have barbeques on Sundays after church,” Gomez said of her upbringing.
When she was 13, Gomez decided she wanted to wear a purity ring. “I said, ‘Dad, I want a promise ring.’ He went to the church and got it blessed… I’m going to keep my promise to myself, to my family, and to God.”
Gomez received a lot of criticism both for wearing the ring and for eventually taking it off, but she doesn’t regret any of it. “I’m not embarrassed to say that… I’m also not embarrassed to say that the ring has come off… I got it when I was 13 and I respect so much what it represented, but it isn’t for everyone,” she explained.
In moving to Hollywood, she started going to the Pentecostal Hillsong Church and they and their music have greatly inspired her throughout her career. At the 2014 American Music Awards, Gomez was seen praying before her performance.
“I listened to one of my favorite worship songs and it’s called ‘Oceans,’” Gomez said of her performance. In 2014, she also posted this tweet, which reads, “Sometimes we think we aren’t good enough. But then I realize when I think I’m alone I have God.”
Her faith has been very important throughout her life. What are some more recent ways that she has expressed it?
Music and Expression
Gomez has talked about how much she loves Christian music and worship songs, seen in her listening to it before some of her big life events and performances. At a Hillsong Young & Free concert in Los Angeles in 2016, Gomez sang her song called ‘Nobody.’
The song appears on the deluxe edition of her album Revival, and when a fan asked what inspired her to write Nobody on Twitter, she responded, “God. Nobody is about Him.”
Featuring lyrics like “Nobody’s gonna love me like you do / Nobody’s gonna love me like you / Nobody’s ever led me to the truth / Like you,” it’s clear that Gomez takes her faith seriously. During her 2016 performance, she encouraged the audience to sing along, making it a complete song of worship.
While Gomez’s faith is extremely important to her, she doesn’t necessarily see herself as religious. In a 2017 interview, she said, “The world [religion] freaks me out sometimes, you know?”
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily that I believe in religion, as much as I believe in faith and a relationship with God,” she explained, drawing a distinction between the two. “I’ve just experienced things in my life where there are holes in things that nothing else can fill and I know that if I didn’t have the faith that I had it wouldn’t have gotten me through some of the hardest times in my life.”
Also in the interview, she talked about how faith is “something anyone has the right to figure out for themselves.”
Check out the YouTube video below to see Selena Gomez talk about her faith and Hillsong in a promotional interview for Hotel Transylvania 2.