Move over Brad Stine. There's a new polymath in Fox town. While Stephen Baldwin is nowhere near as talented and famous as his "30 Rock" brother Alec, Stephen Baldwin is quite the expert on Catholic theology. In 2009, Baldwin provided Fox & Friends with cosmological commentary on Obama's Notre Dame speech while entertaining the audience with a snippet of the Bee Gee's "Jive Talking." Baldwin, who promised to leave the country if Obama was elected, proclaimed, ex-cathedra, that "there is no common ground on abortion." The scholarly Baldwin, who is speaking (appropriately) at CPAC about educating youth, educated yesterday's Fox & Friends audience to a careful exegesis of Catholic dogma as it related to the HHS contraception mandate. It was truly an intellectual masterpiece of epic proportion!

Fox News has undertaken a sacred crusade to assist the Catholic bishops in their opposition to the HHS policy. It's a win-win for both sides as the bishs get to have their talking points validated on a national "news" network while Fox gets to bash Obama. Fox & Friends is interviewing the - uh - limited Baldwin brother about the impact of the policy on Catholics. (Seriously? Is that all they've got?)

After being introduced, as someone from a Catholic family, Baldwin was off and running: "If you're in America and you're a Roman Catholic, is this what you voted for when you voted for Barack Obama people? For Barack Obama to try to force and impose on the Roman Catholic faith in particular, this type of questioning of one's self about what is right or wrong. If you're a Roman Catholic this is something that should be off the table because this type of conversation is sin, according to the faith. So now Barack Obama is trying to dictate what, in his opinion, is right and wrong and what is or isn't correct according to that faith. That's serious stuff guys."

Alysin Camerota reported polling data that showed that 58% of Catholic women support the mandate. (Interesting, that's not a Rasmussen poll. Do they read News Hounds?) Baldwin responded that even so, "it doesn't give the president the right to try to force and impose what he thinks is more correct."  Baldwin continued his summa: "So in other words, if I'm the parent of kids or in the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, that's probably more of a majority than you just gave." (So there were no parents in that sample?)Baldwinasked why, when the economy is getting better, Obama would "try to force and impose this type of will." He mentioned "Obama's advisors" and Biden telling Obama to "back off." Getting a bit redundant,Baldwin shouted "who is the Barack Obama to try and force these types of things on the American public?" (And who are the bishops to try and force their theology on their non-Catholic female employees?) Dave Briggs mentioned that the women in Obama's cabinet were influential in the decision.

Just doesn't get any better than this. Stephen Baldwin, who describes himself as a "Jesus Psycho," says that God will take care of third world debt, and that free will is "a lie of Satan," gets to pontificate on HHS policy vis-a-vis the Catholic Church. Who knew that Sister Carol Keenan, who agrees with the "accommodation, is, according to Baldwin, a sinner?  It's all just too profound for words. What more can I say!

Dishy Addendum: In 2009, Baldwin's home in New York foreclosed and went up on the auction block after Baldwin and his wife defaulted on $824,000 in mortgage payments. Guess Jesus was on vacation when that happened!