Faith and Family: Kirk Cameron’s Blueprint for Cultural Victory

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Daily Wire (company), Kirk Cameron, Equip Foods
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk, Brave Books
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Library of Congress
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Brave Books, Kirk Cameron
5. 15:00 – 16:46: Kirk Cameron

Notable quotes from "Faith and Family: Kirk Cameron’s Blueprint for Cultural Victory"

• Actor Kirk Cameron has become a formidable force in the culture, launching a children's book publishing company that's brought Christian values back to the industry, while also.

  about Kirk Cameron · at 0:04

• And that's really what inspired the books with Brave Books, the company, and the TV show called Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk.

  about Brave Books · at 3:27

• Ago we were being locked out of public libraries and this last year we were be we were invited by the Library of Congress, the most prestigious public library in the nation so…

  about Library of Congress · at 7:31

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Kirk Cameron — Person · 4 mentions · first at 0:04

Books & papers

• Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk — Book · 1 mention · first at 3:32
  And that's really what inspired the books with Brave Books, the company, and the TV show called Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk.

Companies & orgs

• Daily Wire (company) — Company · 2 mentions · first at 0:29
  Discuss his new projects and what he believes is key to winning the culture back on faith and family. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. This is a special edition of Morning Wire.
• Brave Books — Company · 2 mentions · first at 3:29
• Library of Congress — Company · 1 mention · first at 7:36

Sponsors

• Equip Foods — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 0:36
  This episode is sponsored by Equip Foods. The supplement industry is packed with bars masquerading as health foods loaded with sugar and artificial ingredients that leave you bloated and.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:04 Actor Kirk Cameron has become a formidable force in the culture, launching a children's book publishing company that's brought Christian values back to the industry, while also exposing the double standards of woke public libraries. He's also recently launched a new podcast and a new season of his children's show, Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kurt. In this episode, we sit down in studio with Cameron to discuss his new projects and what he believes is key to winning the culture back on faith and family. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. This is a special edition of Morning Wire.

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1:19 the cleanest protein bar on the market that already sold out once, go to equipfoods.com/wire and use code wire at checkout to get 25% off onetime purchases or 40% off your subscription order for a limited time. That's eqipfoods.com/wire and use code wire at checkout. Joining us now to discuss his many new projects and the battle for the culture is actor, producer, and host Kirk Cameron. Kirk, first of all, thank you so much for joining the show.

1:46 Thank you. Great to be here. It's so fun to have you in studio. So, I've been a big fan of yours for a long time.

1:50 Thank you. And we at Daily Wire, we've been really interested in the projects you've had going, particularly your children's projects. You have the book series. You have a new show of the second season coming out,

2:04 Iggy and Mr. Kirk, let's start there. What got you into that? Why did you feel compelled to produce that show?

2:11 Well, um I I think I started as a child actor in Hollywood and so I was thinking, what am I going to do with my life? And when I discovered that, hey, I've got a career that's sort of launched. Now I'm trying to build a life for myself. But once you become a dad and now I'm a grandfather, I'm beginning to think legacy and I'm beginning to think of um how can I help my children uh succeed and win? And one of the ways that I can do that is by playing the long game and investing in the moral spiritual health of my children and my grandchildren. So, uh, when I think of the impact that Mr. Rogers had on generations of families, I think, who's our guy today? Who's going to do that?

2:55 And with so many uh shows, good shows and good companies, and I think of Disney, and I think of Nickelodeon, and I think of others, and and and they sort of like bend with the political winds or the moral uh winds. I think, who's going to stay true to that north star set of values that leads to kids blessing and protection? And I'm like, um, if not me, then who? And I've got an opportunity. So, I'm going to start writing children's books and making children's television shows and partnering with people who are committed to the cause.

3:27 And that's really what inspired uh the the books with Brave Books, the company, and the TV show called Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk.

3:35 What has the response been to both of those Brave Books and Iggy? Well, it depends on who you ask. So, um the the drag queens don't like the books much. No. and the libraries that support uh progressive agendas don't like me entering much. In fact, 50 of them denied me access to the public library after holding drag queen story hours because they said our values don't align. Now, if you read the book that I wanted to uh read to the kids, it's it's a little book about faith, hope, love, um kindness, gentleness, and and self-control.

4:12 I'll get over my offense in a second and we can continue. And I thought, wait, I thought the rules were like diversity, equity, and inclusion. Why do you exclude me? Why why why not diversity of thought instead of this monoculture that the kids are getting? And when we went to the libraries because they realized they were going to get into legal trouble if they didn't let me in. Um, thousands of parents and grandparents showed up and said, "Thank you. We don't we don't want this other stuff, but we're being marginalized and silenced.

4:37 We want to get behind you and we want to be part of the army of compassion that can restore first principles and a love for America and a love for God to our children. And the accusation here or the the suggestion is that if you have a Christian worldview, it's inherently discriminatory. What's your counter to that?

4:59 Well, every view is inherently discriminatory. particularly the DEI view uh particularly the progressive inclusive view a as I experienced. So um I I've been run over by the tolerance bus uh several times. Um if someone's coming at you with a sign that says um um you know love everybody, be careful. They might whack you over the head with it. So what we need to do, I think, is just be honest about the fact that there's good and evil in the world. There are ideas that lead to liberty and blessing and then there's ideas that don't. Um I I think it was Stalin who said something like ideas are more powerful than guns. We don't let our people have guns. Why then would we let them have ideas?

5:45 Yeah. So the the truth is we all want something that we believe is good. And that means by definition we're discriminating against that which we think is harmful. And that's that's what I'm doing. The only difference is what is the basis for your worldview? What what is your value set rooted in? And mine would be rooted in um the value set uh of Moses that's been around for thousands of years and produced the world's greatest civilizations and uh ethical moral codes.

6:15 That would make sense, you would think, to a lot of people. You'd think and and we've known that for a long time. It's just that, you know,

6:22 uh every now and then we forget and we have to be reminded. So you said look, you saw and we we covered this extensively when this was happening with you on the in these libraries. We saw the footage of the people lining up to get in. You've seen a lot of support for that. H how has that operated in terms of behind the scenes or connections to other organizations and things? How does that play out in terms of getting the message out? I I guess I could say that that you know when when somebody takes a stand uh I think of Riley Gaines and I think of what happened with her and the competition. Um there are a lot of people who say yes finally somebody who's speaking the truth in a tough spot and we want to get behind her. So I'm I'm hoping that there are more actors, more creatives, more poets and storytellers and musicians and movie makers who get into that creative space.

7:15 Don't just abandon it to, well, it's been taken over by the dark side. No, no, no. There's things called great awakenings and revivals. We can get back to a a resurrection of first principles and do the right thing. Um, one of the things that I was personally super encouraged by was that uh, three years ago we were being locked out of public libraries and this last year we were be we were invited by the Library of Congress, the most prestigious public library in the nation so that we could read these same books uh, by the Trump administration. So super grateful and I'm very thankful for the shift in the direction of the winds uh, morally, politically spiritually

7:55 your show. So the the children's show um Iggy and Mr. Kirk. Yeah. Uh totally delightful. We again we we've created Bent Key. So we're very interested in the in children's content. And there's a philosophy at the heart of the show it seems like to me that is it's sort of like a learning through imperfection.

8:13 Yeah. Uh mistakes. How children learn. What's what is the the sort of driving philosophy of how you um how you organize an episode?

8:24 Yeah, great question. So, I think that the the at at the very base of every episode of Iggy and Mr. Kirk, which by the way is um a story of uh Mr. Kirk, who is has adopted a 5-year-old iguana and raising him in his backyard in a treehouse with a whole cast of colorful animal friends, including a vulture named Culture, who is always deceiving Iggy, lying to him about who he is and why he's here and and and who loves him and truth and all of that. but he has access to a based supercomput uh a nonwoke Siri chat GPT that's always telling him the truth. So he's learning lessons about identity and purpose and who he can trust. Uh we want kids to be able to identify with Iggy as a 5-year-old, six, seveny old and say uh I struggle with that same thing and this is what Iggy learned or this is what Iggy uh did. First he did the wrong thing then then he learned from Mr.

9:23 Kirk, his dad or his mom, and he did the right thing, and it turned out good. So, we we we we don't we want to hold out the moral code that we want children to work with, but we want the reality of the fact that that nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes. We're all working through it. We're wrestling with desires in our hearts and thoughts in our head that may be wrong or may be confusing us. And so, we need to have reliable guides like a mom and dad. Hopefully that's the ideal to to guide you and other resources uh even outside your family uh sources of truth and good friends that can help you as a child because um you know as whoever rocks the cradle uh rules the future something something like that. Whoever gets to tell the kids the bedtime stories, whoever gives sings them the the lullabies at night, you're shaping the next generation's hearts and minds. And so it's super important.

10:24 Was it important for you that a male you you happen to be a male, but a male was the key guide for Iggy?

10:33 Well, I I don't think that was a conscious thought. I mean, I had been writing books with Brave Books and so I was naturally uh the guy that was going to be at the center of the TV show that we wanted to make. So, um I don't think that I don't think that that was strategic on our part. Um selfishly, I want to be the guy cuz, you know, I want to be in the show and it's what I want to do with my life. But I do think that that strong, faithful, characterfilled, compassionate male figures are lacking in the media and that it is very good to have them uh modeling those qualities for children.

11:18 I want to turn to your podcast formats that are interesting to me. So you've about 6 months ago, as I understand it, you've launched a series of kind of different uh formats for different days of the week.

11:30 Oh, I see what you're saying. Your son, your son is in it. That's right. You're the podcast space is we as we have found, you know, it's a it's a crowded space. It's a complicated space. There's a lot of personalities. There's a lot of bad in it. There's a lot of good potential in it.

11:46 How why did you choose the formats and how is that going for you? Have you enjoyed uh this new season of your show?

11:54 Well, thank you for being intrigued with the format of of of our new show, the Kirk Cameron Show. Uh there really wasn't any any genius wisdom behind it. We couldn't figure out what kind of formatted we wanted to do. So, I thought, well, I I I want daily inspiration. Like, you know, I need help in a cup in the form of coffee every single morning. You know, I don't get started.

12:14 One cup. I'm a two I'm a two cup I'm a two cup guy with half and half. Okay. Um, me too. But but just in terms of like hope and courage when you're being depressed and discouraged by all the news that you see every day, how do I attack the day with joy in my heart? And I thought, let's do a morning inspirational session where I can help you to like root all your thoughts in truth and then inspire your faith and courage. So that's Mondays. Uh, and then on Wednesdays we have a dangerous conversation between me and my son who's 22. So, we just brought up the other day like how AI is affecting relationships and dudes are now marrying their chatbot because she's just so much more understanding and encouraging than his last girlfriend, right?

12:59 And that's okay. Uh to uh the nature of hell. Are we talking about divine wrath that results in annihilation or eternal conscious punishment? I mean, so we're diving into prickly topics. Um gentle parenting. I mean, we we could kind of go everywhere and people are really enjoying that. So, we didn't stop on Wednesdays and then Friday, I personally don't have time to listen to the news all the time. So, when someone gives me a weekly wrap-up of politics and pop culture, I'm like, "Thank you." So, I tried to do that through a biblical lens. And honestly, I'd love to pick just one, but people seem to enjoy all three, so we keep doing all three.

13:39 I think it's a I think it's a good move. I think it's just from me as somebody that's a connoisseur by necessity of podcasts,

13:47 I think it's a great idea and it's it's very enjoyable and the idea of um you're clearly a man with a mission and this is something that is a little prickly of a topic,

13:59 but the podcast space is inhabited by a lot of people um with that have different motives for being in it. And one of the things I'm drawn to about just in you in general is again you have a mission. It's very overt. It's not about you in the end. It is about presenting a message and like you've said uh repeatedly trying to restore the the country to a place of a more traditional uh views on things. A lot of that having to do with faith. Have you found it difficult in the podcast space to keep the message about the greater the greater message, you know, or is it is is there a temptation to to make these shows like we've seen with a lot of different podcasts more and more about the individual behind the m the mic rather than the larger message. You know what I mean?

14:49 You and you know where else that happens is in in um in churches. Yes. So, so I'm a I'm a Christian and so often you can find these personalitydriven churches where you start to suspect, is this really all about getting people to um fund their next building campaign and buy the pastor a new uh jet

15:07 or is it really about the greater message? And I I think that for me uh of course I I I recognize certain inherent truths uh never follow the political life advice of celebrities. So that kind of means don't listen to me uh in terms of your final authority. That's always a bad mood.

15:26 And I'm an actor from California. I mean, right, the land of fruits and nuts. I mean, everything anything can go sideways coming out of California.

15:33 We're a whole company from California. But I escaped and I now live here in Tennessee. There is the challenge for me because I've never done this before of balancing the logistics uh and and things like sponsors and funding and viewership all of that with the creative aspect and just the as the what is the aspirational value is that the right word um the inspirational value

15:59 and you've got to make both work and so um I try to have other people who take care of the logistics and the the finances and how all of that works to keep us on the air. And then I do the deep dives into studying and thinking and praying and learning and uh talking with people that help me have a better understanding of the world and then I try to communicate it as best I can.

16:24 As you do so, well, thank you so much for joining us and great great uh luck with the new series and all your new projects.

16:32 Thank you so much. Yeah, honored to be here and uh thank you. That was actor Kirk Cameron and this has been a special edition of Morning Wire.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Faith and Family: Kirk Cameron’s Blueprint for Cultural Victory"?

In order: 0:00 Daily Wire (company), Kirk Cameron, Equip Foods; 3:00 Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk, Brave Books; 6:00 Library of Congress; 9:00 Brave Books, Kirk Cameron; 15:00 Kirk Cameron.

What is mentioned in this Morning Wire episode?

6 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Kirk Cameron, Daily Wire (company), Brave Books, Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk, Library of Congress. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Faith and Family: Kirk Cameron’s Blueprint for Cultural Victory"?

The episode runs 17 min; the transcript is about 3,111 words in 39 timestamped sections.

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