British comedian Russell Brand has announced his intention to be baptized this Sunday. He is the latest in a series of celebrities to convert (or revert) to Christianity. Apparently Hulk Hogan and his family have been baptized, along with a smattering of people I'm only vaguely aware of (but am assured are famous). Shia LeBeouf has followed through with his pledge to enter the Catholic Church, and he has been joined by political commentator Candace Owens and Tammy Peterson, the wife of Dr. Jordan.
Is it opportunism or sincerity? Perhaps it is a mixture of both. One could argue that "finding religion" is a someone worn-out trope in American culture, typically the result of having destroyed all other career opportunities. Everyone loves a redemption story.
However, the culture has never been more hostile to people of faith. It's interesting that Kanye West has gone from church-like Sunday concerts to contemplating building a pornography empire. Satanic imagery and overt denigration of Christ has never been more popular.
As Brand himself has observed, there's something deeply wrong with the world right now, with every institution crumbling into ineffectiveness if not a tool of downright oppression. The Catholic Church is not immune to this, however the strange diktats coming out from the Vatican seem to be producing the opposite of the intended effect. Both the laity and the clergy are becoming more stridently orthodox, decisively proving that the Church is more than its leadership.
I think people are realizing the reality of spiritual warfare. Technology – once held as the solution to the mysteries of faith – has been exposed as a mindless recording of our follies, spitting nonsense back at us even as it tries to lock us into a virtual reality of endless depravity.
At the same time, the allure of Yard Sign Calvinism is wearing off. Oh, the signs are still up, the virtue signalling continues, but as the situation deteriorates, there are more pressing issues than asserting "love is love" or that "science is real." The latter is actually becoming a problem because so much of science has been shown to be false, from the effectiveness of masks against Covid to treating gender dysphoria with medical mutilation.
As is their wont, humans have erected new gods, which have predictably failed. It should not be surprising that a number of them (perhaps a remnant?) should turn to the true God as a result.
Chateau Lloyd 
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