Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of The Chicks on the Right Podcast. Man,
do we ever have a treat for everybody in our
audience today? We are so excited to welcome Kirk Cameron
to our show. Of course, he's an actor, author, producer, speaker,
host of The Kirk Cameron Show, and we wanted to
have you on, Kirk to ask you about your faith,
your conservative values, thoughts on today's culture. But before we
get to any of that, we wanted to find out
if you remember meeting us in Todd Stearns's Fox studio
back in twenty eighteen, because we remember it well.
Speaker 2: You know, I think so. The short answer is no,
and so let's let's just get that out of the
way now to hurt your feelings. I'm sorry, not at all.
Here is here. I think I've detected the reason because
this is not the first time I forget my own
like set by my own cousins' names from New Jersey
week when we get together for weddings and funerals. Yeah,
and I think I have a theory. It's because since
I was a child, I was trained to have my
short term ram memory filled with a new script and
then exit it, delete it for new material that I
had memorized for the next week's episode of Growing Pains,
And so you know, if it's not locked into my
like twenty year deep deep brain memory, it's just gone.
Speaker 3: After least.
Speaker 2: Is that fly?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, totally flies.
Speaker 1: So we wanted to show you a picture of the
three of us that we had. This again, this isn't
Todd Starm Radio studio back at Fox.
Speaker 3: This is my twine.
Speaker 1: But the reason that we took note of it and
that we will never forget it, it is because you
and Daisy looked fantastic together, you and me. You were
so scared of me and like gave me such side
I and so that's why forever for me, it's like
one of those funny memories where I'm like, Kirk camer
gave me saidea.
Speaker 3: You guys, I.
Speaker 2: Don't remember, but it looked like, yeah, so I must
have felt something sketchy.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, she is scary.
Speaker 4: She's very very scary with her huge smile on those
big white thief she's very very intimidating.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you ladies for having me on Chicks on
the Right. I'm looking forward to talking with you about
the culture and about the state of family and politics
and spirituality or whatever it is that you guys want
to run with.
Speaker 4: Well, we're so excited to have you on. You're part
of at least I will speak for myself. I think
I also speak for MO. You're part of my childhood. Basically,
I feel like we grew up with you.
Speaker 3: So it's wait a minute, wait.
Speaker 2: A minute, it's all coming back to me now. I
don't remember meeting you on the Todd Starnshell, but I
thought you looked familiar from back in the nineteen eighties. Yeah,
it was the television screen.
Speaker 3: It was me other direction, totally me.
Speaker 4: We are both familiar, all gen xers. We grew up together.
So it's really just a pleasure to have you on
our show. We're gonna launch right it. So the first
thing I want to ask you about is there have
been a lot of stories over the past at least
really past year a couple of weeks, there have been
a lot that have popped up, really at least in
my socials, but about toxic masculinity and how I feel
like it's making a It's really weird that it's like
we're even talking about masculinity making a comeback. It should
have never gone out of style. But I feel like
it's coming back, like the pendulum is swinging back. And
I just I want to see what you think about
masculinity making a comeback. As a father, a man of faith,
what you think about you know, or how you feel
about men and how they've been treated over the past,
you know, ten twenty years and masculinity making a comeback.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think that's a good question. I've not
talked about it per se, but and now that you ask,
you know, I just I think that the men who
have allowed masculinity to be minimized should lose their man card.
I mean, it's just inherently a lack of masculinity to
allow masculinity as men to fall by the wayside or
to be defined by feminists who would like to tell
men what it actually means to be a man. And
so we've also seem to have been confused about what
masculinity actually is. So with the advent of trans men
and males having children, babies getting pregnant, this has all
become very very confusing for our young boys. And I've
got three sons who talk with me about dad, what
does it mean to be a man in today's culture,
when Harry Styles is wearing a dress and half the
dudes I know are painting their nails, and you know,
we don't want to be judgmental, we want to be loving.
But is there not such a thing as truth? Is
there any Is there any objective objectivity to gender and
to and to sex. So I think that masculinity, according
to my worldview, is something that's inherent in good families,
in good societies, and that men and women are compliment
each other, and that women don't make don't make great
worlds without men, and men don't make great worlds without women.
I don't think we're meant to. God could have made
Adam and Steve, but he didn't. He made Adam and Eve,
And rather than making the first two people redundant in
terms of their gender, he made them a harmony between
male and female, and together they produce this miracle called children,
and they populate a world full of people who are
meant to love God and love one another and and
be a blessing. So I'm thrilled to the degree that
real masculinity is making a comeback. And I too, have
met lots of people who have talked about uh, this
need to figure it out again and get back to it,
because we see the results of bad ideologies, you know,
as soon as as soon as masculinity becomes toxic by
pointing out some bad versions of masculinity, that's the slippery
slope that sees masculinity go down the drain altogether. That's
not good for men, and it's definitely not good for women.
Speaker 3: It's not good for society.
Speaker 2: And and and my daughters are asking the same question, Dad,
where are all the men? Don't I don't want it right, Like,
we're all for compassion in men, we're all for uh,
these kinds of things. But the last thing I want
is a feminine man. Where's the guy in, you know,
with the boots and the forward truck, who's going to
be ready to save me from someone or something that's
trying to hurt me. I want to protect her and
I want to provide her. I want someone who's going
to be a spiritual leader in my life. I want
someone who's got some testosterone that manifests in solid masculinity.
Speaker 3: That's right, Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: And you and your wife, Chelsea, you've been married for
over three decades and you're such a good example for
a traditional man, woman, family marriage. And so a lot
of people I know had difficulty in the election when
it came to especially evangelicals. A lot of people have
trouble with Trump and sort of his brashness and his style.
Shall we say, And I know you were asked recently
how to square Trump's behavior within scripture? And I thought
that was an interesting question that you were asked, and
you had an interesting answer. I was hoping you could
share it with our audience.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't remember exactly what I said, but i'll
I'll hit refresh and try it again. Jordan Peterson said
something very interesting. He said, if you're worried about the
danger of strong men, wait till you see what dangerous
thing weak weak men are capable of. And uh, we
don't need weak men. We need strong men. Now. We
don't need meet men who are domineering and who take
dominion over women or over other men. What we want
is to under to have a good understanding of what
it means to be strong and courageous, what it means
to be protective and to be a leader. And so
with regard to Donald Trump squaring with biblical values, I
would I would say that, you know, we could talk
about the category of morality. We could talk about the
category of politics and policy, his personal life, his public life.
There are many things for which I am very grateful,
and one of them is that the nation did not
choose the horrible, wicked alternative of a democratic party that's
been hijacked by an extreme leftist regime that is careening
us straight down the sewer hole toward tyranny and bondage.
The federal government, as is true in the history of
all nations, is always looking to expand. George Washington likened
it to a fire. He said, you know, government is
like a fire. It's good when it remains a servant.
If I make a little fire, I can cook my
eggs on it. I can make a campfire in my
backyard in the fire pit, and I can roast marshmallows
with my kid and warm my hands by its heat.
But if it grows and it's uncontained, it begins to
spread and it will consume everything in order to grow bigger.
And now you have a southern California wildfire that consumes
ten thousand acres and one hundred thousand structures, and it
is massively damaging. That's what's happened in China, That's what's
happened in other nations around the world where liberty has
been consumed and devoured, and that could happen in the
United States of America too. So with regard to Donald Trump, yes,
people can say, well, what's with all of the powerful
mandates and this top down ordering. Yeah, we're in trouble
right now. But I think he sees himself as someone
who's got four years to make good on the promises
of draining the swamp and trying to turn the ship
around before we go off go over the falls. And
so ultimately I like that he is protecting women, that
he is protecting the borders. I love that he is
doing so much for the pro life movement and protecting babies.
I love what he's doingmically. I also I love that
he acknowledges that he's going to be gone in four
years and says, guys, this is just something tory, like
a chiropractic adjustment. I'm going to try to put this
right lesson. But ultimately, you guys are the muscles that
need to hold it here, and if you don't, the
whole thing's going to get out of joint again. So right, Like,
I'm helpful, but this is not the way you want
to run your country long term.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's kind of like rewriting the narrative and it
goes back to the whole masculinity thing. I think conservatism
is obviously part of that, where you know, Mack and
I we've been doing this for I don't even know
how many, like almost sixteen years now, we've been chicked
on the right and that pendulum. It just we saw
it swing so far to the left and we were like,
is it ever going to come back?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, And I.
Speaker 4: Feel like it's starting to come back because I look
at gen zers.
Speaker 3: You know, I have a fifteen year old.
Speaker 4: You know, we have older kids that are millennials, but
we also have a fifteen year old, and I see
people kids her age that are openly Christian, openly conservative.
They're doing that more so than the previous generation, or
at least what I've seen I think, I mean, and
I'm and it's refreshing to see that. Like they're just
like loud and proud about it. They're loud and proud
of it because we saw for so many years a
lot of people would write us and say I'm conservative,
but I'm afraid to say it out loud, you know.
And now we're seeing kids going, yeah, I'm Christian, Yeah
I'm conservative. Yeah, I'm going to say it out loud,
and I love that. What do you what are your
feelings on that? Do you think that that's going to continue?
Speaker 2: So you know, my my crystal ball broke. So my
thought is that, uh, it's good. Yeah, Conservatives and people
of biblical faith are are saying I'm gonna I want
to come out of the closet and I want to
be loud. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not a fan
of being proud, but I understand in the good sense
you you want to represent your values. But being loud
and being proud doesn't make you right. We have other
groups who are loud and proud, and it's not right.
It's actually damaging children, leading to chemical castration and physical
mutilation of boys and girls in the name of being
loud and proud. And so just like the Rainbow religion
used to be in the closet, but now out of
the closet, loud and proud with parades, Conservatives have felt
like they've been in the closet when the pendulum swung
that left way, and now they're coming out and being
loud and proud. So I think that what our hope
is is not a choice between left or right and
being loud and proud. It's really the age old choice
between up or down. It's either up to the ways
of God, which lead to maximum liberty under law and
Heaven's principles of truth, beauty and goodness, or we go
down to the ant heap of totalitarianism and bondage. So
we just need to really get back to the issue
of the heart. I think the heart of the issue
is always the issue of the heart. Do we love
God and his truth and his ways. Are we going
to follow them which have always led led historically to
liberty and goodness and blessing. Or are we going to
follow our own ways, which lead to tyranny and confusion
and stress and the breakdown of family and the overreach
of government.
Speaker 4: But if there's one thing I think I was just
going to say, there's one thing for sure that in
the United States, nobody should live in fear of how
they feel about you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: No, we shouldn't live in fear if I can if
I can sound a little cliche here, but I mean
it truly. Except without the fear of the Lord, everything
falls apart because you will then begin to fear other people.
You'll begin to fear what they think of you. You'll
begin to fear that you'll be persecuted because of your values.
And then everyone runs back into the closet. They tuck
their head back into their turtle shell because they don't
want to get their head chopped off. So, yes, we
don't want to be afraid of doing what's right, right right.
Speaker 1: Well, and I think to Daisy's point, you know when
she used the phrase loud and proud, and I think
she and we mean it in a positive way in that, yes,
so many people have been afraid to speak out, and
it's been so I mean, we cannot tell you the
number of messages we get from people who are like,
can you say this on your show, but don't put
my name on it because I don't want I'm afraid
for my job, I'm afraid what my friends will think.
And so to that extent, we're super excited to see
particularly young people now that pendulum is swinging so that
they are become especially men I mean, Democrats are right
now spent about to spend twenty million dollars to figure
out how they lost young men to the MAGA movement,
and the answer is so clear that they've done everything
they can.
Speaker 3: To demonize them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to demonize them, to make them feel toxic, right,
And so I'm glad that those young men are starting
to find their voices. And I think that's what I mean.
I'm not speaking for you, Jason, I did what she meant.
Speaker 3: Listen, we share a brain, so you targetly.
Speaker 2: It's refreshing to hear it's refreshing. I love to hear
that I know exactly what you're talking about. And that's
why I you know, I just during COVID, I made
one hundred consecutive campfires in my backyard talking about courage
and bravery because we were under house arrest essentially in California,
under lockdown by our governor, and we couldn't get six
feet from another human being or go to school or
work or church or anything. And so I love that
people are feeling brave and courageous. We need it now
more than ever.
Speaker 3: Did you ever think about leaving California?
Speaker 2: I did, didn't you? I not only thought about it,
I actually did it. I now live in the state
of Tennessee. We've lived here for about a year, Okay.
Speaker 3: And it was COVID that drove you to do that, correct.
Speaker 2: No, it was our children that drew us to do that.
Our children grew up, they moved out of the house,
and several of them lived in Tennessee. So we moved
to be with them because we want to be with
our kids. And then all of our kids moved here,
and now we have a granddaughter here. So Sunday night
dinners are back in full swing. So great, and it's great.
We absolutely Tennessee, both California and Tennessee.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Tennessee's beautiful. I went to undergrad school in Tennessee.
It's beautiful. And then once you're there, you're like, why
did I ever? Why did I wait to come here
because it's so beautiful.
Speaker 2: Well, I can give people one reason to wait, and
that is the books.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So if you're not ready for a mosquito as your
state bird, don't come to the South.
Speaker 3: That's true. It's true. Yeah, it is true.
Speaker 1: I mean, Daisy's in Texas and I'm in South Carolina,
and we have our share of everything.
Speaker 2: Is California is just like bug free essentially in comparison.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, but California does have its faults, as you've
pointed out. I wonder, I mean, I know you said
that your kids are what drew you out of California,
But would you have stay? I mean, say that your
kids were still there, would you have stayed? Or do
you think you all would have been like Gavin Newsom
is ruining the state.
Speaker 3: We're out of here.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's hard to say. We love so much
about California. We have Napa Valley, we have Yosemite, we
have the ocean and the beach, we have the mountains,
we have great weather three sixty five. So we love
a lot about Tennessee. And God and his providence has
us here for now. This may just be a strategic
retreat where we learn how to build communities that are
centered around faith and family and liberty and then go
back and begin to plant those types of things in
places like San Francisco and southern California where they need
it so desperately.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I have a question about the Firefly the Firefly Foundation.
I get to say that fifteen times fast and Camp firefly.
Can you talk about those because I didn't know that
you did this and how did you get into doing this?
Because this was started back in what nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2: Yes, when I was on the show Growing Pains together
with my now wife Chelsea. We played boyfriend and girlfriend
at the time.
Speaker 3: We remember I was so jealous of her. Oh my gosh, right,
she's so beautiful. Jealous she is still she still is.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I didn't even know the hidden beauty in
her until we had six children and I saw that
whole side of my wife, which is just angelic. And
now we've been holding a camp for terminally ill chill
in their families for thirty five years, and it started
when we were on the set of Growing Pains, meeting
children through the Make a Wish Foundation and the Starlight Foundation,
whose wish was to meet the cast of Growing Pains.
So they would come with their mom and dad and
brothers and sisters and take a picture and then you know,
sign an autograph and they were gone, and we wanted
to do something more to help them during this difficult chapter.
So we started an all expense paid week long vacation
and invited not just the sick kids, like so many
camps do, and thank God for those camps, but the
moms and dads were never able to participate in the
activities and the siblings often get sidelined because of all
the attention that needs to go to the sick kids.
So we invited the whole family. We invite six every summer,
and so it's an intimate group of about seven families,
and we spend a whole week personally with them and
with our kids, doing everything from mom's makeovers, Queen for
the Day, pool parties and pinatas with Mexican food and
Hawaiian lu Al's on the beach and water skiing and
a wild animal park and golfing and everything to make
memories and find time to just connect as people who
love our families and we cherish our children. It's called
Campfirefly Love It and we're coming up on year thirty
six this summer, and we would love if people would
go check us out at the website and pray about
supporting these families so that we can love them well.
It's at campfirefly dot com and it's in Georgia, right,
It's in Georgia. It's at a family resort in Georgia
called Calloway Gardens.
Speaker 4: I know exactly where that I grew up in Georgia,
so I know exactly where that is. It's just fantastic.
I hope people will definitely check that out.
Speaker 2: I hope so. I hope so too. We want to
keep doing this, yes, but we need we need help
and support absolutely.
Speaker 1: So tell people because I don't know if everyone knows
that you are an author of a kid's BOOKOK right, yes,
so talk about that, and then also let our audience
know what other projects you have going on currently and
where people can keep up with you.
Speaker 2: So there's this really wonderful company called Brave Books, and
Brave has this Book of the Month club where they
send a brand new book with a pro God pro
America value to your doorstep every month. And these are
books that teach children about the fruit of the spirit,
like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control,
and the First Amendment and the Second Amendment and all
kinds of great things like warning about socialism, understanding the
importance of telling the truth to your parents, and overcoming
your own fears, how to navigate the lives of culture.
So I wrote a book called As You Grow, and
I had a great idea to go to a public
library and read it as a story hour to children,
and I was denied by over fifty woke libraries that
previously held drag Queen's story hours.
Speaker 1: In those you have shown up in a dress.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I bet.
Speaker 2: If I came in fishnet stockings and high heels, I would.
Speaker 3: Have been welcome totally DS But yep.
Speaker 2: That outfit never looked good on me. And so I
went as I was. And when we showed up, we
were greeted by thousands and thousands of parents and grandparents
who want to return to the values that they know
built this country and will lead to their children's blessing
and protection. So we've written many of these books, and
we've also turned them into beautiful colorized, animated plus live
action television episodes in a new series called Aggy and
Mister Kirk. So think of mister Rogers neighborhood for our generation,
for families today, with sesame street like puppets, including a
little green, adorable iguana named Iggy that I'm raising in
my treehouse in mister Kirk's backyard, and he has to
learn all of these lessons that normal five year olds
have to learn, like identity and trusting God and telling
the truth, what do you do when you wet the bed?
And forgiveness. And he has friends, including a vulture named
Culture who's always lying to him and deceiving him. And
he's got to rely on his mom and dad for wisdom,
and he has access to a base Chat GPT, a
non woke supercomputer who can tell him the truth. And
it's just a runaway hit on Brave Plus. It's just
about to be released on the Angel Studios app where
you watch the Chosen and Pure flicks, so it's very exciting.
It's called Iggy and Mister Kirk and people can can
find out and watch it at braveplus dot com or
download the Brave Plus app on your phone or TV awesome.
Speaker 1: And then you've got a show or a couple of
different shows.
Speaker 2: Tell us about those well. I host a talk show
on Monday nights called Takeaways, where I interview everybody from
astronauts to atheists, pastors to politicians. Is really fun. I
learn a lot. And I just launched a brand new podcast.
It's called The Kirk Cameron Show, where I tackle politics
and culture from a biblical perspective and help families find
truth in a culture of chaos and find hope and peace.
And new episodes drop every Monday, Wednesday, Friday on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Awesome very well, it's been a joy to talk with you,
and I do forgive you for the side I'm.
Speaker 3: Going to be over it now.
Speaker 1: I'm just glad we got to show you the picture, honestly,
because I've thought about it so many times and we
posted about it, and I've it's been my claim to
fame really that I got side eye from Kirk Cameron.
Speaker 3: I got her growing pains. Basically, glad.
Speaker 2: I'm glad I could, uh glad I could make for
a good a good story totally.
Speaker 4: It's what a pleasure. It's just been a joy talking
to you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Yes, we appreciate you you as well. Thank you for
all your important work. Keep it up. We really needed
paint