Russell Brand announces he is getting baptized as Christian

Actor and comic Russell Model introduced Friday that he’s going to be baptized this weekend, the fruits of his months-long public wrestling with the tenets of Christianity.

“This Sunday, I am taking the plunge,” Model, 48, mentioned in a video he posted to X. “I am getting baptized.”

Baptism. This Sunday I’m taking the plunge! How was it for you? pic.twitter.com/DnwcUrzoqa

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— Russell Model (@rustyrockets) April 26, 2024

Model mentioned he had heard baptism defined to him as “a possibility to die and be reborn; a possibility to go away the previous behind and be reborn in Christ’s identify prefer it says in Galatians — that you would be able to dwell as an enlightened and woke up particular person.”

He additionally referenced what he prompt had been non-Christian reflections on the identical theme of embracing loss of life for the sake of life, quoting Stoic thinker and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and the Buddha.

“All of this stuff appear so inviting and exquisite,” he mentioned.

Model additionally prompt that rising numbers are turning again to Christianity because the empty worth system of modernity disintegrates and leaves them wanting extra.

“I do know lots of people are kind of cynical in regards to the rising curiosity in Christianity and the return to God, however to me, it is apparent,” he mentioned. “As which means deteriorates within the fashionable world, as our price techniques and establishments crumble, all of us turn out to be more and more conscious that there’s this eerily acquainted awakening and beckoning determine that we have all recognized all of our lives, inside us and round us. And for me, it’s totally thrilling.”

Model added that he intends to get baptized within the closely polluted River Thames, joking that he may be additionally getting baptized in toxoplasmosis and E. coli.

“I could also be forsaking the sins, however I may be choosing up some fairly critical viruses,” he mentioned.

Model’s baptism comes after different movies he has been making in latest months about his religious journey to the Christian religion.

In December, he informed followers he was studying the Bible and The Downside of Ache, a 1940 guide by C.S. Lewis that explores the position of struggling within the Christian life.

In January, he famous that he was studying Rick Warren’s The Objective-Pushed Life, and that he desired a “private relationship with God” as he discovered Jesus Christ more and more necessary as he grows older, regardless of as soon as seeing many church buildings as both too “old school” or too modernized.

“The rationale I put on a cross is as a result of Christianity and, specifically, the determine of Christ, are, it appears to me, inevitably turning into extra necessary as I turn out to be extra acquainted with struggling, function, self, and not-self,” he mentioned on the time.

In March, he posted a video explaining that he had been visiting church buildings of varied denominations with the intention of probably getting baptized, and requested his followers their opinions on the sacrament.

Throughout an interview with Tucker Carlson final yr, Model mentioned, “Like many determined folks, I would like spirituality. I would like God, or I can not cope on this world. I must imagine in one of the best in folks.”

Acknowledging he “did not have sufficient self-discipline to withstand the attract of stardom,” he mentioned he “fell face-first into the glitter, and I am solely simply pulling myself out now.”

Model faces a number of allegations of sexual misconduct going again years, together with one report that claims he assaulted a 16-year-old lady after pulling her into an “emotionally and sexually abusive” relationship.

Model has denied the “very critical felony allegations” and maintained that whereas he was “very, very promiscuous” prior to now, all of his sexual relationships had been “all the time consensual.”