(CP) Actor Russell Brand shared in a recent Instagram post that he has been going to different churches and is excited by being baptized as he continues to face allegations of sexual misconduct and a lawsuit.
On Instagram Wednesday, the 48-year-old actor questioned his followers concerning the Church and asked different questions surrounding the act of baptism.
“I’ve been going to church, a church where they do Alpha courses. I suppose that is form of Church of England. I’ve been to a Catholic Church, and I’m considering going to an Eastern Orthodox Church,” Brand, who has starred in several movies throughout his profession, said in an Instagram video.
“Do you’re thinking that that different denominations and distinctions are vital once you have a look at God and the figure of Christ from, as best as one might claim, a universal perspective?”
Brand asked his followers if it is feasible to be “universal” on topics equivalent to kindness, service, give up, gratitude, and understanding suffering, even when it’s God’s Will.
“I do know that there are many distinctions ecclesiastical and ontological, but I feel that in the mean time, I’m moving towards a form of moment of baptism. I mean, are you baptized?” Brand asked.
“Did you get baptized as an adult? Would you do it in a river? Would you do it in a font? Do you would like to get fully under there? Because, me, I need River Jordan or River Thames, at worst. I need proper plunging.”
Brand wondered concerning the importance of getting a particular house of worship.
“Tell me, what’s the importance of the Church, and tell me is it vital what church you go to because I’m just learning, man,” he continued.
“I’m just learning, and you recognize, if I do not get clear guidance, I actually have to make a choice just form of based on what petal I’m on. Let me know what you are into within the Holy Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen,” he concluded at the tip of the Instagram video.
Brand received praise from many fans who commented on the post as he seemingly navigates a public spiritual conversion journey to the Christian faith.
In January, he stated that Christ is becoming “more vital” in his life and that he desires “a private relationship” with God. In December, he told followers he was reading the Bible and C.S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain, a 1940 book that explores the role of suffering in a Christian context.
The actor has also come under heavy public scrutiny and criticism consequently of several allegations of sexual misconduct which have been brought up against him.
In September, a joint investigation by The Times of London and Channel 4 found that 4 women alleged Brand had sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2013 in the course of the height of his film profession.
A subsequent report from The Sunday Times alleged that Brand assaulted a lady who was 16 years old on the time during an allegedly “emotionally and sexually abusive” relationship.
Another woman told The Times that Brand raped her at his Los Angeles home in 2012, though she didn’t file a police report.
Brand can also be reportedly facing a lawsuit from one woman who claims he sexually assaulted her on the set of the 2011 “Arthur” remake, a movie through which she was forged as an additional for 3 days of filming in New York City.
The woman accused Brand of being “visibly intoxicated” on July 7, 2010, when he made eye contact together with her and “pulled his erect penis out of his pants in an open and obvious manner … within the presence of everyone on set,” in accordance with a grievance filed in late 2023 within the Supreme Court of New York, Suffolk County.
Doe reported that Brand didn’t receive any discipline for the alleged exposure.
She claims that “Brand’s behavior was treated as acceptable to the Corporate Defendants’ employees on set,” in accordance with USA Today.
Doe said that Brand sexually assaulted her in a rest room stall later that very same day while “there was a production crew member directly outside the toilet door ready that indicated that they were guarding the door to be certain that Brand wouldn’t be interrupted as he cornered and sexually assaulted” her.
The woman included in her allegations of assault that she was not only refused payment for the day she was on set, but she was also not asked to return for a second or third day on set.
Doe is suing with claims of assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring, retention and supervision, in addition to negligence, aiding and abetting assault and battery.
In an affidavit, Doe requested that the court maintain her anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
“I’m fearful of being blacklisted within the industry or suffering other negative effects beyond what I already suffered if my name is related to a sexual assault lawsuit against others within the industry,” she stated within the filing.
“I cannot bear to assume my profession that I like being jeopardized.”
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the lady said she felt “used and abused.”
“Disgusting is the one word,” she claimed. “I felt like I used to be getting used, that I used to be just an object for his momentary titillation.”
Brand has denied the “very serious criminal allegations” and maintained that while he was “very, very promiscuous” up to now, all of his sexual relationships were “at all times consensual.”
During an interview with Tucker Carlson last yr, Brand said, “Like many desperate people, I would like spirituality. I would like God, or I cannot cope on this world. I would like to imagine in the very best in people.”
In a January social media post, Brand shared more about his embrace of spirituality.
“The reason I wear a cross is because Christianity and, particularly, the figure of Christ are, it seems to me, inevitably becoming more vital as I turn out to be more accustomed to suffering, purpose, self, and not-self,” Brand detailed.
The actor added that he had been “reading the Bible quite a bit more” and Rick Warren’s book The Purpose-Driven Life. He said that in his younger years, Christianity appeared to him to be “really irrelevant and old-fashioned and form of dusty” or too modernized.
His perspective, he said, has modified as he has experienced “a specific amount of maturity.” He has come “to acknowledge that you simply need, I would like, a private relationship with God.”
“It occurred to me that if as a substitute of at all times talking to myself inwardly, I could replace one in all those voices with an indwelling God. It says in Galatians it’s our job to die, in order that as Christ died on the cross, he is likely to be reborn in us,” he said in an apparent reference to Galatians 2:20.
