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Russell Brand / YouTube
Entertainment

Russell Brand: "Me and the Church are saying the same thing"

Earlier in the week, the House of Bishops released a document outlining why Christians should vote and what issues we should be thinking of before we vote.

Speaking at a press briefing ahead of the release, the Bishop of Norwich, Rt Revd Graham James said that Bishops had a duty to "counter" the comedian after he seemed to encourage people not to vote.

He said: "We're conscious that there are a number of voices around, probably the most famous of which are Russell Brand telling people that they shouldn't bother with voting and shouldn't bother to exercise their hard won democratic freedoms.

"I'm conscious, just going around some of our youth groups and speaking to youth leaders, that has had a more profound effect than I had anticipated.

"While one may think that the bishops of the Church of England don't quite have the sex appeal of Russell Brand, we think that we should counter it."

The letter, which has received much criticism from Conservative MPs explains how the political system is broken.

It says: "The different parties have failed to offer attractive visions of the kind of society and culture they wish to see, or distinctive goals they might pursue. Instead, we are subjected to sterile arguments about who might manage the existing system best."

Speaking in his latest YouTube video, Russell Brand said far from countering him, the Church is actually speaking out on issues he's previously raised.

He said: "Me and the Church are saying the same thing - politics is broken.

"We need to create a new politics, new political alliances that go way beyond voting and into direct action; helping people where we see that help is required; ignoring and opposing these systems when necessary.

"What we need to do is engage ourselves spiritually, whether that's from an atheistic perspective, a Muslim perspective or a Christian perspective, to challenge these institutions that operate only on behalf of one another and are not interested in truly helping us."

Watch the video here:

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