Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 994 | Russell Brand: Christian or New Ager?

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Today, we dive into Russell Brand's recent baptism and conversion to Christianity and whether it is a reason for hope. Brand has faced public criticism due to his past anti-Christian opinions, sexual assault allegations, and his current use of tarot cards. We discuss what these things mean for the genuineness of his faith and whether Christians can dabble in new age practices to begin with. Plus, in her latest book, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) detailed a time she shot her dog dead in a gravel pit. We discuss this strange decision. Find a church: https://church.founders.org/ https://tms.edu/find-a-church/ https://www.9marks.org/church-search/ --- Timecodes: (00:46) Intro (07:30) Russell Brand’s baptism (22:00) Past controversies (27:10) Shifting beliefs & tarot cards (44:19) Kristi Noem shot her dog (59:40) RFK Jr.'s abortion comments --- Today's Sponsors: Covenant Eyes — protect you and your family from the things you shouldn't be looking at online. Go to coveyes.com/ALLIE to try it FREE for 30 days! We Heart Nutrition — nourish your body with research-backed ingredients in your vitamins at WeHeartNutrition.com and use promo code ALLIE for 20% off. Pre-Born — will you help rescue babies' lives? Donate by calling #250 & say keyword 'BABY' or go to Preborn.com/ALLIE. A’del — try A'del's hand-crafted, artisan, small-batch cosmetics and use promo code ALLIE 25% off your first time purchase at AdelNaturalCosmetics.com --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 992 | Kanye is Now a Pornographer | Guest: Jason Whitlock https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-992-kanye-is-now-a-pornographer-guest-jason-whitlock/id1359249098?i=1000653615827 Ep 939 | Russell Brand’s Jesus Journey & the State of the Race | Guest: Ron Simmons https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-939-russell-brands-jesus-journey-the-state-of/id1359249098?i=1000642825933 --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Russell Brand got baptized and Christy Noam shot her dog. We've got the analysis on these things today and much more. On this episode of Relatable, it's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use Code Alley at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code Alley. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. If you haven't listened to or watched yesterday's episode with Terry Lee Cobble, I hope that you're able to catch that. It was such a profound and encouraging. conversation for me. And I just love anything that is going to encourage Christians to get in the word and to study the Bible and to view scripture through the lens of what does this say about God. It makes such a big difference. And I love the point that she made about that. And I love the feedback and the comments and the messages that you guys have sent me about that. All right,

before we get into today's episode, a couple announcements. Number one, our Q&A that's only for Blaze TV subscribers. That is out now, blazTV.com slash Ali. Use promo code Allie. You'll get $20 off your subscription. When you subscribe to Blaze TV, you get access to all kinds of subscriber-exclusive content, not just my stuff, but everyone else's stuff. This particular installment for my audience, though, is relationship questions.

Juicy relationship question is that I didn't want to answer to the general audience and I could only trust my beloved Releda fam with. So go check that out. We've got lots of stuff coming out for you soon. It really helps us kind of protect ourselves from the sensors on all of the mainstream platforms when we have a good size subscriber base on BlazeTV.com. The next thing, Relata fam, Relata moms out there. We've got In My Mom Era. That's a song that I just make up, that I just made up. Did you like it?

In My Mom era, we've got our T-shirts, cute. I loved the blue. I wore that last week. A lot of you guys liked that. We got our hats. And we've got our cute onesies. And in my mom era, let me remind you that whole era speak predated Taylor Swift. So if you are one of the anti-Swifties out there,

you don't need to worry about that. Era predated her. The Jin Zers on TikTok saying, In My Blink era predated T Swift, so you don't have to worry about accidentally, intersecting with Taylor Swift's witchcraft when you are buying our merch in my mom era. All right, let's get into some things today.

And thank the Lord. We have some good things to talk about, some happy things to talk about. because as you know, especially if you are following my Instagram stories over the past 24 hours, there is plenty to be sad about. There is plenty to be icked out about, if you will, and plenty to just beseech the Lord to take care of and to avenge his people and to just do away with the evil doers as Psalm 37 promises that he will do. We got plenty of that. That's on social media. That's in our timelines. That's on our explore page. That's on X every

single day. The depravity that is just taking over the world. However, what do we always say is that God's eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch. Maybe we need to put that on a mug or something because it's a good reminder. It's something that I have to remind myself. And as I was traveling last week, Chief Relator Bro and I and youngest Relata gal, we were traveling last week speaking at various Christian conferences. And I'm always just so encouraged by the number of engaged Christians out there who care about what's going on in the world, who care about the advancement of God's kingdom, who care about speaking the truth in love. and the internet and the mainstream media would have us believe that we're really few and far between and that we're totally alone, we're completely isolated. And we see from scripture that when we feel isolated, when we are isolated, when we are alone,

when we are outside of community, we are more vulnerable to temptation. Even Jesus, when he was led out into the wilderness and he was tempted by Satan, he was isolated, he was hungry, he was vulnerable in that way. What did he rely upon when he was hungry, when he was thirsty, when he was alone, the Word of God? And we have to do the same thing. And it is so powerful when we rely on the Word of God together. And so I was just encouraged last week as I was speaking to many of you out there, many of you Christians who are just as concerned as I am about the direction that we're going just as resolved as I am to stand firm against the evil that we're seeing, that God is still working as he has always worked through his church. As he has been working for the past 2,000 years, he is still seeking and saving the lost. He is still turning hearts of stone

into hearts of flesh. He is still spreading his gospel. He is still using believers to make disciples of all nations. He is still working through the unseen and unsung, quiet but persistent obedience and boldness of his people. He is still working through our evangelism. He is still working his power through our prayers. And his eternal plan of redemption is always going off without a hitch. Job 42, too, no plan of the Lord's can ever be thwarted. And Psalm 37, as we've already referenced, he will one day do away with evil and wickedness forever. So as we are tempted to say, why God, why are you letting this wickedness prevail? Why are you letting the evil doer seemingly win?

David was asking the same question, by the way, in the Psalms. We can trust that God is sovereign, that he is in control, that he has a plan for all of it, and that he will do something. He will do something about the sin, about the iniquity, about the evil and corruption and depravity, that his wrath is being stored up to then be poured out on the evil doer. So we can trust that. And in the meantime, we have to be looking for the wonderful blessings of his will being made manifest. And one of those blessings is seeing people who used to be pagans, who used to be atheist or agnostic or witches,

however they identified, whatever they said that they believed, turning to Christ. And someone whose journey I have been so excited to witness has been Russell Brands. Russell Brand is an actor. He is a comedian. He has been talking for the past several months about what seems to be kind of a spiritual awakening in his life. He is probably someone I would have described as a spiritual person or who has felt like he is spiritual.

He's certainly a critical thinker. Over the past couple of years, we've seen him question a lot of progressive propaganda. And I would say just mainstream propaganda. He probably doesn't identify as being on the right or the left. But certainly during the time of COVID, questioning government policies, questioning the official quote unquote science. And he has kind of gone on a similar trajectory as I've seen a lot of people do in the past few years is they started questioning everything that they've been told by the media, by Hollywood, by academia, by places like the U.N. and the WHO. And once they started realizing that maybe these institutions, maybe these media outlets

don't have their best interest at heart, for whatever reason, that critical thinking and that skepticism has led them down a path towards Christianity, has led them down the path of recognizing that these powerful institutions are not worth placing our hope and our trust in. And when you start to realize that, when you start to realize that all of these manmade entities are filled with sinful and deceitful people. And still we find ourselves longing for someone to be in charge of us, longing for someone to give us order, longing for someone to tell us the truth. that can really only be fulfilled, not through the government, not through the state, not through health entities, not through scientists, but through the God who created all things, who transcends all earthly power. I've seen this in a lot of lives over the past few years, and it's been

really interesting to see this with Russell Brand. Now, we will get into some of the skepticism, some of the criticism of Russell Brand. But I will just let you know up front what my attitude is before we talk about some of the most recent developments in his spiritual life, which is baptism. And that is that I am hopeful. I am optimistic in the same way that I was with Kanye West. And as I said last week with Jason Whitlock, I do not regret being hopeful about Kanye West. I don't regret being excited about it. I don't regret being excited about his album.

Jesus' King is a really good album. Like, I would probably go listen to that right now. It's got some solid songs on there with some solid theology. There were things at the time that I was skeptical about that I didn't like, that I did talk about, his elevation of some teacher, some things that he was saying that I was like, that's not biblical. But, you know, he's early on in his faith. It would be better.

And I've said this for a lot of people, when you're early on your faith, when you're a public person, when you're a celebrity. I think that it's probably better to take a step back for a period of time and to just make sure that you are getting poured into by really solid leaders. You're plugged into the local church. You're growing in humility. You're growing in self-sacrifice and self-denial. I'm not saying that I can set some kind of time limit on that. It just seems to me like that would be a wise practice to do for celebrities rather than immediately turning into like a public teacher and immediately turning your platform into a platform for like teaching theology. most of us just were not there yet when we first became a Christian. I think that was true of Kanye. But I was still excited about what seemed like a transformation. And now, of course, he is saying that he is going to have a porn studio. And so we're not seeing fruit there. We're not seeing fruit. We're seeing a lot of ugliness. We're seeing a lot of sexual depravity come out of his life,

come out of his public persona, his platform now. And of course, that's saddening. But again, and I don't regret being excited about it in the first place. And I will not regret being excited about Russell Brand. I will pray for him as I pray for all of us. And I will pray especially, though, for someone like him who does have a public platform and will be receiving a lot of pushback and a lot of temptation, maybe even more than most, just that he would stay grounded and rooted in Christ. So anyway, I just don't, you can be.

curious and you can be cautiously optimistic. I'm not sure if the right approach is to be a cynical critic about this. So I think that we can rejoice in what seems like a genuine transformation. All right. We'll get into the details of his baptism in just a second in the video that he made about that over the weekend that I thought was really sweet. But first, let me pause. Okay, so over the weekend, Russell Brand described his baptism. Here is Sot 1. The truth is this, as a person that has in the past taken many, many substances and always been disappointed with their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and even transcendence that I always felt I've been looking for, something occurred in the process of

baptism that was incredible, overwhelming, literally overwhelming, because I was obviously underwater and it was the River Thames at some points. So I felt changed, transitioned. I feel as if some new resource within me has switched on. I love you so much. I'm so grateful to be surrendered in Christ. I love that. So got baptized in the River Thames. It's unclear if he is a part of like a particular denomination.

It doesn't seem like he is saying that he is Catholic right now. I don't think he said, I'm Baptist or I'm Presbyterian. I don't know if he identifies with a particular subsection of Christianity. but I love that he was baptized. Of course, as a Baptist, I see baptism as an outward symbol of inward regeneration. Salvation isn't predicated upon your baptism. Salvation doesn't come through baptism. If you think, for example, of the thief on the cross when Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise.

He was not baptized there. And so it's not a prerequisite for your entrance into heaven. However, it's also not just a suggestion. It is a command. When Jesus says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, he says, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So baptism as an outward symbol of inward regeneration is very important. And, you know, I've had a debate on this before where the other person was saying, you know, if salvation doesn't actually or if baptism doesn't actually save you, then what's the point if it's just a symbol?

Well, of course, there are, there's an importance in symbols. For example, this wedding ring, if I take it off, I am still married. But I think it's an important signifier of something much deeper and more profound. and even with a legal reality too. And so baptism is important as a symbol, and it's important as a signifier of what Christ is done in the believer's life. And so I love how he talks about this. I love how he talks about a surrender to Christ. And then the part where he says,

as a person that has in the past taken many, many substances, has always been disappointed in their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and transcendence, I've always felt that I've been looking for. I love when he said that because he is talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit, which, of course, I don't believe baptism, then transfers the Holy Spirit into a person. The Holy Spirit endwells someone when they have been purchased by Christ's blood, when they have been justified by grace through faith in Christ.

But I love how he talks about that kind of exchange, that exchanging the temporary pleasure of substances with the eternal. and the profound pleasure and satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from the Holy Spirit. And Ephesians 5, 17 through 19 came to mind. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with this spirit. So see that juxtaposition there. Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit.

Whatever fills you, controls you, whatever fills you, whatever fills you, compels you. addressing one another in psalms and hymns in spiritual songs, singing and making malady to the Lord with your heart. So he's being filled with the spirit and he realizes the detriment, of course, he's been sober for a long time, but realizes the detriment and the fleeting nature of other substances that promise forever fulfillment and happiness and liberation, freedom, of course, their lies. They lead to a dead end. He also addresses the cynical responses to his baptism, saying that he understands their perspective. I feel like he's like a very gracious, humble guy because it would be easy to be frustrated by people's cynicism. But he said, so many of your

comments have been so beautiful and encouraging, I really appreciate it. And also, even the cynicism I understand, because some people see me as a celebrity. I don't see me as a celebrity. I recognize that anything in this terrain, this sort of social world could be exploited and utilized. For me, I've made the decision and I know what the decision is, and I pray that it will be relevant to my family, in particular my children. He has that he will continue discussing his baptism. This is new to me. It's a joy to me. I know I'm not expected to be perfect. And I know that's not something I'll be able to deliver. I'm so grateful to be a surrender to Christ. You heard that part. So we'll talk a little bit about his journey to Christianity and maybe

why some people may be cynical just because of his background and even some things that he has said said more recently about tarot cards for example. So I think some people pronounce it tarot cards, but I've always said tarot cards. So, okay, let's back up a little bit and talk about who Russell Brand is. So in 2013, he had a Messiah Complex tour. This was a comedy tour. It was meant to kind of have this blasphemous shock factor. The Guardian review of the tour at the time also described it as more thought-provoking than was typical for brand. Again, at the time, this was more than 10 years ago.

He was already kind of beginning at this point to ask questions about life's purpose. And this, of course, I also want to say like this, of course, is a few years, several years, I believe, after he became sober, that goes back to that Ephesians 5 verse, that sobriety, that's another thing that I think leads people so often down the trajectory of Christianity or down the path of questioning our purpose and really starting to think about things because your mind actually has the ability, has the capability, the sharpness to start thinking about these existential and spiritual issues. Whereas when you are numbed by different substances, you just can't get there, which of course is

why Satan loves addiction and loves drunkenness and loves drug addiction because it can, of course, kill someone's body, but it can also stave off any kind of spiritual renewal or any kind of questioning about spiritual life. So in 2013, Russell Brand created this comedy tour called Messiah Complex. He discussed hero's values, the vapidity of how. we live while also throwing it in his own stories of narcotic and sexual excess. He said at the time that Jesus was the most fascinating of all of the different teachers, Gandhi, Malcolm X, and labeled him an ultra-liberal, possibly communist, anti-wealth, and pro-revolution. At the time, Brand was also enthusiastic about communism.

He's had the discrediting communism because the Russians used it wrongly. was like blaming Steve Jobs because Brand uses his iPad mainly for porn. Talking to Jimmy Fallon on his show in 2012, Brand said that he believed the Bible was more of a symbolic text than the divine word of God. Have you considered that the Bible, like all religious doctrine, may be allegorical and symbolic to direct us towards the only entity of love, as opposed to a specific text to direct the behavior of human beings? The Bible was specifically written by a cosmic entity.

It was written by people. The Holy Spirit ain't got a pin. So that was the kind of humor that Brand was known for. And he kind of made the agnostic belief system sound lighthearted and interesting, intriguing, and also academic and sophisticated. This is kind of what he was known to do as well as kind of shock people with sexual humor and really just, I think, kind of like degrading humor. That's who he was. And that's kind of the brand that, um, that. that he built. Also, Russell Brand has been pretty up front about past allegations that he has had about sexual misconduct. Now, he says that all of these allegations of sexual misconduct and even sexual harassment and assault, he claims that they were all consensual, but he does concede that his behavior

was inappropriate, that he's ashamed of some of the choices that he made, the things that he did. He says that the allegations are very serious. He's concerned that what he's, described as coordinated media attacks closely resembled, for example, the media backlashed podcaster Joe Rogan's comments. And the reason that he said that is because of the timing of these stories coming out. These were old stories, but they weren't published and they didn't start circulating again until Russell Brand was very public about his skepticism, about the official science on COVID and the COVID lockdowns and the regulations. And so he felt like it was really just a coordinated attack. I don't know, but he has answered these allegations. He has addressed them. He

hasn't simply suppressed them. And of course, I believe that all victims and accusers deserve to be heard and taken seriously. I don't want it to seem like I'm just being dismissive of that. I don't know. I don't know the validity of these claims. I don't know the veracity of all of the allegations. I think they're worth listening to and worth assessing and looking at the facts surrounding them. And I do appreciate that he has addressed them. And I hope that he has made everything right as far as he can when it comes to that. That might not mitigate the pain of some of these people who felt like they were victims of his behavior. But it would be right for him to be honest and accountable about that.

And no matter what someone has done in their past, repentance in Christ through the grace of God is possible for absolutely everyone. And so over the past couple of years, as he's been talking about his spiritual journey, he's made some, I think, really interesting theological points and discoveries. So in 2015, Brand posted a video to YouTube where he described the pointlessness of porn and said it was corrupting boys, citing research studies to back up his claim. And see, this is already a departure from the things that he was joking about in 2013. He says, 50 shades has porn ruined my chance of a happy marriage? And it's a little weird, like, it's a little bit of weird video. I'm not saying I necessarily recommend the whole video. I'm just using it as an example of how his mind clearly started changing. And then in a 2018 interview with Relevant Magazine,

He believes, he said he believes the teachings of Christ are more relevant now than they've ever been, which is interesting. Again, already kind of a departure from what he was saying in 2012 that this is all, maybe just kind of a metaphor, which by the way is, and I'm not criticizing him. I'm criticizing this particular view, which a lot of people hold. It's a completely incoherent and incongruent view to hold, that the Bible is just some grand metaphor, that it's just a story that it points us to some like, vague destination of love. That's not even close to what the Bible says or how it is written. Like you could believe that it's a complete and total lie. I mean, that would be very difficult to believe. Again, just the historical details, the cultural details, the geographical details in the Bible. It doesn't read like fiction. Doesn't read like a lie. That would be very difficult for

writers all through centuries to be able to do. But it doesn't read like some giant allegory for something else. And so knowing anything about literary devices, knowing anything about history at all, it would be very difficult for someone to logically, coherently walk away with the position that this is just some big work of fiction. So just to address that view that he had back in 2012. And then in an interview with Tucker Carlson last year, Russell Brand said, like many desperate people, I need spirituality. I need God or I cannot cope in this world. I need to believe in the best in people, which I understand that. I think that's also something that's happening right now is just this desire to get away from despair and feeling like, oh, my gosh, I am so powerless against the W.EF.

I'm so powerless against the WHO. I'm so powerless against our own government that seems to hate us. I'm so powerless against all these forces that are seeking to destroy us and create disorder in case. You've got to believe that there is going to be victory in the end. You've got to believe that there is some purpose in all of this and that there is a transcendent being who actually cares, who actually sees, who is actually working on behalf of his people, that there is a good shepherd that is leading us. And that is what Christianity specifically offers. And then in December, he posted a video talking about his engagement with Christian literature, including C.S. Lewis's, the problem. of pain and Rick Warren's the purpose-driven life. I don't recommend Rick Warren's the purpose-driven life. These readings have led him to prioritize a personal relationship with God, he said, particularly as he navigates the complexities of suffering, purpose, and identity. He said, and we talked about this at the time, the reason I wear a cross is because Christianity,

in particular the figure of Christ, are it seems to me inevitably becoming more important as I become more familiar with suffering, purpose, self, and not self. He said at the time, And then in March he posted the video discussing his visits to churches of various denominations and solicited opinions on baptism from his followers. Oh my goodness. That is a very brave thing to do to ask your millions of followers to give their opinions on anything. And so that was a really beautiful development. A lot of these videos and interviews that were coming out that we've kind of talked about a few times over the past few months. And then the day after his baptism.

Okay, so this was, I believe, on Sunday, Russell Brand posted a video where he used a tarot card to explain how its meaning could tie to a spiritual journey with God. Brand asks viewers what they think about dabbling to different modalities or hybrid models from different spiritual backgrounds. Here's thought too. A lot of Christians would say that taro and even yoga is a kind of heresy. What's your personal view on that? Do you still use stuff like this and the e-ching? you still look out for symbols and signs as you move further down a particular pathway. One thing's for sure that when you get something like that, it does serve as a tool for reflection and personal analysis.

All right. So I do not think that that is where he will stay forever. If the Holy Spirit is really in his life and he is being sanctified, he will very soon learn through the study of scripture and hopefully being plugged into a good local church. I pray that for him. He will realize that promoting tarot cards, using tarot cards, or any kind of divination is wrong. It's messing with satanic powers. I think that there is a belief among a lot of professing Christians that there's God and the heavenly beings, there's Satan and demons, and then there's all this magic in between.

That is neither of God necessarily. and it's not of Satan. But that's not true. The spiritual world is made up of God and his powers and his angels, his power working through believers, his Holy Spirit, and dwelling the lives of believers. And then there's Satan and his minions. And all magic we can see throughout scripture and God's commands against it.

They're actually just tools of Satan. So do I believe in ghosts? Do I believe in the power of which? I believe in Satan. Ephesians 2 says that he is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once walked, according to the passions of our flesh. And so Satan is working right now in the lives of unbelievers, the prince of the power of

the air that's a kind of like diffusive and pervasive power, not all powerful, but he is absolutely present. and he works through things like witchcraft and tarot cards. And it's real. The power that they have through Satan is real. And that's why God warns against it. For example, we look at the Old Testament. And while we are not ancient Israel and we don't apply all of the ceremonial and cleansing laws to us today

because Jesus has become our sacrificial lamb, he has become our cleansing. We can still see in the law giving to Israel the principles of who God is, what he loves, and what he hates and analyze why. Why did he give these commands? What is the moral law underneath it that we still need to apply? Is that still applicable today? So we look at, for example, Deuteronomy 18, 9 through 12. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering. Anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.

Remember Jesus Christ who is one person of the Trinity. So he's present all throughout the Old Testament. He is just as much the God of the Old Testament as the God of the New Testament. Hebrews 138, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So this is still an abomination to God. This is still working with the devil, working with the powers of darkness that Christians should have no part in whatsoever. And I just want to know also that God specifically had to warn against associating with anyone who sacrifices their children. And we think of that as some barbaric archaic practice that still happens today.

We've just sterilized it. We've called it reproductive rights. child sacrifice is a tale as old as time almost, and wherever Christians have gone, the practice of child's sacrifice has come to an end. And so all of this talk of the evils of colonialism, well, part of colonialism worked out pretty well for the children who were no longer sacrificed by their pagan parents. Leviticus 1926, you shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. you shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes. And then if you look at, for example, in Acts 16, where Paul is a fortune teller, a slave who earned her master's a lot of money by fortune telling, the Bible actually says that her fortune telling abilities were from a demonic spirit.

Paul was then able to cast out that demonic spirit by the name of Jesus Christ. That's Acts 1618. and so we can see very clearly. That's a New Testament example. We can see very clearly that tarot cards and fortune telling any sort of witchcraft trying to talk to the dead claiming to be a medium. I saw the other day that the Long Island Medium lady, I remember she was on TLC a long time ago. She saw as a popular podcast. That's satanic. That's demonic. That's not something that's funny. That's not something that we mess around with. And it's very, popular today, witch talk is a very popular subset of TikTok that we talked about, I think, for the first time maybe in 2019, 2020. It's not cute. It's not trendy. The fact that we're seeing

it collide with a lot of kids' toys today is very disturbing and dark and troubling. And so to answer Russell Brand's questions, no, this is not something that people can't have different opinions on it, of course, but only one opinion is right. And that is the opinion, that is the fact of, that is the truth of the Word of God, which says that is dancing with the devil. And trust me when I say, trust the Lord when he says, that is not something that you want to do. However, I don't think that, I mean, there are some people who are talking about this and saying, see, this is why I'm skeptical. Okay, you can be cautiously optimistic. You can be skeptical. I think that's fine. However, to use this and to discount his transformation altogether, I don't think that's

fair. But again, what I would say, and this is certainly not coming from someone who thinks that I have it all figured out by any means. But when you're a new believer, I think that you should hesitate to be sharing too much on the internet when it comes to theology. Like on the one hand, I think it's super helpful and hopeful and exciting to see his transformation journey publicly. And obviously I'm talking about it. So I think that's great. But then on the other hand, I worry about the kind of public curiosity that he explains now as like a public Christian that may seem to communicate to someone, maybe even a weak believer, moral relativism. Or while if Russell Brand, this super smart, critically thinking person is kind of messing around with this,

maybe it's okay for me too as well. I would suggest, and no, I mean, there's no reason for him to listen to me. I'm sure he will never hear this episode. But I would suggest taking questions like that about tarot cards or about just theological about denominations, about baptism. I know the online dialogue is great and he's all about free thinking and free inquiry. Take that to a trusted Christian. Take that to a Christian who knows and understands the Bible, who loves God, a humble Christian. Take it to your local church. You need to find a good local church. How do you know that it's a good local church?

You've got your pastor every Sunday preaching the Bible verse by verse. There are plenty of other characteristics that I could give you. You could go to founders.org slash church-dash-search. A lot will come up. Master's Seminary has a church search option. Nine marks. I know there's some disagreements about the health of that organization. But those are all church search tools engines that you could use to find a local church.

Get plugged into your local church. You can't let Instagram be your church. You just can't let social media be your church. You can love your audience, but they're not going to be probably the source of wisdom, the source of wisdom that you need to be looking toward and just be reading, be reading the Word of God every day. And questions are good. Not having everything figured out right away is totally fine.

But ensuring that you're, ensure that you're going to the Word of God and Christians who have been Christians longer than you have in order to, really understand what's you know the answers to some of the inquiries that you have all right so let's pray for russell brand excited for this journey um pray that the lord would just keep him steadfast and steady and rooted and grounded in love i'll go ahead and read that verse because that's a that's a good one it's from let's see ephesians some of you probably know ephesians 317 so let's just Let's just read it. Oh, gosh. Paul in Ephesians, so my friend and I, when we were in college, we decided to memorize the book of Ephesians, which is an amazing, it's amazing. I still,

like you heard me recite Ephesians too earlier, and so I still have it in my head. So I highly recommend doing that. However, I do not remember any of the actual, like, number verses. And so sometimes I get confused about where things are. But it was also really difficult because Paul and Ephesians uses, well, I guess just through the translation, it's like the longest sentences. So let me read, where should I start? I think this is all one sentence. Okay, let me read you all one sentence in Ephesians 3, 14, through 19 before we move on to our next topic. For this reason, I bow my knees before the father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through

His Spirit in your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length in height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That's one sentence. Let me just finish the rest of this chapter. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according

to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church. and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. So that's my prayer, not just for Russell Brand, but for all believers, for us in these very scary times that we are in, that we would be rooted and grounded in love and grow up into Christ who is the head of the church. All right, we're going to talk about a couple more things just quickly. Okay, now I want to talk about Christy Noam shooting her dog. You heard that, right? Christy Noam, not only shot. her poor dog, but decided to write about it in a book.

Christine Nolm is, in fact, the South Dakota governor. And she just wrote a book, no going back, the truth on what's wrong with politics and how we move America forward. I don't like that title at all. I don't. It's way too long. The truth on what's wrong with politics? The truth of, the truth about the truth. I don't know.

On just seems wrong to me, but it's also like super, it's just, it's, it's too wordy. Anyway, um, Christina, um, she's, you know, she's done some interesting things recently. She's like basically trying to be a governor influencer. Like, she's got sponsored posts on X, like, like a teeth whitener company or something like that. Like she has been advertising a few products. It seems to me like she is really trying to convey a particular image and I just don't love it. Now, it is difficult to be a woman in politics, a woman in the public sphere. It really is.

If you're too feminine, people see you as weak. If you're too masculine, people see you as butch or another word with another vowel instead of you. And so it can be really, it can be difficult. You don't want to be seen as a diva. You also don't want to be seen as callous. Like you have to have the right combination of softness and assertiveness. And in some ways this is true, I think, for male politicians too. But it's more difficult, I think, for women, two people that I think do this well.

I think that Nikki Haley does this well. I don't agree with her on many of her political positions on things like abortion and maybe some foreign policy. I don't know if I see eye to eye with her with her on. But she does a good job. I think she does a good job of striking that balance. And she's always very well dressed. I made that note like a few months ago that she did a good job of like dressing herself and presenting herself, which is more important when you're a woman. It just is.

And Sarah Huckabee Sanders does that amazingly too. She brings the relatability and the softness and the femininity of being. a woman and a mom who seems to really care about her family. And then also the strength and the fortitude of being a courageous leader who's not afraid to push forward policy that is conservative and just beneficial to her state of Arkansas. So those are two female politicians that I think do it well. And then there are politicians that I think just really struggle with that. I would have said that Christy Noam is someone who did that well. And then things have gotten weird over the past couple of years. I think it got to her head when she started when she was one of the

first governors, if not the first governor, to open up her state and to push back against COVID restrictions, which I'm very thankful for. You had all of these online right wing male commentators talking about how hot she is. Yuck. Yuck. It makes, it grosses me out. I'm sorry. It grosses me out when I see some people, some men that I respect married men talking about how hot she. is and how hot Carrie Lake is. They're beautiful. Okay, that is great. But y'all are giving me the y'all. Y'all are grossing me out. I don't want to think about y'all thinking about that. Yuck. And so I think that kind of got to her head. And I think she was like, I'm going to get extensions. And I'm going to get some Botox. And I'm going to start really playing into this, like,

hot girl vibe that people have placed on me. You know, she used to just have your typical female politician haircut. And now things have changed. And now she's, gotten like so arrogant that she thinks that she can read about shooting a dog and no one's going to care. But people did care. People really did care. So the Guardian posted published part of her book where she says, I hated that dog. She's talking about a dog.

Who's a puppy? 14 months old. Dog named cricket. I hated that dog. Adding that cricket was untrainable, dangerous and worthless as a hunting dog. At that moment, I realized I had to put her down. So then she led cricket. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry if this is disturbing to you. She then led Cricket to a gravel pit on her property and shot it. Writing, it was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done. Then she also killed a nasty and mean male goat that smelled and that smelled, yeah, most goats do, and like to chase her children because it jumped when she first shot at the goat. She needed two shots to put him down. The Guardian wrote that the story was told as an anecdote to show that no one believes sometimes difficult tasks must be carried out and that she is not. not afraid to do so. So I don't know. I felt like maybe she thought this was going to land like Old Yeller. But Old Yeller, he was sad to have to kill his rabid dog. Christy Noam seems to kind of be gleeful

about this. And so that's part of the issue here. And Noam said this. She said this in the book. I guess if I were a better ball. I don't know. I just imagine that she's got an accent. I know she's from South Dakota and they don't talk like that, but I feel like she's trying to be like, I'm in Lonesome Dove. I guess if I were a better politician, I wouldn't tell the story here. Nome wrote, I don't know, like 1883 or something like that. That's what I imagine. Her thinking that she is, like the narrating girl from 1883, who also had a terrible accent. Anyway, so she wrote this. I don't know what she thought people were going to think. I don't know if she thought that people would be like,

heck yeah, girl. Yes, we love that. Kill that dog. But that is not what people thought. I mean, people left, right, center are absolutely freaking out about this. We've got, so my girl, Megan Kelly,

whom I love, she is not happy about this at all. That's someone that I would consider on the right criticizing her. I think it was, I think I saw Megan McCain, some other people saying, oh my gosh, this is absolutely atrocious, awful. A lot of right-wing are conservative commentators for saying the same thing. The Rolling Stone, obviously coming from the left, says Pita has weighed in on Christy know I'm killing her dog, calling the governor a psychotic loony for letting this rambunctious puppy loose on

chickens and then punishing her by deciding to personally blow her brains out. Ann Coulter says, Good News Story of the Day. Christine Oll manages to unify the left and the right, the woke and QAnon, the trans and the homophobes unanimously around the proposition that she is a monster.

Jesse Kelly's commentary, the GOP could not be the party of murdering dogs. If you want to be GOP, you have to stand for life. Unless it's a 12-week-old baby growing in its mother's womb, in that case, screw that kid.

We got an election to win. he is showing that there is hypocrisy here. We've got people on the right who are, and I'm not talking about the necessarily the people that I listed. He's just talking about in general. Like you've got some people on the right being like, oh my gosh, this is absolutely awful. How dare she kill her dog who are also saying, well, maybe Trump has right to compromise

on abortion. Maybe just a 16 week ban is fine. Maybe we should have exceptions for abortion, but who are absolutely freaking out about Christy Noem killing her dog. Matt Walsh also said, consider that prominent politicians have publicly confessed to killing their own children and none of them provoked even a tenth of the outrage that Christy Noem is experiencing right now for killing a dog. And that's basically where my commentary goes.

That's immediately where my mind went when I saw not only what she said, but also everyone's reaction to it. I do think it's a weird story to tell. I don't want to hear that story. I love animals. I think animals are awesome and I love dogs and I have a lot of compassion and sympathy for animals. But I also see that they are animals. Their lives are not as important as human life. Now, I don't know her whole story, but if she felt like this dog was constant, I think she said that the dog bit her children and was basically like a violent dog and was hurting her children. Look, I do think that when animals hurt people, they need to be put down. I do believe that. Was this a weird story to tell? Yeah, this was a weird story to tell.

This is not really going to ingratiate anyone to her probably, except for I think Michael Null said that he now respects her more, which is a funny take. But anyway, I think that really the reaction to the story says more and says many more disturbing things about our culture, then it says disturbing things about Christy Nolm, that she put down a dog that apparently was a danger to her family, if I remember correctly, the full description of poor cricket. Because it shows that we are much more shocked by and disturbed by, sickened by the killing of an animal who is not made in the image of God and does not have a soul, then we are

disturbed by the dismemberment, the poisoning of, the brutal slaughter of living, breathing, wiggling babies inside the womb. And that is a problem. That's a problem. That means our moral compass is off. That means that there is a sickness, actually a monstrosity. in our own hearts if that is where our priorities lie. If abortion doesn't sicken you at all, if it doesn't make your stomach flip, if it doesn't make you cringe, and if it doesn't hurt your heart at all,

and if you can think about what abortion is, the process of abortion, or the fact that abortion happens hundreds of thousands of times a year in our country, and that does nothing inside you, but you read this story. story and you were in a tizzy about it and you were sad about it and you were calling Christy Noem all kinds of names, that says something really, really dark and disturbed about

your own soul and your own heart. Again, way more than it speaks to any character flaws that Christy Noem might have. G.K. Chesterton, the Catholic thinker, said, wherever there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice. Wherever there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice. When you worship and revere animals, you start treating humans as less than human. You start treating them as objects as commodities. And that is, of course, where we are as a culture. So that is basically, I mean, those are my thoughts on it. Now, does that mean that we should be cruel to animals? No, I don't think that we should be cruel to animals. I think that we should be kind to animals. God gave us creation, including animals to steward and to care for. And I think of Proverbs 1210. Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. So we are to have regard for the life and the well, being of animals. And people who are callously cruel to animals typically are sociopaths or

psychopaths that end up harming human beings. I don't think that's the case here with Kristi Noam. Do I like how she described the story? Do I even agree with her decision to kill this puppy? No, I think there could have been redemption for the puppy. I think that he could have been given to a different family. I'm not sure that in this case it was right for her to make this decision, but people always take precedence. People always take precedence. People always matter more. We should be more outraged, more disgusted and disturbed by what happens to human beings in the womb than we are about a politician killing a dog. Even if I don't like the treatment of the dog, It's just, it's not going to spark.

It's not going to spark my outrage because I have a limited capacity for outrage and anger. And there's too many injustices happening against people for me to be as upset about this as so many other people are. So that's my take on that's my take on that. All right. Let's see. Anything else that we have time to discuss today? She did respond, by the way. I'll just say that before we close out.

She did respond. She said some people are upset about this. And she said the fact is South Dakota law states the dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did. Whether running the ranch or in politics, I have never passed on my responsibilities to anyone else to handle. Weird.

I'm sorry. I still think that this whole thing is weird. However, I do understand the decision to get rid of a dog that bites any people. It's just an odd choice. An odd choice here. All right. Let's see. Anything else?

I wanted to get into RFK Jr's recent comments to Ben Shapiro about abortion. We just don't have time for that today. Long story short, he said, yeah, you know, I believe it's between a woman and her pastor and the doctor and late-term abortions. don't happen for no good reason. There's always a good reason that a woman aborts her child in the third trimester, which of course is not true. At that point, the baby is viable. You deliver the baby. You don't have to kill the baby first. There's no good reason for that. RFK probably knows that, but understands that he's not going to get the liberal support that he needs if he says that there should be any limits on abortion at all.

But just remember, because I know that there may be some conservative women out there still thinking about that. If you're choosing between Trump and RFK and you're looking for the more pro-life candidate or the candidate more likely to sign pro-life legislation, you're going to go with Trump. I don't like his position. I still think it's too liberal.

But when it comes to who he's going to surround himself with, the kind of legislation he's going to sign Trump absolutely wins against RFK when it comes to abortion. All right. That's all we've got time for today. We will be back here tomorrow. Thank you.