US Christian Leaders Alarmed Over Hollywood Actor's Threat to Daughter
Christian leaders in the US have expressed alarm after Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin left an abusive voice message to his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland.
by Maria Mackay
Posted: Saturday, April 21, 2007, 13:40 (BST)
Christian leaders in the US have voiced concern after Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin left an expletive-strewn voice message to his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland.
Baldwin, who has a reputation for being ill-tempered, left an angry message to his daughter after she failed to pick up an apparently pre-arranged call.
In his message, Baldwin told his daughter among other things, "You are a rude, thoughtless little pig," and said she did not "have the brains or the decency as a human being".
He also promised to fly from New York to Los Angeles "for the day just to straighten you out on this issue".
The Rev Patrick J Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, and the Rev Rob Schenck, President of the National Clergy Council in Washington DC, released a joint statement yesterday: "Alec Baldwin should be held accountable by the public and the entertainment industry and mandated to undergo counselling by the courts.
"This is an inexcusable, frightening threat on a young child.
"Today as we remember the Virginia Tech students, we must be mindful that every violent threat against an innocent person demands a strong, clear response."
Ireland is Baldwin's daughter with Kim Basinger from their marriage which officially ended in 2002.
In a statement made yesterday, Baldwin's spokesman said: "Although Alec acknowledges that he should have used different language in parenting his child, everyone who knows him privately knows what he has been put through for the past six years."
Schenck and Mahoney called on NBC to suspend Baldwin from the channel's 30 Rock show, a workplace comedy set in New York starring the 49-year-old, until he apologises and "completes treatment" for the outburst.
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Added: Sunday, April 22, 2007, 1:32 (BST)
It doesn't matter what happened in the past 6 years; what matters is what the girl heard her father say to her and about her.
A man, no matter his job, should be held accountable for his words and his actions. He'll either be held accountable by mankind or by God.
Marie, Midway Park, NC
Added: Sunday, April 22, 2007, 1:08 (BST)
If you have been put through the anguish and pain of parental alienation as both Alex Baldwin and I have, in my case for some 8 years now. Then I'm quite sure that both the Rev Patrick J Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defence Coalition, and the Rev Rob Schenck, President of the National Clergy Council in Washington DC should be well able to find scripture that leads to Gods understanding and forgiveness in such matters and not preach retribution, Colossians chapter 3: verse 13-14 springs to mind.
Mike Ellis, Bideford. UK
Added: Saturday, April 21, 2007, 16:58 (BST)
The father should now gain primary custody based on the premeditated actions of the mother. Any parent who has experienced the systematic parental alienation that Baldwin has can easily understand Baldwin's momentary lapse of judgment on an answering machine. The true crime, and it is a crime, was committed by the parent who made this recording public with clear willful intent to harm her own child in order to harm her ex-husband. That kind of cruelty is not understandable. Basinger's behavior is legally actionable. It was intentional child abuse for Basinger to release Baldwin's confidential remarks to the press, fully aware, and intending to damage both her daughter and her ex-husband. Her malicious desire for revenge was unlikely satisfied, despite the pain her leak caused her daughter. No sane court would allow such a parent primary custody of her daughter. Basinger wants a weapon not a child, and her unconscionable actions with this recording demonstrate she is entirely willing to use her daughter as a weapon over and over again. It is both illegal and immoral to use one's one children, as Basinger has, as the mere means to punish the other parent.
Carmine, Pittsburgh
