Kirk Cameron rose to fame as a young actor on the hit TV show Growing Pains. He took to religion while a teenage actor in Hollywood and for decades has been making TV shows and films focused on family and the faith arena. Lately, he authored a new children’s book called As You Grow that illustrates principles from the Bible. When he attempted to tour public libraries to do a story hour in each, he got pushback from the libraries, some saying “our messaging does not align.”
Cameron is not backing down from the opposition he has faced so far from the more than 50 public libraries that have refused him, speaking of “People who faced times that were much darker than what you and I are facing in America today. Political darkness during the time of the pilgrims in England was at an apex; you would have thought they would have completely given up hope. The government had hijacked the church and Christians were being persecuted.”
“They were being run out of the country by a woke mob and what did they do? They didn’t put their head between their knees and cry in their Chick-fil-A soup and wait for the Rapture while the culture deteriorated. They read their Bibles. And they got on a little boat and they sailed across the world to start a new society that would later become the freest, strongest, most benevolent and generous nation the world has ever known.”
Following the refusals, and the publisher Brave Books threatening to take legal action, two libraries that earlier refused have now joined those allowing the reading event: the Indianapolis Public Library and the Scarsdale Public Library.
News of the incident has been covered by conservative mainstream media and Christian news services. That libraries are coming around to this is a win for inclusivity. The same libraries holding readings that showcase books that are not “strictly conservative” will be holding readings based on the Bible. Both having a voice in the public forum shows the free society at work.