by Maria Mackay - Christian Today - April 21, 2007

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.