The Substance of Russell Brand’s Spirituality
According to Brand, now his values “involve sacrifice and self-scrutiny about my own conduct and behavior, which is often…often falls short…and I continue to work on improving myself.”
“I believe in truth and freedom and the ability to express yourself,” he explains more thoroughly.
In terms of the lack of alignment he mentioned, “When I hear rhetoric divorced from compassion, it makes me feel uneasy.”
“My worldview is formed by spiritual principals rather than political principals,” Brand stated. “My values are derived from quite simple ideas around kindness, community, acceptance, gratitude, and that I’m making no claim to practice these principals perfectly, but at least I know what I’m aspiring to.”
Although brand doesn’t consider politics to be his driving force, when addressing the divisiveness between political and moral ideas, he had some thoughts.
“I think it’s increasingly necessary that we find new ways of framing the conversation and looking into our hearts when we’re speaking. Are we being kind? Are we being loving?” Brand conjectured.
And continuing on, said, “Are we being the best that we can be? On whose behalf are we speaking? And what is my intention, moment to moment? Am I doing this for self-glorification?”
Brand also touched on his history with addiction, saying, “Because what I have been taught and shown is that it is impossible for a person like me to not drink and use drugs unless I have sufficient ongoing support from people that understand what it’s like to feel that drugs or alcohol, or, you know, certain behaviors are necessary in order to feel OK.”
He certainly ties his spirituality to his recovery as well. “This idea of recovery is that we recover the person that we were intended to be,” he said.
And God’s purpose for his life is a motivating force for him. He explained, “The idea that there might be a purpose for you; that there might be something that you can become…I found this idea very engaging and very comforting.”
Brand acknowledged that God’s purpose is for all people, too, not just himself or the leaders of the world—for you, too! How are you living out that purpose?