Kirk Changes His Mind About an Important Issue

Taking a big step in an unlikely direction, Kirk Cameron has changed his views on gay marriage. This is to say, he no longer hates it with the same passion he once did. This isn't to say that he's totally on board with same-sex marriage, but rather that he realizes he and the like-minded people of his denomination need to focus on their own issues. It seems he has started living by the old adage, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all... And also, we really need to deal with these fornicators and adulterers, so really we don't have time for the gay marriage thing anyway."

The actor turned evangelical, spoke with the Alabama website AL.com about his new opinions. Cameron explained,

When people get too focused on redefining marriage, you're distracted from the bigger problem — fornicators and adulterers. If the people sitting in the pews are fornicators and adulterers, the church will destroy marriages much more quickly than those outside the church. When God's people mock marriage, God doesn't take that lightly.

Cameron's getting at a point that supporters of same-sex marriage (or supporters of anything that doesn't directly effect anyone except those involved) have long made: If you don't support same-sex marriage, don't do it yourself. He just makes it in a round-about way because his focus is on fixing the problems he sees, not on fervently supporting gay rights.

Cameron went on to say,

I think the greatest threat to marriage is not other people's definition of marriage. The church isn't taking God's definition of marriage seriously. It's not other people sabotaging marriage that's the problem.

As Jay Michaelson of The Daily Beast pointed out, Cameron's new views could be "somewhat self-serving, since he is now crisscrossing the country offering seminars on marriage and relationships." It makes sense. If you're going to counsel people on their marriage problems, you need to come off as though you see a real importance — a heavenly importance — on marriage.

If Cameron really does believe what he's saying, it sounds like he's gotten a more practical grasp on what is going on in the world around him. There seems to be some recognition that not everyone has the same beliefs as himself and that's a pretty important thing to realize regardless of the topic at hand.