The bigger truth behind the recent Russell Brand furore is that Brand is a symptom and not the disease. We have created a society which is openly degenerate and is proud of the fact.
Without absolving Brand of any personal blame, society is complicit in what has happened: our society expects and condones such behaviour. Sexual misdemeanours are reported as big news with wall-to-wall coverage because that is what our society wants; it sells newspapers and gets viewers eagerly switching on to participate vicariously in the latest scandal.
Reaction
The immediate reaction to the Sunday Times and Channel 4 'exposé' that a man well known as a sexual adventurer had sex with a great many women, some of whom say they did not consent, was to focus on Brand.
The mainstream reaction was one of appalled surprise: hands flew up in horror. There was an element of supposed shock that this could happen in an entertainment industry well known to have a somewhat tenuous connection with morality and a long record of covering up for 'talent'. This was closely followed by the assertion that Brand's behaviour was an 'open secret' within the industry, yet no one called it out.
At the opposite extreme, many on social media were utterly convinced that this open secret has only been brought up now because Brand had reinvented himself as a conspiracy theorist campaigning against big government. 'They', whoever 'they' might be, were out to get him and he didn't stand a chance. Credible accusations of 'trial by media' have been made, sometimes as though this means Brand is innocent of the charges.
Meanwhile, Brand has vehemently denied any impropriety, and has appealed for fans to support him financially by subscribing to his channel on Rumble at £49 a throw.
Brand
The appreciation of any aspect of culture is largely dependent on personal taste, especially with comedians. I happen to think that Chic Murray was brilliant while Dawn French is almost as funny as haemorrhoids. Others may disagree.
I have always seen Brand as an out-of-control toddler trying to provoke his parents by rushing around crayoning the walls and saying naughty words. Of course the parents, being middle-class liberals, always applaud and make excuses, 'How creative and energetic'. As a society, we continued to applaud and excuse, no matter how distasteful the Brand tantrums became.
In 2008 Brand and presenter Jonathan Ross left three obscene messages on the answerphone of now late Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, who was 78. They concerned a sexual encounter Brand claimed he had with Sachs's granddaughter. This pre-recorded incident was broadcast by the BBC having presumably already passed an editing process.
Even after this episode both Brand and Ross were able to make their return to the entertainment industry and were welcomed back by both back-room controllers and audiences. The whole episode was written off as a prank, distasteful perhaps, but boys will be boys.
Meanwhile in 2023 we still collectively pretend to be shocked that rich and famous men take advantage of their status in sometimes ugly ways. Brand is not alone, this exists throughout society. Recently we have been bombarded with accusations concerning the sexual lives of the rich and famous, from royalty to media stars. Such scandals are reported as important news with a delicious shudder: 'Oh my goodness, would you believe it?' Who could imagine that a man who talks non-stop in gross ways might be a gross sex partner? Most of us could.
Hypocrisy
At one time this type of behaviour was hushed up by the entertainment industry. In politics also the extramarital affairs of American presidents, although widely known among the media, were out of bounds and accepted as such. Today we are told that this was the hypocrisy of an earlier time. A more believable reason is that people instinctively knew that there was something shameful in such behaviour. There was an understanding of right and wrong, simple and unsophisticated perhaps, but real nonetheless. People still did things which were wrong, but at least they knew they were wrong. Not so today.
The media which have turned into a lynch mob to destroy Brand refuse to acknowledge that he is the man they created, and the hypersexualised popular culture is one which they continually feed. Pornography, a key driver in the 'normalisation of sexual violence', is prevalent throughout society and increasingly amongst the young. We exist in a mindless slurry masquerading as entertainment. The more you push the boundaries of what is moral and decent, the greater reward and recognition you receive.
Church
What within today's culture can stop this downward slide? It would be good to say that the bulwark of decency in any Western society is the church, but we can't. Too often the church in its mainstream manifestations has muted the Bible.
Fearful of being seen as censorious, the church has accepted the destruction of the family structure until we have generations of boys and young men who have grown up directionless, without the steadying presence of a father, without knowing how a man should behave. We have wholesale abortion devaluing the worth of every human life made in the image of God, and people have become commodities. The 'chief end of man' is no longer 'to glorify God and enjoy him for ever'. It has become 'to glorify sex and enjoy self for ever'. Where there is no God, there is only self.
What can the church do? Be the church. Proclaim and live out eternal truths in an ever-changing world. Be prepared to live honestly, not only in what we say but in what we do. It is not easy to live honestly in a disintegrating society – doing so invites opposition – but for personal and societal reasons it is vital.
Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister. He blogs at A Grain of Sand.
