Brad Stine Ministers as "God's Comic"

It’s been five years since stand-up comedian and actor Brad Stine made a comedy DVD but with the release of “God’s Comic,” he’s back and he’s got something to say.

Stine describes the DVD as a collection of humorous observations about life, marriage, animals, holidays and other everyday things observed through the prism of his Christian faith.

“It’s about something that strikes you as funny but I do it with a Christian world view: why we think the way we do based on God’s plan,” said Stine. “I lift up my God and my country and I resist political correctness.”
The content and the title are the product, he said, of something akin to a dark night of the soul, a spiritual crisis that had him wrestling with himself and with God.

“I had been a very successful comedian for many years within the Christian conservative community,” said Stine, speaking to ChristianCinema.com from his home in Tennessee. 

“But there was a dark place God seemed to have needed to bring me, to be introspective about who I was and why God had given me the gift of comedy,” he said.

Stine said it took time for him to come to grips with the idea that God wanted him to minister through his comedy.

“God was very firm with me. He said ‘I gave you a gift and I gave it to you to deliver my story,’” he said.

The result is “God’s Comic” which was recorded in front of a small studio audience and seeks to use humor to present a Christian worldview and social commentary based on God’s plan.

It still retains some of the edginess that Stine has always brought to his routines and that is the secret, he believes, to his ability to attract mainstream fans.

“There are ways to tell God’s story that are fresh, unique and creative. It should be accessible to anyone who is interested,” said Stine. “If you view the content instead of the context, then that’s myopic.”

Stine argues that people of faith need to redeem art and culture at a time when Christians are being ignored and that’s what he seeks to do through his comedy and through films.

Stine has appeared in several faith movies including the 2007 film “Welcome to Paradise” which starred Crystal Bernard and Brian Dennehy, “Homeless for the holidays” in 2009 and last year’s “Marriage Retreat” and “Christmas with a Capital C” alongside Daniel Baldwin and Ted McGinley.Stine, a frequent contributor to “Fox & Friends” on cable TV’’s Fox News, said Christians should embrace a variety of ways to communicate their faith and share God’s message if they are to touch the lives of others.

“A sermon-like film is one way to tell a story. It’s geared towards Christians who are evangelical and that’s who they market to and it’s very successful. There’s nothing wrong with it,” he said.

“What I always wanted to do was to break the mold. We’re believers and I found a way to get that into the mainstream through my comedy and we need to do that in films too,” he said.

“God’s Comic” is available for purchase through ChristianCinema.com and Christian retailers.
For more information about Brad Stine, visit www.bradstine.com