Actor Stephen Baldwin Counters America’s Divide With ‘Journal-tainment’

NASHVILLE — America has not been this divided since the Vietnam War and the presidential election fallout has included a rift with his own brothers, said Christian actor Stephen Baldwin recently at Proclaim 18, the National Religious Broadcasters Convention.Baldwin told Together LA during an interview inside his promotional RV parked on the exposition floor (complete with Ironman pinball machine) that he was at NRB to talk about his latest three projects.“I’m just telling the Lord, tell me where to go,” he said. “Right now it’s the Thief on the Cross movie, Church People [movie], and Great American Pilgrimage (The GAP) [TV road show].”

NEW WORD

When the actor was asked about whether he could be tagged as a journalist, considering he’s done quite a bit of radio in the past and the first season of the GAP, he explained:“So, what I’ve done with the Great American Pilgrimage is I’ve come up with a new word. It’s called ‘journal-tainment.’ It’s basically journalism that is a little entertaining and it seems to be working.“Let me clarify. I don’t want to try to pretend like all of a sudden I’m taking myself seriously as a journalist. I’m a communicator. My calling is to communicate the gospel. My additional calling is to do that in the way that God has called me to do. So, if you’re an actor that’s been in movies like the double-Academy award-winning The Usual Suspects, you would assume that if God’s going to use you in Christian media that you’ll use that knowledge, that wisdom, that experience, etc., etc.”In the GAP show (16 episodes on the RT news network and YouTube), Baldwin and financial guru Max Keiser journey across the United States in a RV to “learn and examine what people believe, perceive and how they define living in America in the wake of its most controversial presidential election. They visit everyday Americans in search of finding a grassroots commonality that can bring even the most divided together.”

METAXAS MANO A MANO

Baldwin’s visit to NRB appeared to unveil even more journal-tainment possibilities. Popular Christian author, speaker, and talk show host Eric Metaxas teamed with him for a hilarious Facebook LIVE interview that had nearly 30,000 views in less than a week. More evidence that journal-tainment is a reality.“I don’t even mean to sound nice or sound humble, but as a believer my wife says I have to be humble,” Baldwin said. “I’m just a guy that loves the Lord because he’s real and now I just want to have the right humility and the right servant’s heart to hear the Holy Spirit correctly to move in the direction God wants me to move.“So, if I’m going to call myself anything, first, it’s either an evangelist or communicator of the gospel. So, what does that mean? Now, I’m trying to look at society and culture from perspectives” of knowing how he can really talk about the power of the gospel in ways that are relevant today, “but not in ways that we are seeing other Christians doing it. They’re missing it.”He adds, “Hey listen, when sex trafficking is in the top five industries on the planet — satan is winning. We’re winning souls and all that other stuff, in the warfare, we’re advancing.“I’m somebody that believes that part of my calling is to engage and empower and motivate believers to do more for the Kingdom — to aspire to a greater level of excellence.”Baldwin said that the Great American Pilgrimage is an experiment that asks and perhaps answers, “‘Can Stephen Baldwin as the host, regardless of what opinions there are out there about him, can he go out to people who share his opinion and/or not and do a whole lot more listening?”

NOT SINCE VIETNAM

When asked by TLA about whether the show was really more about politics, he said, “No. It has political conversations, but the show itself is not pointed politically. Great American Pilgrimage is an experiment where after this past presidential election the division and the angst and the anger and the hatred and the protesting, which in my opinion we haven’t seen this since Vietnam. It’s that crazy in America again. It’s made me feel like how did we get here? What happened?“In my observation it’s that if you’re a Republican or a conservative or a liberal and a progressive, whatever, everyone is so focused at yelling at the other side about how they’re wrong, nobody is willing to listen and learn about the other person before they [immediately] have whatever opinion or judgemental attitude or whatever it is.”

ELECTION SPLITS BALDWINS

The reality of a divided nation has hit close to home for Baldwin, specifically his brothers Alec and Billy.“My brother Alec hasn’t talked to me since the election. Isn’t that silly? That over politics, two brothers will not communicate. I don’t know his wife. I don’t see their kids. Nothing. Because of politics. That’s silly to me, but that’s his choice. He has made that choice,” he said. He said he also recognizes that the battle between the brothers is spiritual. “I’m praying for him.”

THE CONVERSATION

When asked about his takeaway from the first season of the GAP he said that in the media “more and more people on both sides of this equation, whether you are a progressive or a conservative, both sides of that perception are actually agreeing that the divide is so wide and great now that if we don’t sit down and start to find ways to agree and come together, and help and be a blessing to one another, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. And maybe that’s what needs to happen.

NRB VIDEO

“But the thing that I was most blown away with was the number of liberal Democrat media people that are coming up to me and saying, ‘I watched the show. I love the show and I think it’s actually cool because the conversation you’re trying to invoke really does need to happen.“My instinct was correct. I wasn’t sure if people would like this but the sensitivity of it and the issue of it is so on point that it’s working,” he said.He shared that the idea for Great American Pilgrimage was to create a piece of content that’s family friendly, entertaining and fun, that has serious conversations about serious topics but presented in a very light-hearted way.[bctt tweet="You can see that I’m doing things outside of the box. I believe the Lord has called me to do that. - Stephen Baldwin" via="no"]“In all of that, try to present this kind of foundational tone of do unto others or treat others as you would hope or wish to have them treat you,” he said. “You can see that I’m doing things outside of the box. I believe the Lord has called me to do that.”Photos by Justin Dean.

Phil Cooke, 'The Way Back,' and 'The Approaching Cultural Storm' at Proclaim 18

LOS ANGELES — Gale-force winds may already be here, but a discussion about “The Approaching Cultural Storm” led by top Christian media consultant and producer Phil Cooke is scheduled for a super session on Wednesday at the National Religious Broadcasters 75th Annual Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.“There’s such a disconnect between how Christians see themselves and how the world sees them,” Cooke, who is co-founder of the LA-based Cooke Pictures, told Together LA on Friday. He said that he’ll be doing a lot of talking about his new book, "The Way Back: How Christians Blew Their Credibility and How We Get It Back?" at Proclaim 18 (Feb. 27 to March 2) and using it as a background for hosting the session.“What we discovered while researching and writing the book will be shocking to many Christians in America,” said Cooke, whose book was co-written by Jonathan Bock. “If you’re interested in why Christianity continues to disappear from the culture, and how to turn it around, this is the book for you.”Heading into NRB’s Proclaim 18, which kicks off on Tuesday, we asked Cooke some questions about Christians and media, and the convention where hundreds of media professionals are expected to attend.Together LA: What are you doing at NRB and what are your goals with Proclaim 18?Phil Cooke: The NRB Convention is the one place where we can meet churches, ministries, and nonprofit clients and potential clients who produce media programming, all in a single week. It’s the international meeting place for Christians involved in media, so it’s a very productive week for our team at Cooke Pictures. This year, I’m also hosting three different “super-sessions” - two with the filmmaker’s track, and another that covers a very important topic: “The Approaching Cultural Storm."TLA: What will you talk about in regards to your new book, "The Way Back: How Christians Blew Their Credibility and How We Get It Back?"Cooke: My new book has really taken off, and I’ll be doing quite a few media interviews at the convention. But I’ll also be using the new book as background for hosting “The Approaching Cultural Storm” session. My co-writer, Jonathan Bock and I look at why there’s such a disconnect between how Christians see themselves and how the world sees them. What we discovered while researching and writing the book will be shocking to many Christians in America. If you’re interested in why Christianity continues to disappear from the culture, and how to turn it around, this is the book for you.TLA: What is the importance of NRB in general? How about to you personally?Cooke: The NRB began as an organization to promote Christian broadcasting. It began with radio stations, then expanded to TV, and now includes film and online, digital media. It’s primary focus is assuring that there will always be a place for Christian broadcasting in America, and that our rights to proclaim the Christian message will not be hindered or restricted. We’ve also expanded into a massive teaching event, and have educational tracks for radio, TV, film, the Internet, and one for college students who study broadcasting, filmmaking, and digital media.TLA: Is media part of the solution for Christians to get our credibility back? How so?Cooke: No question. We live in a media-driven culture. One British study indicates that the average person today is bombarded with up to 5,000 media messages every single day. We check our iPhones 110 times a day. We live in the most distracted and disrupted culture in the history of the world. As a result, sharing our message on multiple media platforms is absolutely essential. In the gospels, Jesus spent His life where the people were. In those days it was the temple square, the marketplace, or social gatherings like weddings. Today, the people are online, watching TV, listening to radio, or in movie theaters. We need to be there. In fact, keep in mind that today, by population, Facebook is now the largest country in the world. Who’s sending missionaries to that country? Who’s planting churches in that country? We shouldn’t just think of “missions” in terms of geographical boundaries, but also think in terms of digital boundaries.TLA: Can you tell a favorite story about how you observed God working through a specific media project you did?Cooke: Billy Graham passed away recently, and I’ve been remembering that 22 years ago, the ministry asked me to “produce a Billy Graham TV special that someone who would never watch a Billy Graham program would watch.” As a result we produced a prime Time TV event called “Starting Over.” It was broadcast globally and because it was television, it was the first time Billy had preached to 50 different countries at the same time. The Los Angeles Times reported that more than 2.5 billion people viewed the program globally and insiders at the Graham ministry told me that it generated 1 million phone calls for salvation. I can’t think of a better way to show the impact of sharing the gospel through media.TLA: What do you look forward to most about this year's NRB convention?Cooke: Helping inspire and motivate a new generation of Christian media professionals. We can’t keep doing what we’ve always done. We need new ideas, new creativity, and new energy. The Bible says God never changes, but trust me, everything else does. People change, trends change, styles change - we need to make sure we’re proclaiming an unchanging gospel to a world that’s constantly changing. We need to learn to speak that language, and I love teaching young filmmakers and media producers and challenging them to change the world.