Kirk Cameron could have ended up as yet another sitcom star gone bad.

Instead, the teen heartthrob from the ’80s sitcom “Growing Pains” became a parent, headlined one of the biggest movie sleepers in recent memory (“Fireproof”) and today addressed the conservative conference CPAC about his latest project.

Cameron’s “Monumental,” hitting theaters next month, mourns a nation in decline and looks to the past for a brighter future. The actor turned activist told CPAC attendees why he made the film:

As I look around I get this sinking feeling that we’re off track, that there’s something sick in the soul of our country,” Cameron told those gathered at the conservative conference in Washington on Thursday. “I examine the fruit that’s hanging on the tree of America and I can see that it’s rotting. And that concerns me deeply.”

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Hard for me to imagine, but I am now 41. Amazing. It seems like yesterday my poofy mullet and parachute pants were all the rage, and Prince had a #1 hit on the radio. Now I’m married to the most beautiful woman, raising six children, and living the American dream. Our country has changed so much since my days of fighting with Carol and Ben on TV. America has always been known as “the land of the free” and “the home of the brave.” It’s the richest, freest nation the world has ever seen. Everyone wants to live here. But as I look around, I’m left with a sinking feeling that America is losing her way. Big time. The soul of our country is sick, and history shows me we are headed for disaster if we don’t change course now.

I’ve been looking around for answers, but all I hear is noise. Everyone is pointing fingers at the Left or the Right, blaming Hollywood or Capitol Hill. Time is flying by too quickly for petty arguments. My children’s future won’t wait. I’ve got to do something now.

Here’s my hunch: Could it be that we have simply forgotten what made us such a great nation in the first place? So many people are waiting around for our leaders to come up with a grand plan to save our nation. But is that really how America got started? What if things actually work the other way around? What if real change doesn’t start at the top but at the bottom? What if the best place to begin transforming our country is not the Oval Office but the dinner table?

For the past year and a half, I’ve been making a film called “Monumental,” and I am thrilled to announce that it’s coming to theaters on March 27. We are creating a live, one-night national event in 500 theaters where audiences can experience a monumental moment together. Then we will release the film in theaters in select cities, while providing helpful new resources to families, churches, and schools who want to go further with what they’ve experienced in the film.  (more…)

Obviously Steven Hawking is a very bright guy, but his elitist hostility towards those who have an explanation for something neither he nor anyone has ever been able to explain, is rather bizarre.

Fox 411:

Last week, award-winning scientist and best-selling author declared that the belief in heaven or an afterlife is a “fairy story” for people afraid of life after death. …

That complete rejection of the existence of God infuriated Evangelical Christian Kirk Cameron, who shot back at the world-famous scientist with his own retort—prove it! 

“Professor Hawking is heralded as ‘the genius of Britain,’ yet he believes in the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything and that life sprang from non-life.” The former teen heartthrob steamed to TMZ. “Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking’s writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came?”

Cameron’s exactly right. Hawking’s making a scientific statement based on zero evidence. Where’s the scientific recreation of Hawking’s belief? Where’s the creation of life out of matter that isn’t already alive? Where’s the creation of something out of nothing? The Big Bang doesn’t explain what created the Big Bang and no one can truly wrap their mind around the infinity of space.  As far as I’m concerned, it requires the summoning of more faith NOT to believe in God than the other way around. Honestly, I don’t know how atheists do it.

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Last fall, a small, unheralded movie called Fireproof (IDP/Samuel Goldwyn) arrived in theatres and became a huge surprise hit and among the most profitable movies ever made (at least according to budget-to-gross ratio). Now that the film will be released on DVD this Tuesday (January 27), I thought it was worth revisiting the mysterious recipe for the movie’s success.

“I’m not impressed with Hollywood in general. They don’t make a lot of movies that lift our standards and morality.” That’s what director Alex Kendrick told me in a telephone interview on the Monday after his new movie Fireproof generated a downright shocking $6.5 million opening weekend. Despite never being on more than 839 screens, the little Christian-themed indie released on September 26 finished its theatrical run with a stunning $33.4M in ticket sales. Los Angeles and New York are filled with talented film professionals, who spend countless hours and millions upon millions of dollars making movies. The cost of development, production, a director, actors and marketing make the craft of filmmaking prohibitive. So how did a little church in Georgia score a legitimate box office hit?

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