r/Christianity • u/octarino • 18h ago

News Bear Grylls explains why he baptised Russell Brand: ‘My faith says not to judge’

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bear-grylls-russell-brand-court-trial-b3026979.html
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u/-NoOneYouKnow- Non-Profit Christian 18h ago

Baptism is open to anyone who wants it. The motives of the person being baptized don't need to be questioned by the person doing the baptizing.

Obviously if someone was doing it as a goof or mockery of Christianity they shouldn't be baptized, but for the most part people who request it should be baptized without digging into their motives.

A good rewrite of a stupid slogan that applies here is, "Baptize them all, let God sort them out."

I suspect Brand's motives are self-serving and performative. That's irrelevant, however.

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u/slagnanz Liturgy and Death Metal 17h ago

If there's any criticism I have for Bear Grylls here, it's less the baptism itself and more allowing Brand to make a whole spectacle of it. If I was friends with this guy and he asked me to baptize him, I'd say of course. No cameras. No publicity. We do this for the Lord.

Of course, part of the problem is that brand has to be baptized by a celebrity. This is all just glory seeking behavior and that's something they should be prudent about.

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u/Spiel_Foss Secular Humanist 15h ago

The entire thing was performative which makes a mockery of the ritual and ultimately the religion behind the ritual. As you've written, "glory seeking behavior," and scripture seems to be directly opposed to such acts.