Brandt Russo | Go And Do Likewise
ost people have a basic outline for how they would like their lives to play out; graduate, find a good job, get married, buy a house, have kids, live the American dream. Brandt Russo abandoned these societal restraints for a life of poverty in hopes of following God’s words exactly. He lives where most of us wouldn’t dare step foot in; he eats out of trash cans and sleeps wherever he can. The best part? He does it all willingly and with a big contagious smile on his face. He started a t-shirt company called Can’t Ignore The Poor and he even has a documentary coming out this fall on the plight of the homeless in America. Here is how Russo explains how he came to be in this position and what the rest of us can do to help.
Give us a little bit of your background as far as your upbringing in the church?
Brandt Russo: Basically I grew up in a church building. I’m hard pressed calling it “THE CHURCH” because of how far I wanted to run from it, and how misunderstood and far from accepted I was. Sunday morning and evening, Wednesday nights, and of course, every event that found itself scattered across the week means I was in that building. I was there mostly for the ladies; apart from the fact my parents forced me to go. This went on all growing up until around 16 or 17 when I would just tell my parents I was going to a church function but in reality I was sleeping with my 26 year old girlfriend at her house. “The Church” told me a million things to give up, but never offered life, at least NOTHING near the ‘abundant life’ offered by Jesus in John 10:10. The new living translation goes as far as calling what Jesus has to offer “a rich and satisfying life”, a far cry from anything I ever found in the hallowed walls of my local congregation. It wasn’t their fault, and I’m not bitter, but I knew there was more to Jesus then the lock in’s and 30 minutes of commanding us to pay them their 10%.
to do it.”
What was the final straw that made you want to drop everything and live this way?
BR: I will live my life giving a portion of the credit to my friend Shane Claiborne for this one. His book, The Irresistible Revolution, had a MAJOR part to do with my conversion. After bible college, getting ordained as a minister, and being turned down over and over by churches, I decided to give up on church, at least the way I had been brought up to do it. I moved to Texas, worked at a pita shop, and for the first time in a long time, studied Jesus’ words with NO filters. It was in the small town of College Station, TX, that I began to re-read the gospels along with Shane’s book and some other ancient Christian literature that sparked a fire inside of me that was unlike anything I had ever felt. I met a new Jesus. A Jesus easily neglected by the local church and rejected by religious elite. The Jesus I never seemed to know. The Jesus who blessed the poor, rebuked the rich, loved the broken hearted, the homeless, the whores and crack addicts, the Jesus who came to bring those who claim to sight, blindness, and not only offered freedom to the oppressed, but oppressor as well. The Jesus who recklessly destroyed my preconceived ideas about Him (portrayed by America), and His plan for my life, and this is when I really started my journey as a disciple.
What did your parents, friends, and family think?
BR: Honestly, that I lost my mind (and I did). Everything I used to believe, I gave up. I sold EVERYTHING and gave it all away, and it was the most freeing thing ever. I grew up learning of this “one rich man” that Jesus asked to sell everything, and couldn’t. As I read on in Luke, I realized He asked ALL of His disciples the same thing. It blew me away that this small truth was tucked away (to the pleasure of those religious who seemed to love comfort more then the real Jesus). What better way to truly follow Jesus then to do what He had his disciples do, yes? After that move, I soon realized why Jesus said in Luke 12, “I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.” You ask Jewish kids to sell everything, give it to bums, and live without worry and you will have some angry Jewish mothers on your hand. My mom is isn’t Jewish, but Cajun women can be just as feisty. The division caused by me leaving my job, my stuff, and my pursuit of the American dream was one like a resetting of a broken bone. With all the time away, it was able to heal correctly. My relationship with my family is better now then ever, but it was hell when I first decided to live the way I live now, and if it had never changed, Jesus would still hold my heart as much.
Tell us a bit about this bus that you drive around and what function does it serve in terms of you helping others?
BR: I just had a dream one night when I was hopping at train down to California to have a mobile homeless shelter that never closed, and in three days of broadcasting that dream, I had my bus. It was just an old out of commission school bus that has been converted to run off of used cooking grease and has beds and a kitchen and a small bathroom. It’s so cozy. I made it to be a safe haven and home. I just got a little tired of churches spending hundreds of dollars on transportation to get me to come speak. Its amazing how much of a lesson can be learned when I drive up to an affluent church that wants to hear my stories of the streets and the urban poor, with three hitch hikers, asking the pastor to give them the provisions they had for me. There is almost no need for a sermon then. It truly has been a gift from God.
How did Can’t Ignore the Poor get started?
BR: Basically, when I was taking a break a year or so ago in Texas with my friends, we watched a documentary called Born into Brothels. It was about a woman who moved to the red light district in Calcutta, India, to help the children born of prostitutes. The kids grew up destined to take over the roles as either prostitute or pimp. She taught them how to use disposal cameras and sold the photographs at auctions in NYC to help get them an education and a better life. That’s when it hit me like a ton of bricks. I have to do something more for these kids. My friends had an old screen printing press in their garage and we threw together a really crappy design and printed on thrift shop tee’s and sold them on campus and Myspace. Long story short, they blew up and I kept expanding the company. Every month we find a new grassroots charity to donate to, and some months the money just goes to the local homeless and urban poor in our lives. Cant Ignore the Poor (its Jesus in disguise) is my idea of the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. When we take in the homeless, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, attend to the sick, visit the imprisoned, we are doing it ALL to Jesus Himself. Mother Teresa said that in the poor is Jesus in His most distressing disguise, and that has been my motivation behind CITP. It just seems like people want to give, but are more eager with an incentive, like cool t-shirts (laughs).
What can anyone do to help you out?
BR: I always have needs when I travel, because there are always people with needs. I could make a list of things I needed, but it truly wouldn’t matter, because it’s not about me. I have everything I need. I woke up this morning breathing. My eyes are able to process beauty. My ears can hear the sounds of life all around me, and even if that weren’t so, I would still find reasons to rejoice. Jesus fed folks, but they were hungry the next day. Healed them, and they eventually died. Everything donated to me will run out, so instead of giving me anything so I can give it away, let’s cut out the middle man. Find someone who TRULY needs love, and that’s how you can help me.
Tell us about the recent filming of your documentary entitled “Adopt a Jesus”.
BR: Well, a documentary maker friend of mine wanted to bring a film crew out on the street with me in my bus for 14 days and tape everything that happened, and since I’m too lazy to write a book, I thought it was a grand idea. What better way to open the eyes of the people than through the stories of those who have been silenced (whether by the media, stereotypes, etc). We traveled, picked up every hitch hiker we saw, fed every hungry person we could, and just went where God lead us. We got kicked out of church parking lots; cops called multiple times, and had the greatest anti protest in the parking lot of America’s largest and richest church, Lakewood. It’s quite an amazing film. When I watched it for the first time, I cried so much, remembering the stories of the beautiful, broken people we met. My hope is that the stories shared and the truths revealed will change hearts, much like mine has been changed.
Do you ever miss the “normal” life? Or do you think God has called you to do this for the rest of your life?
BR: What’s normal, really? There is nothing normal about following Jesus. The apostle Paul says that we should work out our salvation DAILY, so I have no idea where I will be in 5 years, much less the rest of my life. Whether I’m in a stinky school bus living in near poverty to try to emulate the life of Christ, or I get a degree in education to teach at a public high school, I pray that I still give my all to anyone who is in need. I don’t ever see myself on shopping sprees when there is such inequality in the world. I don’t ever see myself living in luxury when 30,000 kids (under the age of 5) are dying everyday of malnutrition and the preventable diseases it causes. I guess my life from now on will be pursuing “loving my neighbor as myself”. That should end poverty, right?
What advice would you give to someone who is maybe feeling a similar call?
BR: Just go and do. God would never penalize you for trying, especially when this was the path that every disciple and apostle once took. They didn’t spend their lives with nothing, wandering the streets with no shoes or food, but it was a beautiful time that changed their entire way of living life. We are all capable of love, so love someone. We all have something to give, so give it away. When 8% of the world’s population owns a car, we have to realize that we are among the wealthy elite, regardless of how broke we feel. Start where you are, find ONE PERSON to love, deserving or undeserving, and love them.
