Pastor tells Tucker Carlson why brokenness unlocks the Gospel, offers hope for addicts: 'More than conquerors'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, August 18, 2026

The Rev. Billy Cerveny, who serves as associate rector at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida, explained during an interview with Tucker Carlson this week that those who've struggled with addiction can be especially useful to God's purposes if they pursue repentance.

Toward the end of a wide-ranging conversation with Carlson that aired Monday and focused heavily on the spiritual issues afflicting men in particular, the two pivoted to the problem of addiction, which Carlson noted has noticeably worsened in the United States over the past 40 years.

“Want to know what God loves the most? Watch what Satan attacks most aggressively.” The Rev. Billy Cerveny on spiritual war.

0:00 The Moment Rev. Cerveny Heard God's Calling
8:20 The Uniqueness of the Relationship Between a Father and Son
16:53 How Does Spiritual Warfare… pic.twitter.com/8yqADK66sT

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 17, 2026

Cerveny, who was college friends with Carlson and whose late father served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida for 18 years, said most of the people who come knocking on the door of his church office aren't looking for the answer to some abstract theological question, but rather desperately seeking help for addictions that are destroying them.

"To those that contend with addiction, the one thing that I can say — and I can say this unequivocally — is there is so much hope for people," he said, noting the humility required to overcome addiction makes recovering addicts particularly sensitive to understanding the heart of the Gospel.

"It's not a path that you ever want to walk down, but my favorite people that I deal with are my friends in AA [Alcoholics Anonymous], or my friends that are in NA [Narcotics Anonymous], or that have gone through recovery; that have had all their self-righteous pretenses stripped, that have been brought down to the studs, who have blown up their lives so they don't have anything to prove. And they've been on this redemptive journey," he said.

Cerveny said he pleads with such people to attend his church, noting that acknowledging one's brokenness is a crucial part of the Christian life. "The church needs to be a hospital, not a showcase," he said, observing that churches ought to offer the same vulnerability and grace of AA meetings, where people can confess their sins without condemnation.

Cerveny, who received his theological training at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, said the shame and isolating effects of sin extend to Eden and only empower the downward spiral of addiction. He observed that when Adam sinned and was hiding from God among the trees, his sense of guilt corrupted his own identity.

"When God asks him, 'Why are you hiding?' the logical answer is, 'I just broke the one rule.' That's not what he says, though. He says, 'I was naked and I was ashamed.' And to paraphrase that, he was saying, 'I wasn't hiding because I have done something wrong. I'm hiding because I am something wrong, and I could not bear for you to see me. And if you saw me, you would reject me and I would be alone,'" he said.

"And that is the most foundational cry of the human heart," Cerveny continued, going on to note that it was the cry of Jesus Christ on the cross when He became sin, took its shame upon Himself and asked why God had forsaken Him.

By experiencing the grace that comes through the Gospel and the fellowship of other believers who are sensible of their own need of forgiveness, the sinful addictions that can consume one's life can also be transformed for God's purposes, Cerveny said.

"The biggest poison that leads to addiction [is] this shame engine that drives us. 'I don't want to feel it, so I drink, and I feel more shame, and so I drink more.' And it just becomes this cycle," he said.

"But when you get into these rooms and you're able to ... lay that out in front of a group of people, and they sit there and they don't run away, and they don't give you the rejection that you think that you deserve, that pushed Adam into the bushes, it just sweeps the knee of your shame," he continued.

"And, all of a sudden, the thing that Satan meant for evil, God means for good. And the place of your greatest destruction, your greatest fears, your greatest self-sabotage becomes the place where life grows. Tell me there's not a living God. Tell me there's not a God that is using the tools of the enemy against him. That makes us more than conquerors. That's beautiful."

Cerveny, who elsewhere in the interview touched on the destructive and increasingly pervasive nature of pornography addiction for men, warned that the deep sense of shame that many men carry often prevents them from cultivating the close male friendships that are crucial to overcoming addiction.

Carlson agreed, though he noted societal changes over recent decades have also made male friendships harder to form.

"I think the structures have completely changed in the world around us, and I think it is more and more difficult for men to find the chance to be with other men," he said.