Russell Brand Surrendered to Christ After Hollywood Hedonism, False Allegations, and Cultural Collapse

[00:00] [Applause] Okay, everyone. Let's get right to it. Joining us is a new friend and honestly

[00:07] a great person and amazing Christian. A new Christian. You probably know him

[00:13] from a lot of different stuff. Give it up for Russell Brand, everybody.

[00:32] Hello Russell. Great to see you. I'm so

[00:37] grateful to be here. Before we start, I'm not Gary the Guantanamo. Charlie, you've been avoiding me from

[00:43] debating. No, you can do this with love. Wait, this is important. It's the

[00:49] Guantanamo Gator. Charlie, I want to follow up on some of the Guantanamo Gator questions. Why do

[00:56] we have No, keep talking. This is good. And why don't you debate? He's perfectly

[01:01] reasonable. Debate him now. Why do you keep a Cuz that's quite good. Do you see

[01:10] he now Charlie now can I talk to you about some of your booking ideas? And I

[01:17] will say no one told me about the Guantanamo Gator. I was not warned. And

[01:23] you know, sometimes you see those videos of Flidians getting them into a trash can with wheels. I should like to see

[01:29] that take place with that gentleman. He was so he honestly like he's just so

[01:36] reasonable. We should have kept the conversation going. Um Russell, great to see you. Thanks for being here. It's so lovely to see you.

[01:43] So, I have so much to talk about here. Are you carrying around a Bible? That's my Bible in one year from my

[01:50] daily readings. And I thought it was very appetite that today we've transitioned out of Acts and into Romans

[01:57] 1 because on our previous conversation which was in Milwaukee at the RNC you said to me that Romans is the Christian

[02:04] constitution. This is from my friend J. John. I like it. It's old and new testament but it's very easy to carry

[02:09] around and read. These are just some of my notes in preparation for the interview. Note one ensure Guantanamo

[02:16] Gator present in front row. This will distract Charlie. No, there's just like

[02:22] lots of actually notes about Rome itself and Caravajio and stuff like that. So, yeah, I carry two Bibles which I reckon

[02:28] recognize is quite cumbersome, but I've not been Christian very long. So, what do you expect? And so, Russell, you you have a

[02:33] phenomenal story and and thank you for taking time to to travel to this conference. It's it's terrific.

[02:39] Thanks for paying me to come. Yeah. No, absolutely. Um, thank you for gladly accepting. So,

[02:46] you were in public eye. you still are in a non-Christian lifestyle. Is that fair

[02:53] to say? Almost anti-Christian in some ways. Walk us through the journey as you're

[02:58] comfortable sharing from that lifestyle to now giving your life to Jesus Christ. Well, you know, in a sense, we have no

[03:06] choice but to worship something. And my devoutness and devotion was effortlessly

[03:12] directed by the culture and by my conditions. I mean familial and psychological as well as social towards

[03:19] worship and reverence of the individual which I see as being the nexus of false

[03:25] idolatry really as long as you're trapped in self worshiping yourself aspects of yourself self arandrisement

[03:32] pursuit of personal glory you're very easily contained by the culture in a

[03:37] sense I've started to recognize that the culture wants us in a state of self-centered bewilderment when you're in that state you're very easy to manage

[03:43] and manipulate I really thought that I was autonomous and had a great deal of personal authority. In fact, I would have believed in the kind of rags to

[03:49] riches idea that I bought come from a pretty modest background and through success and endeavor and hard work and

[03:56] through personal excellence and ability and charm, moxy, call it what you will, I fought against the odds to become a

[04:02] Hollywood star and marry uh Katy Perry and be on red carpets all over the

[04:07] place. For a brief while I lived with the Guantanamo Gator. It was a complicated era.

[04:13] Um, that's how I would have characterized it, Charlie, as a story. I missed that one. Yeah. No, I kept it quiet. I was embarrassed. I like I I would have

[04:19] characterized it as a sort of a story of personal success. Um, and I didn't, this is how I came to realize this. I was

[04:26] looking at the work of Uval Noah Harrari, the writer of Sapiens, uh, which I s foundly enjoyable till it

[04:32] became clear to me it was an atheistic trope that was geared towards directing people towards surrender and subjugation

[04:38] towards AI false idols. That's what it was. It was, wasn't it? And I thought, oh, the reason this guy is such a pos a

[04:45] popular and accredited intellectual is because his message and agenda fits very neatly into the agenda of powerful

[04:51] elites who determine which cultural artifacts get celebrated and popularized. I didn't realize that at

[04:58] first and then I thought, I wonder if you were that. I wonder if there was something about your success, Russell,

[05:03] that was telling the culture a story that they wanted to hear. And then I thought about it for a while because it is after all my favorite subject, me.

[05:10] And while I was thinking about that for oh yeah it was my personal hedonism and

[05:15] my sense of myself as um self-actualizing through excess that's a

[05:21] story the culture likes to tell itself. So really you were just a useful sort of vessel or an or expression of a

[05:28] particular set of cultural ideas. I came to Christ the way that some people do who don't have the benefit of

[05:34] Christianity in early life, although it happened obviously at the perfect time through a variety of collapses in my

[05:41] private and public life. Sort of a personal difficulty with the birth of my son who's sort of beautiful and

[05:47] incredible and doing very doing doing very well. It certainly was a crisis in our family for a minute and through

[05:52] false allegations of sexual misconduct which gave me great pause for reflection

[05:58] on the way that I'd lived for a lot of time and the impact of that lifestyle. And I suppose in the midst of all that

[06:05] confusion, the clarity of Christ came in a way that's sort of still difficult to describe. But most recently, I felt Charlie when reading I was looking at

[06:12] Acts and it talked about the meeting of Paul and Peter. So I went and check it in Galatians, the same encounter. And I

[06:18] thought in that encounter between Paul and Peter, you've got someone who knew Christ while alive and met the

[06:24] resurrected Christ as well as Paul who has this profound incredible vision

[06:29] recounter with him. And I thought and I had that kind of visceral wave of the reality and truth of the historical

[06:35] Christ, not just the mythic Christ that we need to use as a sort of an inner constellation for personal guidance, but

[06:40] oh my god, it actually happened. It actually happened. And when I feel that, it brings me out of the humrum. It

[06:46] brings me out of the sensual and it puts me in the supernatural where I believe we must to some degree live in the

[06:52] world, not of it. Yes. And so I'm sure you tried Buddhism or you did you experiment with Eastern

[06:58] stuff? What made Christianity different? The reason I was repulsed by Christianity initially was because I

[07:04] felt like this is the religion of like you know like any ordinary American or my grandmother or my wife is accessible

[07:12] to everyone. I must have something a little more esoteric a little rarer a little more hardcore gnostic

[07:18] a little more gnostic and a little less conformist. I felt that, you know, Christianity and maybe instit there's an argument that could be uh had about

[07:24] whether institutional Christianity is used as a kind of panacea to prevent

[07:29] people being the radical revolutionaries that I believe our Lord would have us be. and and and I I when I like with

[07:37] things like Buddhism and Sufism, not them claiming to have had a deep understanding of these faiths, just an

[07:42] autodidactic perusal of the books of Sufiism and Hinduism and Buddhism and

[07:48] philosophy. Although there were many, many truths that were discovered in them texts, at the center of those truths,

[07:54] Charlie, there I was still trapped in self. Tired of government-run overpriced

[08:00] healthcare plans? It's time to take control. Ease is a health plan for hardworking Americans, small businesses,

[08:06] and entrepreneurs. You get lower premiums, flexible options, and freedom from state and federal mandates. Save

[08:11] thousands of dollars every year on your health coverage, and pay zero deductibles. Visit easeforeverone.com/charlie

[08:18] to learn more. That's ease foreverone.com/charlie. Because freedom and healthcare starts with you.

[08:24] [Music] When I surrendered kind of voluntarily

[08:31] yet exhausted to the man Christ, the flesh Christ, I realized ah I wanted to

[08:36] be Jesus. I wanted to be the center, the son of God, the apex

[08:42] that yet I can't do miracles. I'm not willing to be crucified. Now since surrendering to him, accepting

[08:49] him, bowing at the foot of his cross on my knees, shoulderto-shoulder with any one of you that accepts Jesus alongside

[08:56] me, I feel relieved. I feel unburdened. I feel empowered. And I realized that the person that I used to be was not an

[09:02] error or a mistake, but part of the unfolding way as the early Christians

[09:07] called it. And I find it interesting that a lot of these ideas that I investigated, dear Charlie, like Dowoism, say have embedded in them even

[09:15] semantically notions that can be discovered in Christianity. And when his holiness the Dalai Lama gave his recent

[09:21] 90th birthday speech, as I sort of read at least, you know, he posted on social media, I read through that Charlie and I

[09:27] noted that most of his significant points about Buddhism, I could even with just a year in scripture match with

[09:35] something from the gospel. Every aspect was like this is all in Christ. This is all available to us in Jesus. There is

[09:42] no need for anything other than Jesus Christ. There is no need for anything but Jesus. And Russell, it's

[09:50] Would you like a throat loser? Well, I'm fascinated by them, Charlie. I'm fascinated. What are you staring at? Would you want one? It's not I want one. I just want to know

[09:57] the story of them. I lose my voice at these events cuz I speak 14 hours a day. So,

[10:02] you fight it off with lozenes. Well, no. The lozenes lubricate the throat to prevent you. Yeah.

[10:08] That's the sort of Don't let man find out about it. It's very maha. For the record, I like it.

[10:14] I have to have a hundred a thousand. Lemon eucalyptus. It's good stuff, man. I'm addicted. I'm

[10:21] going to grind it up and inject it in my arm. Don't do drugs, kids.

[10:28] We're told all religions are the same. Yes.

[10:33] You really like it or not? It's actually amazing. It's delicious. It's tasty, right,

[10:39] Charlie? No wonder you can speak for 14 hours. No wonder you can get Gavin Gruesome Newsome to admit that there are

[10:46] different genders. You're powered by lozenes. That's right.

[10:55] He's the only one ever to mention the lozenes. No one else has ever met. I would expect expect nothing less.

[11:02] So not all religions are the same. That's by thought. Do what what do you what you what you saying? Oh yeah. All we're told all religions

[11:08] are the same. What is the differentiator that you want the rest of the world to

[11:15] know about Jesus, Christ, about

[11:21] self? You mentioned, I mean, for example, Buddhism, correct me if I'm wrong, Russell, is a very self-centric

[11:26] religion. Yeah, it is. I mean, like is this is

[11:32] Sorry. Some, you know, sometimes when you're a professional comedian, you realize that you do things that are funny that you where you're not trying

[11:37] to be funny. This is one of them. I'm not even actually trying to be funny. For me, it seems normal that you would take the lozenge in and out like a

[11:43] cigarette. Well, Charlie,

[11:49] your father and I, we used to loge together at Harvard.

[11:55] George Bush and I were in the Skull and Bones Club. We would loge together at

[12:01] Bohemian Grove. Then who's that under the privet? It's Alex Jones.

[12:08] After my microbes was Jones, after my microbes was he. No, I mean, yeah, like

[12:14] Buddhism is self Buddhism is self-centered. If you like the I reckon the reason the thing that I resisted

[12:20] about Jesus was the very thing that I needed to yield and surrender to. I didn't like I was messianically

[12:27] infatuated with myself as the kind of center of the world. And the culture also gives you that offering. It's

[12:33] appealing that your personal identity can be the altar of false idolatry, i.e.

[12:39] your sexuality, your race or your gender. All of those things are in are glorious creations of our Lord. But when

[12:46] you make them the focus of your spiritual attention, of your devotion, they can't hold it. I look at the

[12:54] instructions in scripture now, not just as edicts to be obeyed, but simply as suggestions that if you follow them, you

[13:01] will have a better time. If you turn sex into a type of God, you're going to you're in for a rough ride. If you turn

[13:06] your personal identity into a kind of God, you're living in an illusion. Die on the cross with him. The conversation

[13:12] I referred to between Paul and Peter as rendered in Galatians leads to Paul saying, "I lived by a certain law and I

[13:19] live by a certain law." The the idea of self, the idea that do as well indeed one of the edicts of Satanism as

[13:25] espoused by Alistister Crowley is do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. that what you want to do is God, that

[13:32] your own desires are God. That that by uh truncating, curtailing and ceasing of

[13:38] your desires, you're somehow being not true to yourself, that you should be who you are. Now, consumerism and commerce

[13:44] benefit if people want to fulfill their desires all the time. Every single purchase is undergooded either by necessitation nor desire. But what I

[13:52] have been shown by our lord is that the perennial ideas of order suxley that all religions are the same or the the

[13:59] cambellian ideas of the heroes with a thousand mask or Jung's ideas about archetypes are not untrue. There are

[14:05] truths presenting themselves again and again through culture. But there is I

[14:10] believe for some of us maybe not for everyone who would how am I after like 14 months of Christianity to tell

[14:16] everyone that they have to do immediately what I couldn't do 15 months ago. But it seems to me that the way of

[14:22] the cross, the way of the son, the father, and the holy spirit is a way of bypassing and navigating your way

[14:28] through the terrible trenches of bewilderment strewn by a culture that wants you ignorant, bewildered, and

[14:34] delirious. You need only glance at the Parisian Olympics to be aware that what they want to do is surpass and supplant

[14:39] the values of Christ with the values of a culture that want you sick, ill, and weak. There is an attack on all

[14:45] categories that empower people. Whether that's the category of woman or the category of man. These are empowering

[14:50] and holy roles that we might play. I note since living in Florida that there's an attack on excellence, on

[14:57] expertise, on competence and capability. They don't want men and women that are awakened and armed and capable of taking

[15:03] care of themselves. They want us all like hopeless blobs and parasites hooked onto their system of ignorance that

[15:08] tells you there is no god and then tells you that it is the very god that it denies the existence of. Omniscient,

[15:14] omnipresent, omnipotent, wanting complete control through surveillance and data capture and observation and

[15:20] ultimately wants you to submit to its false idols at its false idols. M lozenge.

[15:28] Imagine that was all a campaign. Oh yeah. Yeah. Imagine that whole thing Charlie was just an elaborate advert for

[15:35] this brand of lozenge. You know how like Tucker does those ze the zins or whatever.

[15:41] He's got his own one now. It's called ALP. So, uh, so, so, Russell, all kidding aside, when are you going to start a

[15:47] church? Are you are you going to start a are you going to try to start a ministry? I mean, the UK could could use

[15:53] firstly a revival. I'm really trying to surrender to whatever he wants. You know, I've always been I've been talking my whole life, so

[15:59] like it would be immodest false modesty for me to say, "Oh, really, Charlie?" You know, I'm aware. I hear myself talking but when I'm not sucking on a

[16:06] sweet sweet lozenge of the Lord like but um I do want to participate in

[16:11] his ministry and mission but because I have a tendency to appoint myself and anoint myself in certain roles I want to

[16:18] be sure that it's the path he would have me walk and I have pretty serious uh challenges to surmount in the UK when it

[16:24] comes to my personal the entire government is going after Russell I hope you guys know that and

[16:30] it's exhausting yes But so Russell, how has that played into your walk with Jesus? Is it fair to

[16:36] say, and I'll just I mean I don't mean to be offensive or provocative, but that you were like brought to Christ because

[16:44] things started to go rather negative, like you were like things started to fall apart and you realized that you had

[16:51] to surrender in front of the cross. Yeah, that's a sort of a pretty simple way of putting it, Charlie. Yeah,

[16:57] thank you. Good. Um, but so you're you're under attack from the UK

[17:02] government on I think completely fake stuff. And that's what by the way that's what they do. Russell, they're going

[17:08] after Russell because he was so effective and vocal during CO and he was against the entire COVID narrative,

[17:15] right? You were against lockdowns and you were against all that stuff and your lawfare started simultaneously with all

[17:21] that. Is that correct? I was so it was so no it was a little later but I knew that I was it's been revealed that I was under observation from groups like

[17:27] logically AI and crisp who are sort of online organizations that often work with either government agencies or

[17:33] government carveouts. You're aware of things like the Atlantic group and various organizations that were funded

[17:39] by USAD or other CIA carveout organizations. What seems to have taken

[17:44] place is I provided a lot of raw material by living like an imbecile for a long long while in a way that is not

[17:51] in at all in accordance with the way that I've lived as a married man for the last eight years, nine years, 10 years. God, that's not going to look good for

[17:57] my wife. Hold on, let me do some quick maths. Carried the one. When was that baby? Oh no, out of wedlock. Sorry,

[18:04] Lord. Eight years. But with a n with my daughter will be nine at her next birthday. Um it like I've while I was

[18:11] single and young I live very promiscuously promiscuously and when you live like that I can see that it causes

[18:18] harm to be selfish in your sexual conduct is essentially exploitative but

[18:23] there's in my view a world of difference between that and forcing people to do things against their will that is a very

[18:29] very clear and atrocious crime what I believe happened is that due to the

[18:35] popularity of much of the broadcasting that was taking place at that part time which happened sort of really organically and almost Charlie Kirk as a

[18:41] quirk of the uh technological advancements of that time like you could exist outside of centralized media and

[18:48] just as I was doing on YouTube quickly garner a following of millions we were talking every day about FISA's lack of

[18:54] clinical trials Madna's relationship with the government the likelihood that the COVID vaccine excuse me co virus

[19:00] originated in a laboratory there's peculiar funding relationships between DARPA and co Anthony Fouch's deception

[19:06] his peculiar visits with the CIA his relationships with Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. All sorts of stuff that was

[19:11] available and Charlie would have been reporting on the same stuff and certainly Joe Rogan was. I was talking about those kind of things using a

[19:16] variety of articles from people like Matt Taibbe and Michael Shelonburgger bringing together sort of narratives. But I think hopefully we were able to

[19:23] speak about it in a manner that was sort of funny. Also, I hope that was observing the the unspoken narrative of

[19:29] COVID is this. Check it out. Life is so sacred and each of us so precious, the

[19:35] most vulnerable. No matter who you are or where you're from, life is a sacred gift from God. Therefore, if there's a

[19:41] virus that's a threat to anybody, we must all be locked in our homes. We must all wear masks. We must all obey these

[19:47] edicts. And if necessary, you must take these vaccines. And if you don't, you are lacking in compassion. You don't

[19:52] care about others. The entire premise is erroneous. Because where else do we see our culture behaving as if life is

[19:58] sacred? As if we must sacrifice ourselves for one another? Indeed, don't they mock those very values? Don't they

[20:04] mock our savior? Don't they mock our church? Don't they laugh at the idea that there's something more valuable

[20:09] than the fulfillment of self and the adornment of self? Anyway, so during co I talked about it a lot. I was pretty

[20:16] loquacious and pretty non-stop about it. The videos were doing well. I was enjoying it. And I'm a kind of a

[20:21] naturally anti-establishment person, I suppose. I didn't take the vaccine because I don't like being told what to

[20:27] do. I didn't take it because they were telling me. In fact, if they've wanted me to take that vaccine, all they would

[20:33] have had to have done is leave a couple of syringes in my bedroom and tell me under no circumstances.

[20:40] Do not touch that no matter what. Doesn't matter who coughs or however quietly in whichever grocery store.

[20:46] Don't take those. Oh, what? You've already taken them, sir. I have taken 20 or 30 vaccines. I don't like being told

[20:52] what to do. In this way, I'm a closer to the native mentality of the people of your nation than my own because over in

[20:57] the UK, people seem to have happily tumbled into obedient in the UK. Unbelievable obedience. I saw some of

[21:03] your appearances there on GB News and your debates there and I thought you conducted yourself marvelously as

[21:08] always. But I am like you concerned about what's happening in the United Kingdom and however you want to carve

[21:14] that up from the left or from the right from a materialist, rationalistic, atheistic or Christian perspective is a

[21:20] country that is in very real danger of falling. It is. And so so Russell, you brought

[21:25] something and I want to isolate it. You said you don't like being told what to do. That makes it even more incredible

[21:30] that you submitted to Jesus Christ and submitted to scripture. Yeah. Yeah.

[21:36] Because that that that it's that that on the that's a surface contradiction. So yes, walk us through that. Well, I think that might have been one

[21:42] of the initial obstacles because there's this sort of in pantheonism and paganism there's this arrandisement or acceptance

[21:48] and celebration of what you might call the humors or the inner deities, your warlike aspect, your the Aphroditi

[21:54] aspect, your sensuality. All of these things can be revered. And I didn't want to submit to Christ. I didn't want to

[22:01] surrender to Christ. And if I'm entirely honest, Charlie, there are some days still where I don't want to bow down in total submission and surrender and

[22:07] recognize that my self-will is my biggest obstacle. That's exactly right. The flesh, the world, and the and the

[22:14] mentality. I'm continually caught in a loop of fallibility around these things. But I can't believe that the it's all in

[22:22] scripture. It's all in the word. But it was like the scripture coming to life somehow. Like I felt like it is

[22:27] finished. It is done. His words on the cross. I felt the compassion that is

[22:33] available through the love of his mother, through his forgiveness of us, through his acceptance of us that the

[22:38] submission I do believe that submission to a higher good. I believe now humility

[22:44] before honor before the idea of surren and still the idea of surrendering or

[22:49] accepting any human authority as supreme. I find it kind of repulsive and

[22:54] I believe that there are significant institutional if not constitutional changes coming to your country because I

[23:00] believe that there is a an appetite for more freedom. Yes, that is growing. But freedom cannot exist without virtue.

[23:08] And so freedom will come after and it's happening right now. People go to church and give their life to God. You cannot

[23:14] have a free society if you do not have a society that that values God. It's that's why continental Europe is so

[23:20] unfree. It's it's it's secular. It's interesting. And so the you you pinpoint something.

[23:26] First of all, there's a great verse that I think you'll love. Romans 12:2, which is uh do not conform to the ways of this

[23:32] world, but instead um be be uh transformed by the renewing of your mind. Fact check me if I got it right.

[23:37] Romans 12. I'm factecking. Yeah. I'm just the believer's constitution. I consider you a kind of living Bible.

[23:44] I'm not quite a living Bible, but I do take that seriously. So Romans 12:2, it's one of my favorite verses because

[23:50] you talked about your mindset. So that's Romans right there, I think. Yes. Yeah. 12:2. Well, that was 11. But

[23:57] Romans 11 is also very important about us being grafted on top of the I don't know if it's okay for me to tease you about your what I would

[24:04] consider enjoyable aspergers. Oh, thank you. It's fine.

[24:09] Cuz when I see all your lozenes lined up and everything, I teased you about it once before and I thought, don't be mean because of people

[24:16] with asperes and all of that. My son, I feel like he might be a little bit autistic actually as it as it turns out. But like we said, that's 11. That's also

[24:22] good too. 122. We got to get to that. It's very You're like sort of I would say you're like right-wing Rainman.

[24:29] Okay, I'll take it. Right-wing Rainman. Russell Brand. Put

[24:34] that on the website. That's a title. Thumbnail print. Do AB it on YouTube.

[24:40] That's an endorsement. Right-wing Rainman. All right. So this is um a New

[24:45] International Version probably Charlie. So the any distinctions are likely because of the translation. I won't I won't nitpick that. But

[24:51] what do you go with? ESV. Yeah, that's or New King James. One of the two. I I like ESV as well. All right. So and

[24:58] so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let

[25:05] them be a living holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy

[25:12] the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

[25:19] Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. It's beautiful. I like that it

[25:25] starts off, Charlie, as well. Yeah. Praise the Lord. I like that it go starts off with give your body. Like

[25:31] that's one of the things that hit me early on through uh St. Paul, I think in Corinthians, and it was somewhat by the

[25:38] brilliant rendering of the British pastor that I first heard use these words in a sermon, even though they're

[25:44] words we're all familiar with, that's frequently misused, of course, sarcastically, even ironically.

[25:51] Do you not know that your body is a temple? Do you not know? It has that prefix, do you not know that your body

[25:57] is a temple? I like the gentleness of you wouldn't be doing this if you knew that your body was a temple. I lived

[26:03] like someone who didn't know that their body was a temple, a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit, a place for the Lord to

[26:09] inhabit. We no longer have a tabernacle that has to be carried that could go off at any time and kill everyone. We are a

[26:16] living tabernacle. We are the sight of his holiness and his grace. Now, I want to put this before you because I'm

[26:21] thinking of saying it when I talk in front of the audience later, which I'm a bit nervous about, Charlie. I'm a bit nervous about talking in front of a big audience. I get I just get nervous. Um,

[26:29] see this thing? When I went to Rome the other day, I was in one of these churches, you know, like if you ever go

[26:35] to Rome, you got to go. It's amazing. I don't mean Rome in Florida because there is one, is there? Or Georgia. I don't mean that one. I mean the

[26:41] There is Georgia. Yeah. I mean the I mean the one with Italians in it.

[26:46] There's probably some in Georgia as well. But like anyway, I mean full of them. Brimmanova everywhere you look.

[26:52] One of these churches has got three Caravagios in it of St. Matthew. one Carvajio is one of my favorite um sort

[26:59] of late Renaissance artists. There's a lot of darkness in the way he paints and shafts of light. They say that Francis

[27:06] Coppa used his image system heavily for the Godfather movies. Anyway, there's this one image painting

[27:12] beautiful unbelievably beautiful painting of St. Matthew being appointed and anointed like chosen like I suppose

[27:19] in the show chosen when our lord goes o follow me if he goes o he's not from Essics but you know like

[27:24] and Matthew was a tax collector I believe so they say and and in this picture he's depicted as being sat around with a

[27:30] bunch of other taxpayers and near do well and at the end of the table rather like this one that you and I are at Charlie surrounded by them look like

[27:36] they're playing games of chance I believe it's St. Matthew at the end. Although it's one of those paintings where there's some discussion over which

[27:41] one is Matthew. The one I think is Matthew when the painting is called the anointing of Matthew or the appointing

[27:46] of Matthew. I can't remember which. Probably appointing I suppose. Like one of the gizers is sat at the end like

[27:52] that. And I think that's the one that's Matthew. That one. What? What? Who's getting appointed? Um, and you will

[27:58] understand his reluctance to be appointed in this holy mission when you see that the next of the they're not a

[28:03] tptic but they are three paintings hung together is Matthew with Gabriel writing

[28:09] his testament and gospel. And then the final image is Matthew being flayed which means skinned alive for his faith

[28:16] and for his Christianity. I thought if we believed as he believed

[28:22] how could it be that you could have an institution like the Vatican and not have a revolution. If if we believed as

[28:28] he believed, how could you have us going to church every Sunday praying, teaching our kids, reading the word and not have

[28:33] the revolution or at least the way made straight for the return of our savior? If we believed only as Paul believed, as

[28:41] Peter believed, as Barnabas believed, as Mary believed, as Steven believed, this is the church that excites and interests

[28:47] me. And I know it comes at a high cost. And I know what our Lord said to is it annihas when Paul's on his way to

[28:53] Damascus. Paul's coming. I've chosen him. He's going to suffer greatly for my

[28:59] name. So go over there and sort his head out. He's gone blind. He's had a little bit of a shock on the way here. Paraphrasing.

[29:07] But what I feel is that it was a threshold was passed Charlie that I was still withheld in the new age and I

[29:13] still bear the scars of the new age. I was going to ask you about that, but I wanted to be polite. She's Durgga. Durga is a great goddess

[29:19] in in you know this is a tattoo I've had for some years now. Of course, prior to coming to I mean, why did you decide to get a

[29:24] tattoo of her? Because Durgga is a she's female goddess energy and I have a wife and I have two

[29:31] daughters and I was commemorating and celebrating the power of my wife Laura and of my daughters Mabel and Peggy

[29:38] Durga in one of her aspects rides a tiger. And I like the idea of my daughters and my wife being powerful,

[29:44] strong women who know how to marshall the energy that God gave them. And of course, there is no God but him. and I

[29:51] surrender and bow down to Christ Jesus and I disavow all false idols. But the false idols that concern me most are not

[29:56] those that emerge out of Hinduism or even Islam. Although I'm sure you will hear rhetoric here to the contrary. No,

[30:03] it is the false idols that emerge from our culture. The ones that the graven images that we stare at day after day,

[30:09] hour after hour, the endless endless effluia and limitless flow of filth and

[30:16] pornography that denigrates and lowers us all. It's the false idols within our culture that I fear most, but you know,

[30:22] Peter took the Jews and Paul took the Gentiles. We're all going to get called to different missions. And I don't claim

[30:28] to know very much. I I think about myself all the time, and I don't understand myself yet. So, how would I

[30:33] know anything about anyone or anything else? But what I would say is it's the false idols in the culture that that I

[30:40] fear most that want us deadened and distracted. I I I totally agree. It's look, modernity has made us materially

[30:47] wealthier but spiritually poor and that that is that is modernity and we are

[30:53] seeing a reckoning of that while people want to return to a tradition. We only have a couple we only have a couple minutes. I got to get you on stage but

[30:59] really yes this is just the warm-up act. Oh man, I'm feeling nervous.

[31:04] How many thousand? It'll it'll calm you down. Give me that for my pocket. Yes.

[31:10] I know that's there. 7,000 people for you. Oh, Charlie Russell, your show is called Stay Free.

[31:17] Yes, it's on Rumble. Are you do you believe you are freer and more joyful since giving your life to

[31:23] Jesus? Oh, man. There's no question. Even with the really difficult things that happened, like being told that our baby might be born dead, being offered late

[31:29] term abortion, him being born and requiring a surgery 12 when he was 12 weeks old, turning into the glorious

[31:35] little boy that he is now. the reputational attacks, the exhaustion, the confronting with the things that I

[31:41] have done wrong in my life. I am I've never been so free in obedience and

[31:46] surrender to him. There is p perfect freedom. There is no freedom out there. There's no freedom in hedonism, in

[31:53] epicuranism, in the constant devouring of concupants and endless pleasures. There's no freedom there. It's an

[31:59] illusion. But it's a powerful illusion. I'm not suggesting I couldn't fall for it again a thousand times. I have to

[32:04] stay very close to Christ Jesus. And to do that, I I need Christians everywhere around me. And perhaps that's what fuels

[32:10] my evangelism. And so, yeah, Russell, what what has worked for you? Every believer is different. Is it Christian music? Is it

[32:16] reading the Bible? Is it going to church? What keeps you close to Jesus? Because you're right. You're constantly

[32:21] attacked. By the way, Satan, I believe, has singled you out for quite a while. And you better believe the enemy is not

[32:27] happy that now you're proclaiming Jesus in front of millions of people. And you know, we as believers believe Satan is

[32:33] real. Satan is active. Satan attack. Satan targets. Satan is literally in

[32:39] Hebrew, Satan means the prosecutor, the deceiver. So all of what you are going through in the United Kingdom is a

[32:44] satanic attack to try to say, "Oh, Russell, remember that thing that happened 10 years ago?" Try to have you

[32:50] feel guilty and ashamed. Remember, Satan throughout the scriptures would constantly always whisper, whether it be

[32:55] in the garden or elsewhere about, "Oh, you need to be held back by one what you once did, but Christ sets you free." And

[33:02] so knowing that what keeps you spiritually active and alive,

[33:10] you know, of course I am cowed by what I've done, but I am attacked for things that I have not done. I recognize that

[33:16] my objectification and exploitation was wrong. And I accept the forgiveness of my Lord and I pray for the forgiveness

[33:22] of people that have been negatively impacted by my selfish conduct, by my greedy com deduct, by my low conduct. I

[33:30] was told this by this brilliant Vietnam vet in your great nation. Everything's a burning bush. Everything's a burn. Say

[33:36] he said it like this. Everything's a burning bush is how he said it. That's how he said it. It's

[33:42] like, may I ask what you mean, sir? And and he said that Moses could have encountered Yahweh at any time. It could

[33:49] have happened at any time. Take off your shoes for you are on sacred ground. That all things are incandescent with the

[33:55] Lord yet not imilated. All of us burn with the holy light of the Holy Father. All of us feel the living presence of

[34:01] the Holy Spirit. And all of us benefit from the sacrifice of Christ Jesus and we may know eternal life in him. We

[34:08] access him here in this moment. Let this moment be a burning bush to all of us.

[34:13] Let us comfort one another. Let us love one another. Let us serve one another as he has served us. Amen.

[34:19] So beautiful. Thanks, Russell. I'll say in closing, you have millions of people praying for

[34:25] you. Thanks. the the jour the Christian journey is not e is not is not necessarily easy but you can rest that

[34:31] Jesus is with you throughout every step of it and you'll say this your whole thing is freedom where the spirit of the

[34:36] lord is there is liberty we'll leave you with that teaching how great is Russell Brand everybody give it up for Russell