I've been making efforts to follow and understand Russell Brand's much-publicized Baptism last Sunday. As someone who appreciates Brand as a centrist, level-headed social and political commentator, I was a bit skeptical hearing about it. Several episodes and one long-ass podcast later, I still am.
Something just feels off to me. Logically, I understand the practical benefits of returning society to more Christian values. In his appearance on Jordan Peterson's podcast the other day, they discussed some very smart points (as expected with such logical, clever speakers). As such, I understand that much of our society seems to have devolved into an egotistical, consumerist church of Me. That we are, many of us, addicted and weak in our behaviors.
Yet this "returning to the old ways" for salvation seems weak, also. This was one thing that grated, listening to Brand explain his own conversion - he kept returning to materialism vs faith in a way that just doesn't sit right with me. Is it written somewhere that the non-religious are automatically hedonistic, egotistical pleasure-seekers only out for No. 1?
I personally don't think so. I don't know so. I know many wonderful people who are not religious, yet live their life in the service of community and altruism. You know, he makes it seem a little like it's either Church on Sundays or the hard drugs and hookers he was once so well-known for. I'm sure most of us can verify that's not what most non-believers get up to on a regular weekend.
So I'd humbly argue that if Jesus is the only way you can abstain from drugs, alcohol and casual sex... well, that's on you, brother. I mean, good for you, whatever keeps you on the straight and narrow, but don't make it a general rule.
Speaking of general rules...
Digging through the comment sections, one thing that stuck out was (ironically) the self-centered nature of most of those holier-than-thou comments. All these people talking about how God called them specifically, how they heard the calling, how it was their mission.
I am quite close to some people who think like that, and I think it's a fair judgment that for many of these cases, it's a mix of low self-esteem and a notable lack of meaning in one's personal life that makes such ideas so appealing.
You go from sitting in your kitchen, thinking you're kinda wasting time and not doing anything meaningful and maybe don't have the first idea of what you could do that's meaningful, to being chosen, singled out by none other than God himself, who's called your name and wants to be your very best friend. (You wouldn't believe how many people are describing God as their bestest chum.) Well, isn't that a reversal?
And again, I understand the practical benefits of Christian values. I think they would be an improvement to the current me-me-me ethos of younger generations. I also understand turning to God in a moment of crisis (as Brand experienced recently, with his infant son undergoing life-saving surgery).
But wouldn't it be better if, instead of encouraging a return to God, we encouraged people to find inside themselves a place of forgiveness and solace and strength and calm? Because much as I want to believe, I don't think one can return to Christian teachings without inevitably drawing on the church (at least on some level). Because we need elders as much as we need deity. We need someone to turn to in times of hardship. Someone, dare I say, real. Because sure, God may be your bestest friend, but most of these religious types will, in times of struggle, turn to their priest or their ministry for guidance. People. Schooled in the teachings of the Church. Church that has been the cancer that's led to society's current downfall.
I've never understood that logic. You'll see a lot of these right-wing people opposing gender reassignment surgery and shit like that, all the while preaching return to the true faith. Mate, if the Church hadn't harassed the LGBT world for thousands of years, maybe we wouldn't have the sort of extremism that now appalls you, you know? So while we can agree it's not okay to tell an 8-year-old boy he's actually a girl, maybe we can also agree telling him he'll burn for eternity if he loves other boys is fucked up also.
Just saying.
Alas, I doubt most people have the wherewithal. I reckon crafting that place of solace and abundance and forgiveness in yourself, that place of you that is for lack of a better word the natural deity that exists in all of us is hard. I think you can do it by yourself in a way that improves and helps your community (by bettering you) but I think it's hard. It takes spiritual hardship and introspection that most people aren't capable of handling. Seems we still need a ready-made god, instead of crafting one anew.
Who knows, maybe I don't get it. I'm willing to believe that (it's preferable to thinking so many people are still taking the easy, ready-made, old-church way out). But then, why the need for baptism? For hailing Jesus as "the King" and not recognizing the divinity that exists naturally within us all? As I say, we need deity. Obviously. That's why our more progressive neighbors have replaced their God with the church of consumerism, porn and the all-seeing all-loving nanny state. The need for deity isn't going anywhere, but maybe instead of beating a dead horse, we should be exploring the existence of another place or worship entirely.
Why the need for suffering and sacrifice and bowing and scraping before an institution that's kept us shackled for millennia?
Because I'm not really buying the whole "I'm Christian but not like Church-Christian". That's like all these Western kids saying they're communists but not like bad communists, like good communists who're taking the values of it without all the censorship and terror. That doesn't work. At the end of the day, they're still Communists, and Christians are still church-bound and institution-led.
