Stephen Baldwin Defends Two and a Half Men Star

Angus T. Jones received some criticism after speaking out against his "Two and a Half Men" television show recently, but fellow Christian actor Stephen Baldwin is defending the 19-year-old's stance.

Jones later apologized for showing "a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity" he has been blessed with. However Baldwin, 46, said he understood what the young actor was going through when he decided to speak out against his own series.

"It just sounds like Angus is having an authentic experience with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a serious thing," Baldwin said in a recent interview with "Good Morning America." "A real, true walk of Christianity is very difficult, quite radical. It seems to me he was a young man when he started and now he's kind of come into his own and he's connected with his pastor."

Although Jones apologized for his comments, Baldwin said he thinks Jones was genuine about his initial remarks concerning "Two and a Half Men."

"I think he knows exactly what he's doing. Again, he meant to probably have it come out differently," Baldwin said. "He didn't want to offend [show creator] Chuck Lorre or any of the people from the show or be disrespectful, but I think he authentically means what he says where he finds now if you hold up the content of his show to the Bible, what he's saying is, 'Now there's a conflict for me.'"

Capital Records to Release Britt Nicole's Gold

Capitol Records is gearing up for the release of the new album from Britt Nicole. Due out February 26th, the newly repackaged Gold which was released on Sparrow Records in March 2012 and debuted at number 41 on the Top 100 Billboard Chart signals Britt's emergence as a pop phenom.

The follow-up to Britt's sophomore effort The Lost Get Found, Gold now features new mixes of its title track and "All This Time. "

Offering both tender ballads and beat-soaked dance-pop songs, Gold showcases the passionately thoughtful lyrics that attest Britt's strength as a songwriter. Its slick and shimmering title track and lead single, for instance, strives to help kids overcome feelings of lonely self-doubt and find their way to courage and confidence.

"The message of 'Gold' is to remind those kids that are struggling that no matter what they have been told they are worth so much more than the words of another," explains Britt. "Once you know that, no one can ever steal your shine."

Angus T. Jones Apologizes for 'Two and a Half Men' Slam

"I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed," the actor says.

Two and a Half Men star Angus T. Jones has issued a statement regarding his recent comments against the show, in which he called the comedy "filth" and begged viewers to "please stop watching."

"I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which I have been blessed," he said in a statement Tuesday. "I never intended that."

Jones, 19, also praised the cast and crew of the show as well as CBS and producer Warner Bros. Television.

"Without qualification, I am grateful to and have the highest regard and respect for all of the wonderful people on Two and Half Men with whom I have worked and over the past 10 years who have become an extension of my family," he added.

Jones made headlines Monday after a YouTube video went viral in which he discussed his newfound Christian faith in great detail.

In the clip, published by Forerunner and featuring the organization’s controversial leader Christopher Hudson, Jones suggested that Two and a Half Men was promoting the word of Satan.

"A lot of people don't like to think about how deceptive the enemy is," said Jones. "There's no playing around when it comes to eternity ... People will see us and be like, 'I can be a Christian and be on a show like Two and a Half Men.' You can't. You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can't."

In his speech, Jones also said: “If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop watching Two and a Half Men. I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it and filling your head with filth. People say it’s just entertainment. Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you, you’ll have a decision to make when it comes to television, especially with what you watch."

HBO to Produce Series About a Missionary

HBO is known for making cutting-edge TV, but they haven’t gotten into the religion realm since cancelling Big Love in 2010. Now, they’ve announced production on a new series called The Missionary, which is about... a missionary. Benjamin Walker, star of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, will play the title role. Billed as a spy drama, Walker will play an American missionary who gets caught up in Cold War intrigue while helping a young woman escape East Berlin.

It'll be interesting to see how HBO deals with the missionary's faith and whether the series will have him act in a way that isn't true to his faith.

Two & a Half Men Star: "Don't Watch the Show"

'Two and a Half Men's young star, Angus T. Jones -- the half man in the show's title -- has blasted the series as "filth" and suggested that people should stop watching.

"Jake from Two and a Half Men means nothing. He is a non-existent character," Jones says in a video for the Forerunner Chronicles, a Christian group. "If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop watching Two and a Half Men. I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it and filling your head with filth. People say it’s just entertainment. Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you you’ll have a decision to make when it comes to television, especially with what you watch."

Jones continues that the show is part of the plan of "the enemy" [Satan]. "If I am doing any harm, I don't want to be here," he says. "I don't want to be contributing to the enemy's plan. … You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can't. I'm not OK with what I'm learning, what the Bible says and being on that television show."

Jones, 19, gave a testimony in October at the Voice of Prophecy in Los Angeles, where he attends services.

Jones earns about $350,000 per episode; in May he received a salary bump -- along with co-stars Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher -- when Men was renewed for a 10th season.

Jones' comments mark the latest brouhaha for the veteran sitcom, which in addition to the Sheen debacle also saw former showrunner Lee Aronsohn step down after he came under fire for comments he made to The Hollywood Reporter about female-driven shows at a Toronto screenwriting conference.

Jones' Men comments begin at 7:30 in the video.

Kevin Sorbo To Star in God's Not Dead

Kevin Sorbo is starring in a new film "God's Not Dead" which also features the Newsboys, presumably performing their hit song of the same name.

In the interview below, Kevin speaks to what he's begun starring in Christian films and the need for more family friendly entertainment.

Switchfoot Performs on Jay Leno

Switchfoot performs "The Original" from their CD "Vice Verses" on Jay Leno.

http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/switchfoot/?roi=echo7-7480604551-27780238-5171f72fc666d069eebd31c0ad2b2f1f&

Third Day Miracle in Top 10

This week Third Day rounds out the top 10 of the Billboard 200 with its new album "Miracle" bowing in the No. 10 slot with 29,000. It's the fourth top 10 effort for the act, which opened at No. 9 with its last album, 2010's "Move" (37,000). On the Christian Albums chart, "Miracle" is the act's 13th top 10 and sixth No. 1.

“You haven’t seen miracles come alive on the big screen until you’ve seen these"

Roma Downey, TV’s former lead angel in Touched by an Angel, gave the blog Tinsel an update on the History Channel's Bible miniseries to air in Spring 2013.

With her husband, producer Mark Burnett of Survivor fame, Downey is producing a ten part miniseries.  They wrapped principal photography in July, after spending six months in Morocco filming.

Downey is particularly excited about applying modern special effects to the Bible, updating Cecil B. Mille’s 1956 version of the burning bush, for example. “You haven’t seen miracles come alive on the big screen until you’ve seen these,” she gushed.

But the special effects aren’t the only thing going for the project. Diogo Morgado as Jesus “brought beauty, strength, and humility to the role. He portrayed the lion and the lamb.”

Downey herself stepped in front of the camera. “I’ve loved Jesus my whole life,” she said, “so the chance to step in as his mother, it was so humbling and a privilege.”

Downey said the project is the best work she and her husband have ever done. “As a married couple, to have brought this to life….thrilling,” she said, “Two years and we’re still speaking to each other. It’s brought us closer.”

But best of all, she said, is the chance to reach people from all walks of life.

“I have reached a point in my career where I don’t have to work,” she said, “I have a lot of gratitude. I have a choice. I can do projects that are positive and honor God.”

Controversy Often Makes Movies, Even Christian Ones, Win at Box Office, Says Producer

For movies with Christian themes that previously were considered un-buzzworthy inside the Hollywood film industry, it is controversy that often makes them box office successes, says an award-winning film and music producer.

Speaking to a workshop at the San Diego Christian Film Festival, Mark Joseph told part of the story of how "Facing the Giants" became a box office success.

The film about an underdog high school football team, and issues of faith in God, was made for $100,000. Volunteers from Sherwood Baptist Church were cast in supporting roles. Joseph helped market the film, but said one of the keys to the movie's $11 million in sales was letting a reporter know that there was a controversy over the film's initial PG-13 rating.

"The MPAA gave two reasons for the PG-13 rating: excessive religious content and the other was that it elevated one religion over another," said Joseph, who also helped to market "The Passion of the Christ" and "Chronicles of Narnia." "As a marketing person this was like God's gift to the film."
He said that he explored the idea of having a reporter break the story by first talking to an editor at the Drudge Report.

"I said I think I have a story for you, the MPAA thinks God is worthy of a rating," he explained. Joseph said he knew that others would find it as astonishing as he did that issues of faith and religion would be lumped together with such things as sex, drugs, and violence when establishing a movie rating. The editor told him to find a reporter to write the story.

"Instantly, it became this mega media sensation. The story being that Hollywood is so out of touch with normal people that they thought this film needed a PG rating," he said.

The MPAA suddenly realized they had made a mistake and tried to cover-up by saying their objections had been misinterpreted. Joseph said the movie gained even more attention when Congress called for a hearing to investigate the MPAA.

"That was a message to the country to go watch this movie that's so 'forbidden,'" he said. "The movie made $11 million at the box office."

Organizers of the three-day film festival in San Diego say they hope to strengthen the community of Christian filmmakers interested in bringing about a positive change in the types of movies coming out of Hollywood. Filmgoers are craving for movies with a good message and faith-based values.

"The market is starving for it, not hungry, starving for good quality films," said Chad Stewart, who is on the board of directors for the festival and the managing director of a production company based in Del Mar, Calif.

Joseph said he's been a part of at least six traditionalist movies that were labeled "surprise successes" by Hollywood standards.

"We've discovered an audience that Hollywood doesn't think exists in America," he said. "Narnia and Passion are movies that on paper don't make sense to anybody in Hollywood. Nobody that I know of thought that the Passion of the Christ was going to be successful. Same goes for the Chronicles of Narnia. The Chronicles of Narnia was really an unknown property in Hollywood. A lot of executive didn't know who C.S. Lewis was and so it wasn't the slam dunk that you might think it was today."
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" has grossed more than $739 million worldwide.

Phil Stacey Touring Japan

One of the Top 5 finalists on season 6 of American Idol, Phil Stacey, is currently in Japan. Stacey will tour Japan for the next couple of weeks.

Phil Stacey, "I covet your prayers over the next couple of weeks. I believe God is going to do some awesome stuff here in Japan."

Will Russell Crowe Portray Noah as an Environmentalist Nut?

It's billed as a "Biblical epic" but a Christian screenwriter in Hollywood who has had a chance to read the script for "Noah" says there's a good chance that the movie, which is still in production, will be far from the truth of the Gospel.

"If you were expecting a Biblically faithful retelling of the story of the greatest mariner in history and a tale of redemption and obedience to God you'll be sorely disappointed," Brian Godawa recently wrote in his analysis of an undated script he was able to get his hands on as a movie industry insider.

Godawa told The Christian Post that he is not 100 percent sure that the copy of the script written by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel that he read has since been changed to reflect a more accurate portrayal of what's written in the Bible, but chances aren't good that is the case.

In fact, he fears the movie's Noah (played by Russell Crowe) will be depicted more like an "environmentalist wacko."

"Noah paints the primeval world of Genesis 6 as scorched arid desert, dry cracked earth, and a gray gloomy sky that gives no rain – and all this, caused by man's 'disrespect' for the environment," Godawa wrote in his analysis. "In short, an anachronistic doomsday scenario of ancient global warming. How Neolithic man was able to cause such anthropogenic catastrophic climate change without the 'evil' carbon emissions of modern industrial revolution is not explained."

Apparently, Noah and his family also seek to "avoid the crowds and live off the land." He is this "kind of rural shaman, and vegan hippy-like gatherer of herbs, according to Godawa's analysis of the script. "Noah explains that his family 'studies the world,' 'healing it as best we can,' like a kind of environmentalist scientist," he writes.

"They want to tell the story about the Bible that they think everyone wants to see. They are interpreting it through their own worldview. It's not necessarily a malicious thing," he continued. "I don't expect Aronofsky to be true to this biblical message because he probably doesn't really believe it. He's just going to use it to communicate his own [message]. He's already told us that when he said this is all about environmentalism."

In addition to not really embracing Aronofsky's creative license with the Bible in regards to the environment, Godawa notes that there's a problem with his interpretation morally.

"I have to say that the movie script for Noah is deeply anti-Biblical in its moral vision," he stated. "While the Bible commands mankind to 'work and keep' the garden of earth as its stewards, the sin that brought about the judgment of the Flood was NOT violence against the environment as depicted in the script, it was violence against God and his image in man. That's no minor difference."

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Brian 'Head' Welch Readies "Love And Death"

TOOTH & NAIL Records will be releasing the eagerly anticipated full length album, 'Between Here & Lost', by metal band Love And Death. The group is fronted by former Korn guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch.

Phillips, Craig & Dean member Dan Dean fighting prostate cancer

A member of Phillips, Craig & Dean, Dan Dean, recently announced that he has been battling prostate cancer. The worship leader and senior pastor of The Heartland Church in Carrollton, Texas, was diagnosed early last spring, just prior to the release of Phillips, Craig & Dean's most recent album, 'Breathe In'. Since his initial diagnosis, Dan has been making progress towards recovery and remission.

UK Songsmith Adam Baker Featured on Olympics Album

Christian singer/songwriter Adam Baker, who has previously released the independent albums 'Your Eyes' (2009) and 'Beyond The Sun' (2011), is showcased on a new compilation album featuring artists who performed in the Olympic Park during the London 2012 Olympics. The 'Emerging Icons In The Park' album features Baker singing the song "Carry You", a song motivated by his feelings about his wife. Said Baker, "In the summer I was performing at the London 2012 Olympics in the Olympic Park. As a Christian artist it was an awesome opportunity and I felt so blessed to be a part of the Games sharing my music. It was quite an experience."

Hands & Feet Project To Make Appearance in NASCAR Race

The Hands & Feet Project should be seen by thousands this weekend as MacDonald Motorsports car #49 will feature the logo of the Hands & Feet Project will driving in NASCAR’s K&N Pro Series race on Saturday, Nov. 3rd. The car will be driven by 19-year old Harrison Rhodes. The race is the season finale at Rockingham Speedway.

“I’m really excited to see the Hands & Feet Project #49 on the racetrack this weekend,” explained Jeni MacDonald, team owner. “I really hope we can raise awareness as to what Hands & Feet is doing and bring them more support.”

Along with the Hands & Feet Project, Audio Adrenaline will also be presented on Harrison’s #49 car. The multi-GRAMMY® award-winning band has recently reunited with a new lineup of like-minded musicians with the same common goal; to be the voice for orphans in Haiti and around the world.

“I am thrilled about getting to drive the Hands & Feet Project #49 at Rockingham Speedway this weekend,” explained driver Rhodes. “It is going to be awesome getting to race at a track where there is so much history and where so many great drivers have raced.”

Third Day to Perform on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Tomorrow

Third Day will perform on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” tomorrow November 2 in support of their upcoming release MIRACLE. The band will perform “Hit Me Like a Bomb” and, following the performance, will offer a limited-time free download of the song on its site ThirdDay.com.

The 12-track MIRACLE was produced by Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Train, The Killers) and recorded in the band’s Atlanta-based studio called, The Quarry.

Third Day will be back on the road in support of MIRACLE with a headlining tour starting in spring 2013, followed by appearances at major festivals that summer.

needtobreathe Performs on Conan

needtobreathe performs "Girl From Tennessee" on Conan on Halloween in unusual costumes.

Best Male Christian Vocalists of All Time

Below is our list for the best male Christian vocalists of all time.

This list is not just based on vocal prowess, criteria also include song quality, impact on industry, ability to play an instrument and/or craft a song, and of course my personal bias...

10.  Matthew West
9. Ken Tamplin
8. Michael Tait (also of dc Talk & Newsboys) & Kevin Max (also of dc Talk and Audio A)
7. John Elefante
6. Michael Sweet (also of Stryper fame)

5. Michael W. Smith

4. Jeremy Camp
3. Bryan Duncan

2. Steven Curtis Chapman

1. Russ Taff

Honorable Mentions:

Brandon Heath

Charlie Peacock

Chris Tomlin

Mark Schultz
Phil Keaggy
Todd Agnew
Warren Barfield

On the way to establishing post-band career:
Peter Furler (of Newsboys)
John Schlitt (of Petra fame)
Martin Smith (of delirious?)

To make the list manageable, we've also excluded vocalists who are primarily fronting a band without a body of solo work.  That list is here.

Thoughts?

Best Christian Male Lead Singers of All Time

Below are the 10 best male lead singers of Christian bands.

This list is not just based on vocal prowess, criteria also include song quality, impact on industry, ability to play an instrument and/or craft a song, and of course my personal bias...

10. Rick Florian (WhiteHeart)
9. Matt Hammitt (Sanctus Real)
8. David Crowder (DavidCrowderBand)
7. Jon Foreman (Switchfoot)
6. Bear Rinehart (needtobreathe)
5. Michael Barnes (Red)
4. Jon Micah Sumrall (Kutless)
3. Bart Millard (MercyMe)
2. Mac Powell (Third Day)
1. Marc Martel (of downhere)

Some notable misses (like dc Talk)?  Check here.

Honorable Mentions:
Mark Hall (Casting Crowns)
Jamie Rowe (Guardian)
Dan Haseltine (Jars of Clay)
Derri Daugherty (The Choir)
Edin Adahl

Kevin Young (Disciple)

Josh Reedy (Decemberadio)
Josh Havens (The Afters)

Thoughts?

Australia's Cindy-Leigh Boske Gets US release

Dream Records is bringing Cindy-Leigh Boske to the international market. Cindy-Leigh leads worship at City Church, Brisbane, and has performed with such artists as Keith Urban, Vanessa Amorosi and The Corrs. Cindy-Leigh has been described as the "Woman with the golden pipes."  About her new album 'My Genesis' Cindy-Leigh said, "I want this new album to be an album that will inspire people and give them hope, I want it to be authentic in every way.