Kirk Cameron’s Insidious Christian Patriarchy Connections

Kirk Cameron was recently asked on CNN Piers Morgan Tonight about his views on gay marriage. Given what I know about Kirk Cameron and his connections not only to evangelicalism but to the more extreme Christian Patriarchy movement, his replies didn’t surprise me in the least. Apparently they surprised a lot of other people, though. GLAAD has launched a petition to “tell Kirk Cameron it’s time to finally grow up.”

Cameron, who was asked by Morgan his views on same-sex marriage, said homosexuality “is destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization,” and “unnatural.”

“Marriage is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the garden between Adam and Eve,” Cameron added. “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.”

The popular surprise and outrage at Kirk Cameron’s homophobic remarks shows the progress that has been made toward LGBTQ rights, but it also shows that people know very little about Kirk Cameron. In addition to ascribing to mainstream evangelical views with regards to things like gay marriage, Kirk Cameron has strong ties to Christian Patriarchy leader Doug Phillips, who has done much in the Christian homeschool movement to spread his ideas about women always being in complete submission to men. 

Click here to some pictures of Kirk Cameron with Doug Phillips, founder and president of leading Christian Patriarchy group Vision Forum, and Geoff Botkin, whose “200 Year Plan” details how his descendants will take control of New Zealand and make it into a theocracy, and whose daughters’ book So Much More and film Return of the Daughters has done so much to forward the Stay At Home Daughters movement.

Cameron has served as a speaker at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, where he won the 2009 Best Feature Film award for his 2008 film Fireproof. The San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival is the brainchild of Doug Phillips, created in an effort to reclaim the movie industry from Hollywood. The festival’s stated goal?

To encourage the production of films which inspire the highest ideals, the clearest and most noble biblical values, and which do so with a commitment to holiness. To motivate the next generation of Christian filmmakers to create “epistemologically self-conscious films” — films that reflect a distinctively and presuppositionally biblical worldview. We want our applicants to strive to bring “into captivity every [frame] to the obedience of Christ.

This Cameron/Phillips connection is by no means a one-time thing, or accidental. Doug Phillips has also founded the Christian Filmmakers’ Academy, and Cameron has taught there alongside Phillips and the Botkins and remains a perennial speaker. Doug Phillips’ blog highlights Kirk Cameron and his work quite frequently.

Oh, and let me add this. Vision Forum, Doug Phillips’ organization, sells and promotes the books of influential dominionist thinker Rousas Rushdoony, who advocates restoring Old Testament law and stoning anyone who happens to be gay. Given these connections, Kirk Cameron speaking out against gay marriage is pretty much the least surprising thing I’ve read about this week.

I’m glad people are expressing their outrage over Kirk Cameron’s remarks. I just wish more people understood Kirk Cameron’s connections and the depth of his extremism more fully.