...is the same absolute certainty that has killed 3,000 American soldiers, wounded tens of thousands more, and killed tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. It's the certainty that has the Republican circling the wagon to protect Hastert, who in turn oversaw the protection of a pedophile. It's the certainty that makes lying about an opponent's service to his or her country acceptable. It's the certainty that makes condemning millions of children to poverty an acceptable cost in the enrichment of the wealthy. It's a certainty that sees Satan in compassion and God in cruelty and exploitation.

No, thanks, Stevie B. I'll take ambiguity.

in knowing how the family dynamic has changed with this transformation of Stephen as his oldest brother is a very high-profile liberal who doesn't like Bush...

And curiously, Lauren left off his other famous movie, "Threesome" which has a nice sex scene of 2 guys on a girl. Honestly, Stephen has always been uber-cheesy so this path toward calling God 'Homey' and this absolutism is pretty consistent with his movie choices.

I just LOVE the fact that the "Bio-Dome" guy is preaching that Bono is SATAN incarnate! I always thought the Bible taught,"Love thy neighbor as thy self"..and that world is God's creation so we should be taking care of it not polluting it.

Too bad common sense and wisdom is in short supply to our young spiritual teens.

I mean, like, really, dude ...

Stephen Baldwin is making an ass out of himself. He's the new Tom Cruise, with a less interesting religion. He does not even register on the list of celebs kids look up to. In case he's forgotten, the movie that he's trying to use to connect to kids was released a decade ago, was a joke at the time, and hasn't aged well. This "dude" and "gnarly" crap won't play to most teenagers, the reason he's getting big draws is cause there isn't a lot of stuff like this around for christian kids to do, it's new niche market. He isn't converting as many people as he probably thinks, showing up in little towns with nothing else to do, yeah, they'll come see him, maybe even sign his cards for some free food or whatever, but this isn't changing anyone's lives. The kids whose lives he is changing were likely already christian or raised in a christian enviorment, and were probably going to get "saved" or whatever one way or another. Posuer posturing isn't winning the Adult Swim crowd. It's hard to appeal to teenagers on their own level when you're 40 years old. He is an F list star at best, most teenagers don't know the Usual Suspects, and they don't care about Biodome. Get Dave Chapelle to start preaching and kids might care, but he greatly overestimated his appeal to the secular teen crowd.

A minor quibble, but that would be the 12 Apostles, not the 12 Disciples.

It's just, like, so last century.

Oh, and this guy is a loser, a moron, and a complete phony.

"After his rebirth, Baldwin saw everything in a new light, including his career. His "Usual Suspect" costars were speeding toward Oscar-anointed careers. But God had bigger plans for Baldwin, like starring in "Bio-Dome" with Pauly Shore."

The awkward sentence structure and verb tenses incorrectly imply that Baldwin starred in Bio-Dome after September 11, 2001, as a result of his "rebirth". Bio-Dome was released in 1996.

By their fruits shall ye know them. Bono feeds the hungry. Gnarly bald-one feeds his ego. I have no trouble discerning which is the more Christian of the two.

It's 12 disciples. There were more than 12 apostles. FYI

"Stephen Baldwin found God? I can't believe he found an agent." God bless Dennis Miller. From Foley the Fag from Florida (as the pages dubbed him) to Stephen Baldwin...the Salon feature articles continue their steady climb in quality. I guess to Lauren Sandler, a liberal Jew, hordes of foaming Christians are a scary prospect. Hence the disdain and condescension. ("He starred in Bio-dome!!!") I'm not concerned. They want to skate, pray, and vote Republican? Fine. As long as they don't blow up any abortion clinics in the blue states after Roe is overturned, their diversity of thought should be celebrated. America has room for secularists, fundamentalists, etc. That's what makes this country so great.

That's what the lead says, but in the article itself, I can't tell if this is a quote, or Sandler's sarcastic assumption because Baldwin criticizes Bono. It's odd, of this is actually said, that there isn't a direct quote.

Along with another letter writer, I was thinking about Threesome. I was also thinking about The Ecstasy of Owen Muir, Ring Larner Jr.'s 1950's satire about a basically incompetent young man who converts to Catholicism and becomes obsessively, almost manically devout. It seems like Baldwin has gone down the same path. I'd like to know what he brothers think of it, too.

Ring Lardner, Jr.

Why am I not worried?

"Intentionally or accidentally, Baldwin has braided together what young Americans seem to crave most today: fame, cool and answers"

To paraphrase an earlier letter writer...LOL

Did you really just describe Stephen Baldwin as "cool"? (Or "famous"?)

The numbers are unimpressive and anyone who knows "dudes" knows they don't think Stephen "Gnarly" Baldwin is cool, and almost none of them know who he is -- hence, not famous either. To those who do know him he's famous only for being an ass.

LOL

That was a Baldwin? Was he the cute gay guy or the confused straight guy? Interesting that film is not the one bringing the punters to Jesus.

Very frightening, this certainty of absolute truth. Fundamentalists have more in common with other fundamentalists than they do with any non-fundies.

I'm pretty sure its 12 apostles, those being the particular 12 guys Jesus recruited personally, and lots of disciples, who chose to follow him but weren't the select, uh, homies.

"...Baldwin's theology -- and criticism of secularists *and Christian poseurs like Bono*"

I'm trying to imagine how very PISSED OFF Jesus would be at a guy that preaches (from the modern pulpit of CDs) peace, forgiveness, understanding. And instead of spending his time playing Baccarat uses his celebrity to free legions of African poor from the yokes held by the money-changers in NY, London and, yes, Rome.

Yup, I'm sure there would be plenty of gnashing of Nazarene teeth at this affront to His values.

Either very poor writing or poorly-thought analysis.

There ARE criticisms one could make of Bono, I suppose. Free country and all. But I'm mystified why the author would accuse Bone of being a Christian poser.