Asked his opinion about same-sex marriage, the 42-year-old actor, who starred in the 1980s sit-com Growing Pains, noted that marriage “is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the garden between Adam and Eve. One man, one woman, for life, till death do you part. So I would never attempt to try to redefine marriage. And I don’t think anyone else should either. So do I support the idea of gay marriage? No, I don’t.”
Asked by Morgan how he would respond if his own son announced that he was “gay,” Cameron said, “I’d sit down and I’d have a heart-to-heart with them, just like you’d do with your kids.” Morgan retorted that in such a case he would tell his child, “That’s great, son! As long as you’re happy.” To which Cameron responded, “I wouldn’t say, ‘That’s great, son, as long as you’re happy.’ There are all sorts of issues we need to wrestle through in our life…. Just because we feel one way doesn’t mean we should act on everything we feel.”
Predictably, immediately following the program Cameron’s comments were condemned by a slew of pro-homosexual celebrities, including Debra Messing, Zach Braff, and comedienne Roseanne Barr, who tweeted, “kirk or kurt or whatever cameron is an accomplice to murder with his hate speech.”
Alan Thicke, who starred as the father of Cameron’s character on Growing Pains, tweeted that he planned on getting Cameron “some new books. The Old Testament simply can’t be expected to explain everything.” Earlier Thicke had tweeted that “I’ll address kirk’s comments as soon as I recover from rush limbaugh’s.”
Similarly, actress Tracey Gold, who portrayed Cameron’s sister on the sit-com, tweeted, “I am a strong supporter of the LGBT Community, and I believe in equal rights for all.”
Lesbian talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell called Cameron’s comments “very un-Christlike,” advising him, “If you want to follow the Jesus model, man, don’t go shaming people like that for who they are!”
Television talk-show host Craig Ferguson opined that Rush Limbaugh “makes me ashamed to be a middle-aged white man, and Kirk Cameron makes me ashamed to be a failed actor.”
Homosexual activist groups also got into the mix, with Herndon Graddick of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) saying in a statement that Cameron’s comments made him sound “even more dated than his 1980s TV character. Cameron is out of step with a growing majority of Americans, particularly people of faith who believe that their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters should be loved and accepted based on their character and not condemned because of their sexual orientation.”
GLAAD also used the incident to promote itself, launching a high-profile petition drive entitled, “Tell Kirk Cameron It’s Time to Finally Grow Up.” Graddick claimed that thousands of individuals, “including many people of faith, have shared the campaign and spoken out against Cameron’s remarks.” He added that the actor/evangelist’s opinions “are not only out-of-touch with the beliefs of most Americans, they contribute to a climate of hostility and falsely suggest that communities of faith are not accepting of LGBT people.”
As the attacks against him increased, Cameron responded with a statement noting that he had spoken “as honestly as I could” to Morgan’s questions, “but some people believe my responses were not loving toward those in the gay community. That is not true. I can assuredly say that it’s my life’s mission to love all people.”
Of the personal attack on his views, Cameron said: “I believe that freedom of speech and freedom of religion go hand-in-hand in America. I should be able to express moral views on social issues — especially those that have been the underpinning of Western civilization for 2,000 years — without being slandered, accused of hate speech, and told from those who preach ‘tolerance’ that I need to either bend my beliefs to their moral standards or be silent when I’m in the public square.”
During his interview with Piers Morgan, Cameron also offered some comments on abortion that no doubt sent feminists and other pro-abortion activists into fits of apoplexy. As reported by LifeSiteNews.com, in response to Morgan’s queries on the issue, the actor condemned every case of abortion as “murdering a little child.”
He emphasized that “I think it’s wrong under any circumstances…. I think that someone who is ultimately willing to murder a child, even to fix another tragic and devastating situation, like rape or incest or things like that, is not taking the moral high ground. I think we’re compounding the problem by also murdering a little child.”
Asked Morgan: “Could you honestly look a daughter in the eye if she was raped and say you’ve got to have that child?” To which Cameron replied, “Yes, of course.”
Morgan responded: “I find it amazing that people would say that.”
Responded Cameron: “Oh, but because I love my daughter, I love that little child. This is a little creature made in God’s image. Perhaps imagine if you were the result of that, and you had been aborted, we wouldn’t be here having this conversation. And so I value life above all things.”
Actor Stephen Baldwin was among the few in Hollywood to stand up for Cameron, tweeting: “Great Job, Kirk! Let’s pray one day Piers Morgan finds true Salvation, God Bless!”
Even Morgan offered backhanded support for the actor, saying in an interview that he thought Cameron was “pretty brave” to speak his views so candidly. He added, however, that “many would call it an antiquated view about many of these issues,” and said that he thought Cameron’s views on abortion in the case of rape were “very strange.”
Photo of Kirk Cameron: AP Images
