Welcome all  to Faith, Media & Culture, a blog aimed at providing news and commentary on the crossroads between faith and the culture at large — including updates on new and upcoming faith-based films, television, books and music.

The name change (from Catholics, Media & Culture) is aimed at reflecting the fact that the site covers news of interest to all people of faith, not just Catholics. To be clear though, I am still a practicing Catholic (hoping to actually get it right). BTW, I hope you like the new Touched by an Angel-style header the Beliefnet graphics team came up with. I think it looks pretty good.

Stephen Baldwin directs Cory Lamb music video. I had the pleasure of grabbing lunch with the duo on Tuesday in New York City. We talked about their collaboration on Break the Cycle (video below).

Stephen told me that  he heard the song, which Cory wrote as a sort of anthem for all those who are (in one way another) moving from darkness to light, and simply thought it was cool. He immediately knew he wanted to direct the video version.

The two hit it off and they were soon shooting the project  over the course of three days in Florida.

Both are adamant about using their talent to draw attention to the healing message of Jesus Christ — and to reaching out to all who will hear it.

Cory says he first became a Christian at the age of 16 — when he was going through a particularly tough period of feeling empty inside.  It was then that he turned to the Bible and was attracted to its message of love, hope and salvation.

Stephen, who was raised Catholic, was a bit older when he found his calling to devote his life to a ministry proclaiming Christianity to all who would listen. He has since done so in a variety of  venues — as an actor, producer, director, author, reality show contestant, and radio show host. Now, add music videos to his list of faith-infused media endeavors.

Of course, I had to ask Stephen, a 2009 contestant on Celebrity Apprentice,  about his thoughts on a possible Donald Trump presidential campaign. He says that, while he doesn’t expect Trump to actually run, he thinks he’d probably be a pretty good president. According to Stephen, “What the country needs most right now are leaders who are not politicians.”  As he sees it, a straight-talking businessman like Trump is willing to say things and take certain risks that other pols aren’t.  He particularly likes his tough stance on China.

He also says all is good between himself and Sean Hannity right now. This after the pair recently got into a dust up over comments the Fox News host made about his brother Alec Baldwin (30 Rock).  Despite their political and religious differences (Alec is a liberal Catholic, Stephen a conservative Evangelical), the brothers are quite close — and Stephen didn’t appreciate what he considered to be Hannity’s over-the-line verbal assaults on his older sibling

Stephen says, in retrospect, he probably should have should have contained his anger a bit more and that, in any event, he and Sean are back on good terms. The truce, he notes, could come apart if Alec (as has been suggested) decides to run for political office.  Stephen, BTW, would not comment on that possibility.

Now, here’s Cory Lamb performing Break the Cycle (directed by Stephen Baldwin).

Bonus video: Here’s Stephen talking about his faith in a video for the group I am Second.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XN5zcfGICs

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11