Russell Brand’s conversion to Christianity is a celebrity confession with a discernible difference.
In case you missed it, Brand was baptised in late April by Bear Grylls, without a whole lot of fanfare.
There was no publicity tour and no signature celebrity self-promotion.
News about the event was also subdued.
Instead of worldly praise, what Brand copped instead was a world of hate.
Outside Brand’s updates, it’s the ferocity of heat coming from his haters that give us good reason not to doubt his sincerity.
For example, The Guardian went full left-wing derangement syndrome.
They paid for, and published, a piece mocking Brand’s baptism, in which he was labelled the biggest “piece of s**t in the Thames.”
The left-wing lunacy media mouthpiece, described Brand’s baptism as “ludicrous,” stating, “Theodicy is an attempt to reconcile a just God with a world of suffering, but in this case the problem is having to explain how on earth this lot weren’t made to suffer far more, with at least E coli, for this ludicrous spectacle.”
The Guardian then condemned Bear Grylls for associating with Brand.
Citing unproven accusations against Brand for sexual assault, they strongly insinuated that Grylls’ employment with the Scout Association was compromised.
Grylls, they said, “definitely runs the risk of troubling his employers at the Scout Association who, for obvious historic reasons, probably don’t feel an immense need for their chief scout to be creep-adjacent.”
This was followed by a bizarre rant about Grylls not paying enough tax.
Setting their editorial sights low, The Guardian rubberstamped Brand as a “bog-standard sex-case-turned-wingnut.”
Then, sinking their standard of journalism even lower, they called Brand a right-wing “conspiracy theorist,” who attacks “all the usual” right-wing bogeymen.
“Brand has room for only one messiah, himself,” the column concluded.
Undeterred, Brand appears to be holding the line.
In a May 28 post on X, he preached the Gospel to over 1.8 million people, stating, “I’ve been a Christian a month now, and it’s been a big change.
“Not that I’ve entirely changed as a person; I’ve taken on a lot of new concepts, and it changes you.
“It’s not like in a game-show where by doing really, really good things you can be redeemed, no, repentance, to repent, means you have to continually change,” he explained.
It means acknowledging, “I’m in a battle against myself. I need to surrender myself to an ever-present eternal, and accessible Jesus.
“Mercy,” he continued, “is given to me; been granted to me, that I live with through love, not something that I could sort of win or achieve by doing good deeds.”
Inadvertently embarrassing The Guardian’s hit piece, he added, “When I’m in doubt, I feel that instruction is there, it’s accessible.
“I feel like I know what I’m supposed to do, and when I don’t do what I’m supposed to do, that’s even clearer.”
Like, he continued to explain, “When I feel myself being selfish, or inconsiderate, or putting myself first – or not thinking about how I can be better towards others – it’s as if there’s an inner illumination available to me now.”
Brand said he loved the simplicity of the incarnation.
That is, God “coming to earth as a man to experience what it is to be human.”
“Then to sacrifice Himself because that’s the only sacrifice that could bring us home.”
With just as must awe, he spoke about atonement, and justification, concluding, I love that God did this “to give us the opportunity for redemption.”
The Hedonist-turned-Christian’s immediate persecution speaks volumes.
As much as his awe at God’s incarnation, justification, and atonement.
These offer tangible reassurance to Christians rightly cautious about celebrity conversions.
Brand is an unexpected guest at Christ’s table.
Welcome to the Jesus movement, brother!
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