The youngest Baldwin has been a cokehead, a womanizer, and the star of Bio-Dome. But as the Bible says, let he who is without sin get stoned
There’s a black sheep in every family, but the Baldwin clan is full of them. Which may explain why the youngest, Stephen, has turned into something of a shepherd. Although he followed his older brothers to Hollywood and prayed alongside them at the altar of Hugh Hefner’s grotto, these days the Usual Suspects and Bio-Dome star is humming quite a different tune—and it sounds like something from the Gospel of Luke. With a new book, The Unusual Suspect: My Calling to the New Hardcore Movement of Faith (Faith Words Books), cowritten with Mark Tabb, out this week, Born-Again Baldwin offers up his new prescription for living large: Follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, or burn in Hell for eternity.
RADAR: Hello, Stephen. How are you?
STEPHEN BALDWIN: I’m frickin’ good!
I didn’t know Christians could say frickin’.
Sure they can. I represent the new breed of Christians, baby, that are gettin’ ready to kick ass in the name of the Kingdom.
You’re also looking to spread the word through a skateboard tour.
I’m launching a ministry next year called the Breakthrough. We’re doing an extreme sports tour called the Uprising Core Tour. It’s gonna be me, Christian Hosoi, and a whole bunch of other guys. It’s going to be like Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom HuckJam meets a Pink Floyd concert meets Cirque du Soleil. It’s gonna be a trip.
So can you name the seven deadly sins?
Dude, I’m totally clueless.
Lust, greed, sloth, gluttony, wrath, envy, pride.
Although wrath in the Bible isn’t a sin.
Not in the hands of God, but it is in the hands of a mortal.
Hey, you’re pretty hip to this whole deal. Are you like some Jesus freak?
We did a little homework. Which deadly sin have you been most guilty of in your life?
Wow. What’s sloth?
Radar: Total laziness.
Hold on, I have a dictionary right here. I carry one because now I’m getting into ministry and I gotta know what I’m talking about. So let’s look it up and be little Poindexters. Here it is: Slow-moving nocturnal mammal. Dude, that’s it.
I thought it was lust, since you were reputed to be quite the ladies’ man back in the day.
Well, thank you for the back-in-the-day part, but, sure, homie, when you’re the baby Baldwin, and you start making some bank …. Being Alec’s baby brother didn’t suck. A lot of chicks were into me for that. But that’s because I was living in the world and according to the world system, as opposed to living as a representative of the spirit of God and flowing within the spirit of God.
So how do you banish lustful thoughts from your mind?
Driving around today, there were a couple of healthy individuals struttin’ down the sidewalk, and I had to bounce my eyes back to the floor of the cab. But, listen, for me, it’s not about allowing my experience of the spirit of Jesus to be this thing that continuously judges me to the point where I’m feeling nothing but condemnation. When God called Stephen Baldwin to become a person of faith in his perfect time, he didn’t want Stephen to stop being Stephen. I sin each and every day. But the bondage of sin no longer controls my life.
Can you name the Ten Commandments.
Gosh, I should know this. I spank my children because they don’t know this. Let me think…. Thou shall not kill…. Thou shall not steal…. [Long pause] Honor thy mother and father…. [Another long pause] Shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife….
That’s four.
Gosh … I can’t think…. Do not commit adultery…. Murder!
On the Hollywood list of people I pray for often, Tom Cruise is probably No. 1…. Seriously though, can you put us together? Can we get a little sushi together? I’d like to give him a spicy Jesus rollYou did that already.
Dang … hmm … don’t use the Lord’s name in vain?
Yes.
How many do I have?
Six.
That’s it? That’s all I got? What’s the other four?
They don’t make sense to me.
Well, if they don’t make sense to you, and you’re reading them, how am I supposed to know?
Because you’re born-again.
Just because I’m born-again doesn’t mean I have to have the Ten Commandments memorized. See, that’s the bad rap the born-again thing has gotten. What being born-again means for me is that I’m having so much fun in this interview that we’re not going to go out and get an 8-ball of blow tonight and go crazy. That’s what born again means to me: Inasmuch as I’d like to do that, gosh, I’ll just go home and read some scripture with the wife.
The 8-ball sounds like fun, though.
Of course it does!
In your book, you take issue with Bono, and there’s a passage where you suggest that he should be preaching the gospel on MTV and let God take care of Third World debt relief. How can you fault a guy for advocating Third World debt relief?
I’m not faulting the guy for that. The problem I have is this: Let’s say those poor people in those poor countries are relieved of their debt, but they don’t know Jesus. Okay, so their life’s more comfortable, but then what happens, according to the Bible? You tell me what the point of that is.
Interesting. What’s your take on Tom Cruise, who’s also gotten some flak for his faith.
Let me just start a little trouble here. On the Hollywood list of people I pray for often, Tom Cruise is probably No. 1. All I have to say to Tom is, God bless ya, I hope you’re having fun. But I’d love through Radar magazine to throw a gauntlet down to Mr. Cruise. I’d love to break bread with him and pray with him, and I’d love for the Holy Spirit of God to reveal the truth to him. That would be an awesome thing. I remember Tom back in the day. I did Born on the Fourth of July with him. And he’s a very different guy now.
In what way?
That regular Joe quality seems to have been lost. When you buy enough of your own hype, then it’s not who you are anymore. It becomes about how you’re perceived. I’d rather be young little sweet little Jesus Freak Stevie B any day of the week. Seriously though, can you put us together? Can we get a little sushi together? I’d like to give him a spicy Jesus roll.
They say not to talk politics or religion over dinner. Great advice for the Baldwins?
Well, yeah. For the reelection of George W. Bush I was inside the National Republican Convention when my brother Billy was outside picketing. But none of that stuff has ever gotten in the way. I mean, I’m going to the Yankee game with Billy tonight. I don’t want to open a can of worms here, but let’s just say that, having the spiritual eyes I have now, I had no idea of what I was functioning in and amongst for the last 40 years. Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, and the spirit of the Democratic Party is something that I think is a little bit frightening.
Do you speak to Alec?
No, I really don’t talk to Alec about politics. Billy has always been far more open to any particular conversation, but Alec is a little bit more hard core.
Have you guys fallen out?
No, we just don’t talk about it. I think that his perception of me is that I don’t understand what the truth is in reality, and my perspective is, I don’t think he understands what the truth is in the supernatural.
But you still sit down and break bread with him.
Absolutely. Alec and I talk almost four times a week, but we talk about the important things, like fart jokes.
If you could choose just one politician to save, who would it be?
Bill Clinton.
I thought he believed in Jesus Christ?
Difference between believing and following, my brother.
How about a game: Say Armageddon happens today. Of the following, who would go to Heaven, who would go to hell?
I can’t do this, you psycho!
Pauly Shore.
Ugh…. I don’t know. By the time I get my hands on him he will.
Bono.
That’s a no-brainer. All you have to do is profess with your tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord and mean it in your heart. I believe that he’s done that.
George W. Bush.
Oh, he’s going to have a nice room in Heaven, Georgie is.
Mel Gibson.
Another no-brainer, dude. They’re frying the guy, but everyone’s not considering one thing. He was wasted! Does that make it all right? No. But if he said it and he wasn’t drunk, then I would have little to no mercy for the guy.
Alec Baldwin.
Absolutely going to Heaven.
What being born-again means for me is that I’m having so much fun in this interview that we’re not going to go out and get an 8-ball of blow tonight and go crazyAnd how’s that going to happen?
He’s a Christian.
Radar: But I thought he didn’t follow Jesus Christ?
The people who are going to Heaven are the ones that truly love God and Jesus, and make Him their number one priority.
Alec does that?
Absolutely. What are you looking for me to get my … he could beat the crap out of me! What are you doin’?
Can you name me the 12 disciples?
Dude, I got kicked off Celebrity Mole twice ’cause I suck at this. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Timothy—
There’s no Timothy, there’s a Thomas.
Thomas. Same thing. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Thomas, Peter, Oscar. Who else? Hold on, I’ll go to the Bible. There, I’m telling you in advance that I’m cheating. I know them, I just can’t think of them now.
That’s pretty good.
Listen, I need to know as much scripture as I possibly can. That helps me to continue in my path.
Last question: When you were a kid growing up in Massapequa, what was the biggest sin you ever committed in church?
Dude, I’m so glad I’m meeting you now because if you and I ever smoked weed together, nothing would get done. This is the first interview in a long time where I feel stoned by the end of it.
Likewise.
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