Russell Brand’s conversion to Christianity is baffling to many; explained away as a ‘cynical PR stunt’, an attempt by a man accused of sexual misconduct to baptise away his sins in the River Thames. ‘Reinvention has always been a key part of Russell Brand’s persona,’ Katie Edwards writes in The Independent. Marianka Swain suggests that he’s ‘our generation’s Rasputin’, claiming that he’s ‘honed in’ on a smaller, more zealous audience; and Pippa Bailey writes, ‘This is just the latest reincarnation of a notorious shapeshifter — the former Buddhist, professor of Noughties TV nihilism and Sun “shagger of the year”, a born-again Christian?’
But hearing Brand’s frequent, passionate uploads on social media quoting Bible verses in his chest-plunging leopard print shirts and chunky gold cross necklace — revelling in his newly acquired understanding of grace and peace and the limitations of self over an omniscient God — as a fellow believer, you can’t help but feel encouraged. Brand has always been a verbose, cockney philosopher with a surprising depth of self-awareness as he seeks to understand himself and the world, particularly his experiences of drug addiction, sex addiction and fame.
In 2010, Katy Perry’s parents (both long-time pastors) predicted that Brand would become ‘a great man of God’. Perry and Brand’s marriage only lasted a little over a year, but Brand's spiritual hunger remained until his conversion in April.
Three weeks ago, Brand launched a subscription-based show called Break Bread, where he delves into his faith with guests, including Tucker Carlson in the show’s first episode. Carlson, who has inhabited a kind of media wilderness since being dumped by Fox News last year, may appear to be an unusual choice of guest until you realise that both Brand and Carlson are carving a similar path in the desert, attracting those media-cynical audiences with right-wing worldviews. Carlson still has a substantial 3.28 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. Brand, who has a whopping 6.84 million subscribers on YouTube, is building a new following (since YouTube suspended him from making money from his channel), with 2 million subscribers on Rumble and growing.
Brand prays with Carlson at the end of their chat, saying, ‘I’ve been a right show-off, Lord. Please allow me to just be willing and happy and content with the glory that is yours, to be a servant in your name, a servant among servants.’ Listening to him, you become aware of how Christianity and