{"id":11766,"date":"2024-10-03T08:01:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T12:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=11766"},"modified":"2024-10-03T08:01:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T12:01:59","slug":"russell-brand-responds-to-criticism-over-performing-baptisms-in-his-underwear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-responds-to-criticism-over-performing-baptisms-in-his-underwear.html","title":{"rendered":"Russell Brand Responds to Criticism Over Performing Baptisms in His Underwear"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11769\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11769\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11769\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-baptism-underwear_credit-@rustyrockets-X.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11769\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">@rustyrockets \/ X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Russell Brand, the 48-year-old actor and comedian known for his outspoken nature, has found himself at the center of controversy after performing a baptism in his underwear. Addressing the backlash, Brand defended his actions by emphasizing the most important element of the event: leading people to Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>On September 27, Brand shared a post on social media featuring a photo of himself and a friend baptizing someone while wearing only their underwear. In his typical lighthearted and irreverent fashion, Brand captioned the post, &#8220;It might seem a bit soon to be baptizing people, but the Apostles did it on day one, so here we are.&#8221; Though the image sparked much support, some comments called out his attire as inappropriate, urging more modesty. One commenter wrote, &#8220;Moved by your faith, but bro maybe more modest.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In response, Brand posted a video on September 30 where he directly addressed the concerns. &#8220;I suppose lookin&#8217; at it now, it does look a bit immodest, me doin&#8217; a baptism in underpants like that,&#8221; Brand admitted with a chuckle. He explained that his choice of attire wasn&#8217;t calculated: &#8220;The truth is, I took off my clothes, and my underpants are all I&#8217;m wearing underneath my clothes.&#8221; Brand pointed out that the photo wasn&#8217;t staged but rather a spontaneous moment captured by friends during the baptism of his friend Evan.<\/p>\n<p>Acknowledging his reputation as a bit of a showman, Brand candidly admitted, &#8220;I&#8217;m a little bit of a showoff \u2014 the Lord made me a little bit of a showoff, but it is for Him that I am showing off now, not for me.&#8221; He went on to reference Philippians 1:15-18, a passage he shared in his post along with the tongue-in-cheek caption, &#8220;Are these tighty-whities satanic?!?&#8221; The passage speaks to the varied motives of those who preach Christ but emphasizes that regardless of intent, the message of Christ being spread is what ultimately matters. &#8220;The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice,&#8221; Brand quoted.<\/p>\n<p>He continued, &#8220;I&#8217;m a person that&#8217;s come out of the entertainment industry.\u00a0 I&#8217;m so grateful I&#8217;ve been saved, chosen, that He has found me.&#8221; Despite his playful personality and penchant for the spotlight, Brand was adamant that his heart was in the right place. &#8220;But the reason I&#8217;m doing that baptism \u2014 because I love Jesus. Praise Jesus Christ!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What are your thoughts?\u00a0 Do you think this act is appropriate?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russell Brand, the 48-year-old actor and comedian known for his outspoken nature, has found himself at the center of controversy after performing a baptism in his underwear. Addressing the backlash, Brand defended his actions by emphasizing the most important element of the event: leading people to Jesus. On September 27, Brand shared a post on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":11769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baptism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Russell Brand Responds to Criticism Over Performing Baptisms in His Underwear<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-responds-to-criticism-over-performing-baptisms-in-his-underwear.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russell Brand Responds to Criticism Over Performing Baptisms in His Underwear\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Russell Brand, the 48-year-old actor and comedian known for his outspoken nature, has found himself at the center of controversy after performing a baptism in his underwear. Addressing the backlash, Brand defended his actions by emphasizing the most important element of the event: leading people to Jesus. On September 27, Brand shared a post on&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-responds-to-criticism-over-performing-baptisms-in-his-underwear.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-03T12:01:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-baptism-underwear_credit-@rustyrockets-X.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel Adams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Russell Brand Responds to Criticism Over Performing Baptisms in His Underwear","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-responds-to-criticism-over-performing-baptisms-in-his-underwear.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Russell Brand Responds to Criticism Over Performing Baptisms in His Underwear","og_description":"Russell Brand, the 48-year-old actor and comedian known for his outspoken nature, has found himself at the center of controversy after performing a baptism in his underwear. 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On September 27, Brand shared a post on&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-responds-to-criticism-over-performing-baptisms-in-his-underwear.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2024-10-03T12:01:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-baptism-underwear_credit-@rustyrockets-X.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rachel Adams","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-responds-to-criticism-over-performing-baptisms-in-his-underwear.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/10\/russell-brand-responds-to-criticism-over-performing-baptisms-in-his-underwear.html","name":"Russell Brand Responds to Criticism Over Performing 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