Canadian popstar and churchgoing artist Justin Bieber has backed the controversial Black Lives Matter movement online, arguing that all people are created equal by God.

He said “I am a white Canadian and I will never know what it feels like to be an African American but what I do know is I am willing to stand up and use my voice to shine light on racism, because it’s a real thing and it’s more prevalent now than I have ever seen in my lifetime,”. “We are all Gods children and we are ALL EQUAL,” he added, with the post having been ‘liked’ over 1.4 million times as of Monday morning.

Black Lives Matter, which rose up in 2012 following the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of suspect George Zimmerman in the case, bills itself as a response to “the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society.”

“A faction of church members were concerned about my speech and that I lifted up Black Lives Matter movement, the Women’s March, and Heather Heyer as examples of racial justice work,” Lee said.

Justin Bieber has talked about his relationship with Jesus Christ on a number of occasions, and has been pictured hanging out with well-known Christian pastors, such as Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz of New York and pastor Judah Smith of City Church in Seattle, Washington.

Bieber has once said that “I just wanna honestly live like Jesus. Not be Jesus. … I don’t want that to come across weird. He created a pretty awesome template of how to love people and how to be gracious and kind.”