Comedian and Hollywood actor Russell Brand announced Friday that he will be baptized as a Christian on Sunday.
“Baptism. This Sunday I’m taking the plunge! How was it for you?” Brand wrote on X (former Twitter).
Baptism (Getty Images)
In an accompanying video, Brand said he had heard baptism explained to him as “an opportunity to die and be reborn, an opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn in Christ’s name like it says in Galatians — that you can live as an enlightened and awakened person.”
The 48-year-old actor proposed that increasing numbers are turning back to Christianity as the empty value system of modernity crumbles and leaves them wanting more.
“I know a lot of people are sort of cynical about the increasing interest in Christianity and the return to God, but to me, it’s obvious,” he said.
“As meaning deteriorates in the modern world, as our value systems and institutions crumble, all of us become increasingly aware that there is this eerily familiar awakening and beckoning figure that we’ve all known all of our lives within us and around us. And for me, it’s very exciting,” he declared.
Brand added that he intends to get baptized in the proverbially dirty River Thames, joking that he might also be getting baptized in toxoplasmosis and E. coli.
“I may be leaving behind the sins, but I might be picking up some pretty serious viruses,” he said.
In 2023, Brand underscored his need for God in his life, insisting that without Him, he “cannot cope in this world.”
“I need spirituality,” Brand told Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “I need God, or I cannot cope in this world.”
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
“As much as I might enjoy the feeling of privilege and luxury,” the Forgetting Sarah Marshall star told Carlson, “I remember what reality is.”
“I remember that my wellness is contingent upon spiritual connection, upon certain values and principles,” he continued, “and they, I’m sorry to admit, involve sacrifice and self-scrutiny about my own conduct and behavior, which often falls short, and I’m working on improving myself.”
“Like many desperate people, I need spirituality,” Brand said. “I need God, or I cannot cope in this world. I need to believe in the best in people.”
In his introduction to the segment, Carlson noted Russell Brand has been an actor, comedian, and podcast host for decades, but “all of a sudden, he’s one of the most forceful voices for the truth in the English-speaking world. He’s also a deeply interesting person with a lot of insights about God. Amazing, Russell Brand.”
This past December, Brand told his followers he was reading the Bible and The Problem of Pain, a 1940 book by C.S. Lewis that explores the meaning of suffering in human life.
In January, he said he was reading Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life and that he desired a “personal relationship with God.”
In April, Brand posted a video explaining how to pray the rosary, although he acknowledged that he has not fully mastered some of the prayers.
“For meditation today, we’re going to do something a little bit different. We’re going to chant the holy rosary,” he said. “Now, I don’t know all of the prayers, like it begins and ends with certain prayers. But today, we’ll be looking at the chant itself.”
At the end of the prayers, Brand said, “I’m a little blissed out.”
