you take it from here

Link: Features : Radar Online. Here's an interview with Stephen Baldwin who just released a book about faith. What's your take?

Comments

[relevantgirl]

I ran into him at ICRS. Didn't talk to him, though. Just LITERALLY ran into him.

What bothers me about this interview is that he doesn't seem to embrace an intelligent faith. His theology seems shallow.

[shanna]

Yeah. I didn't feel stoned after reading that interview, but I sure felt as if I hadn't had my coffee yet.

Love that he loves Jesus, but why are we always pushing the baby-believers up front and center so they can look like idiots? --And later fall flat on their faces in front of everyone?

CBA published him because he's a Baldwin brother and a celebrity. And CBA will let him say 'crap' and spout whatever pops from his head because his face is gonna sell a lot of books. That pretty much tells the whole story.

But glad that he loves Jesus. I really am.

[amy a.]

He sounds about 17. I did laugh, though.

I guess you have to start somewhere, and maybe seeing him start as a baby and watch him mature over time might be good for people to watch. (Notice the guess, might, and maybes?)

He's praying, he's looking at his Bible, he loves Jesus, but I'm not sending my kids to his 'extreme' ministry events!

[Missy]

Yowsa-- ditto on the shallow. And I don't just say that because he picked on Bono. . . I hope he has community around him, frankly, people who could not care less what his last name is. People who want to help him grow, and let him see the messiness of their growing, and the balance of law and grace, and how God tosses aside all our scale with His new morning mercies. Stuff like that.

[Joy]

I watched him on TV - oh boy - I'm glad he gets his energy in a healthy way because I was exhausted after seeing and hearing him.

I think I have more questions that answers about SB...what if he is exactly what the kids out there need? I know some kids who absolutely hate the church and God...but an energetic guy who uses their language and God's might meet them where they are. They'd never believe it coming from a church lady like me!

I also wonder if I'm not a little bit put off by his joy...he's so stinking excited about Jesus it might just be coming off shallow when in reality it's wild and that's just not something I'm used to in church or faith.

Just asking myself these questions...don't have the answers...

[Jules Quincy Stephens]

Sigh ... not frickin' impressed.

He's so eloquent and intelligent -- how did he manage to pull off a book?

[rachelle]

Hmmm... well, I guess I'm pretty shallow when it comes down to it, but I just love the guy. He cracks me up. His faith is relatively new and I remember clearly what that's like (only 7 years ago for me). He's funny and he's excited... and he'll learn more about the Bible as he goes along. I know plenty of every-single-Sunday churchgoers who probably know exactly as much about the Bible as SB does, but I guarantee they don't have his joyful spirit -- not to mention his reach into communities of teens and young adults who just might listen to what he has to say. Hey, the Baldwin brothers have always been COOL and I think it's brilliant on God's part to use one of them. Stephen will probably do more good for God's kingdom than I could do in 20 lifetimes.... Thanks for the link, Lisa!

[Suzan]

Sigh. I guess I have to face the fact that I'm no longer cool, if he is to become the new cool CBA poster child for Jesus.

I think that he should just be very quiet until he can actually say something intelligent, until he really understands what it truly means to follow Christ. Just because you say you're a Christian and you write a book-what does that mean? That you're the new spokesperson for Jesus? That you represent all Christians?

Sorry, I hate to be negative. I almost skipped making a comment, but I couldn't resist.

I'm in agreement with Jules, Mary's and Shanna's comments.

[Jules Quincy Stephens]

Jesus spent three years with the disciples, teaching them what they should know so they could go out and make disciples of others. After Paul was converted on Damascus Road, God tempered his zeal and made him study (by Jesus, personally) for several years before he went into the Gentile world.

While it is true that the Holy Spirit puts words into our mouths to speak, to teach others, I think historically, looking at The Word, we can see that God does put importance on study.

But that's not sexy. That's not exciting. That not ... marketable.

This Christianity for the new millenium and the famous faces to market it is.

I don't want to call into question Mr. Baldwin's salvation -- that's not even the point. But don't we have enough looney tunes mucking up our faith? Is he the example we want to have to apologize for, or live down to, because our Old Time Religion just isn't "with it?"

[Katy McKenna]

I don't know. The apostles and disciples weren't exactly blunder-free. Don't half the Christians everywhere relate to Peter, who cut off the soldier's ear in the garden of Gethsemane? Yes, even after Jesus died, they waited in the upper room until they received power from on high, but they didn't wait until they were perfect.

We are instructed to be as crafty as serpents and as innocent as doves. SB seems to have innocent down, at least in this interview. The interviewer has crafty down--always an excellent quality in an interviewer if the goal is for the reader to come away thinking about how skilled the interviewer is.

I do hope SB is in community, and is being helped along the path by those mature in the faith. But as for his enthusiasm for Jesus? I don't see anything in the Bible to indicate that all new believers who are excited about the Savior should be muzzled. I know there are examples where this occurred, but I don't see it as some kind of rule.

Personally, I'm always challenged by the unbridled enthusiasm of someone like SB. It reminds me of something a pastor said once back in the seventies, when my hubby and I were Jesus Freaks. "A fanatic," he said, "is someone who loves Jesus more than you do." That made me mad when he said it, but I've never forgotten it.

I'd better go drink some coffee before I get in any further trouble..... :)

[Robin Lee Hatcher]

Stephen Baldwin isn't an infant Christian. He was born again in 2002. He may be a little rough around the edges, but look at his enthusiasm for Jesus.

I think I'm going to have to blog about this.

Robin

[lisa]

I gotta be honest. If I was doing a radio interview and the interviewer asked me to name those things, I don't know if I could. I could do it sitting in my living room with ten minutes to think about it, but off the top of my head in a pressure situation? I don't know if I'd fare too much better.

[Joy]

I thought about this discussion a lot. I remember being a new believer and so excited about Jesus I couldn't not share Him. Some good and godly folks got ahold of me and settled me right down. I miss the me so in love with Jesus that I could not resist letting my passion show. His faith is contagious. What is it about this wild kind of faith that scares us? John the Baptist was a wild man for Jesus - it finally cost him his life...but he made a huge difference for Jesus and his testimony is alive and well in the Bible today. The kids I know who do not believe would consider the Jesus so loved by SB. The Jesus they see in my life is too safe and too common. They don't know SB and I love the same Savior. I'm convicted by this discussion and thankful for it Lisa! Robin - I'll be stopping by your blog to see how God uses it there. I'll be blogging about it too.

SB is creating controversy. If I read the Scirptures right so did Jesus. The religious community liked Him the least. So is SB a good poster child for Christianity or am I better one? I hope and pray the answer that is that we both are but right this minute...I'm thinking SB is the better of the two.

[Katy McKenna]

I've been a believer since 1971, and I still have trouble (lots of trouble!) with the 12 disciples. THey're mothers were awfully stuck on Simon and James and John and every darn one of them were named Mary, and then half the fellows had nick-names. I mean, really. Sometimes, if Doug and I work on it together, we can name all 12.

A good interviewer tries to get to the heart of the person they're questioning--for better or worse. I personally think the interviewer failed, and made himself look goofy. Now if every reader thought, "Hey, even I know the seven deadly sins!" it would be different. The average man on the street doesn't know who's vice-president. I'm just sayin'.

[Katy McKenna]

Above comment should read "their mothers." Sorry!

[jules]

So is he speaking the language that will reach this generation?

[shanna]

I'm gonna hop in an clarify my comment a bit, too.

In my mind, I see two different issues at play here: the first being his life as a believer; the second being CBA's investment in his life as a believer.

The first is anyone's guess but God's. I know SB was involved in the 2002 elections and got some press out of that b/c of Alex's affiliation with the Dems, and SB's conversion and stumping for the Reps. So he's not quite a baby believer, but, dang he sure sounds like someone who's still flaunting style over substance. And his style, like his basic personality before he knew Jesus, is brash, wild, A-type craziness. That's probably not gonna change much for awhile--until he's about 70 (maybe). So now he's brash and wild for Jesus. In time, and with more testing, he'll probably wish he had said a few things differently in these early years. But that's the major difference: I get to screw up in private and pay for it, while he gets to screw up in public--and more like GET paid for it.

Which leads me to the CBA issue. I still stand by my contention that he gets a pass on things most of us wouldn't because he's already a celebrity and will sell books on his name alone. I realise this is the inevitable curse of marketing--it's much easier to sell known talent than to break out the unknown talent. And the weakness of promoting any Christian celebrity is that the celebrity outshines Jesus. I fall for this, too, so don't get me wrong. We all, I think, are susceptible to the cult of personality. So with SB, I look at his publisher is doing with him as a celebrity rather than a Christian--and I worry that young people may get more hung up on the fame than the message. I certainly hope his agent is protecting the message. The messenger is interesting and provocative--and needs the opportunity to grow a bit outside the spotlight.

PS--I thought the interviewer's questions were telling. So if I can recite the disciples names and the seven deadly sins, then I'm a bonafide Christian? Pffft.

[Jules Quincy Stephens]

Yes, many who were infants in Christ ran out and told their neighbors about the Messiah and the good works he had done. There's nothing wrong with that. But only the mature in God/Christ got the book deal ;-)

[Suzan]

I have no problem with SB not knowing the 10 commandments etc. I couldn't remember all those things either, especially when put on the spot. That's not the issue. He just didn't seem to have whole lot of reverence about anything. I don't mean he should have been serious and highbrow. It just reminded me of those "Jesus is my bud, we're all cool" statements people make. I don't want to judge him, but we know that there's a price to pay for following Christ. That "it's hip to be a Christian," and "Christians are cool" stuff will last about 5 minutes until the reality of what it means to follow Jesus sets in. If SB thinks you can just pray a prayer in order to get into heaven, and not have evidence of a transformed life, I don't know what to make of it. It just irks me that the CBA treats these people differently than an unknown. If he were a nobody, would he have been able to publish his book? It's like Christian authors who trash Oprah to other Christians, but would drool if given the chance to be on her show promoting their book. They say they don't live by "the world's" standards, but they do.

Anyway, God does the saving, and if he wants to use SB in this way, it's not my call to disagree. But shallow stuff never sticks for long.

Ok, sorry, rant over.