"Christmas is for everyone because everyone needs a Savior," says Kirk Cameron in a broad interview addressing not only his new film (in which St. Nicholas "looks a lot more like Willy Robertson) but also the crisis of Christian persecution and other ills afflicting today's world."
In an interview with Assist News Service founder, Dan Wooding, for his Front Page Radio show, Cameron shared about his latest movie, "Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas," that will open in select theaters on November 14, 2014, for two weeks only.
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| (Santa Ana, CA)—Hollywood actor Kirk Cameron is on a special quest— to save Christmas. |
The popular actor said he thinks Christmas is the most important holiday of the year. "I love Christmas," he said. "I love everything about it. It's my favorite time of year—I just love when all the Christmas cookies are being baked, love the smell of chestnuts being roasted over a fire. I love Christmas trees and the Christmas carols setting up the nativity, everything. But Christmas is falling on hard times these days.
"It seems more and more commercialism and secularism is pushing 'the Baby in the manger' to the back seat. And while many might like to see Christmas deleted from the calendar, I think that Christmas ought to be put front and center especially at this time of year."
Cameron then commented that his new feature film, which he says, is going to teach people a lot about the true meaning of Christmas.
"This is a story about my sister who is throwing a Christmas party at her house and everyone's having a great time—except her husband who is sitting in his car in the driveway sulking and complaining that all the decorations and festivities are not what Christmas is all about. And so I go out to the car and teach him how to see Christmas through new eyes.
This is my real sister, named Bridget—many people know my sister Candace from Full Houseand Dancing With The Stars—but my sister Bridget is in this movie with me, and if people thought Candace was a great dancer in Dancing With The Stars, wait till they see my sister Bridget doing some of her hip hop dance moves and me joining in with some break dancing!"
The movie is going to be released in theaters all over the country November 14. "So that is opening weekend, and the important weekend for people to get their tickets," he said. " In fact, we're encouraging them to get their tickets early and plan ahead with their family or their church and they can get their tickets now at www.Savingchristmas.com. If they go to the website they can type in their zip code and the theater near them will show up on the screen."
Kirk Cameron said he doesn't star as himself in the movie, but plays a different character with a different name, and added that he wrote it together with a couple of other people on his team. The movie, he stated, has been in production since last Christmas.
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| (Photo via SavingChristmas.com) |
What is his message to people who've become sick of watching all the Christmas ads on TV?
"Well, that's what Charlie Brown said in his Charlie Brown Christmas special that he's really not sure what Christmas is all about, and he kept asking people to tell him. 'Will someone please tell me what Christmas is all about because all these other things seem to have gotten in the way?' We can see that again today where so much of the commercialism and all of the advertisements can really crowd out the baby Jesus.
"But there's also a group of people that want to say that we shouldn't celebrate the birth of Christ at all and secularists would love to pull down every manger scene and get rid of it. And there's even people in the church [who] want to say if you want to honor Christ you should not celebrate Christmas because Christmas originally, they say, was a pagan holiday. So Christmas trees are bad, and St. Nicholas is bad, and gift giving really misses the point. And I strongly disagree—that's my point in Saving Christmas."
Cameron continued: "I think that there is an increasing hostility towards, not just Christmas, but all things Christian here in America. Now you know, I'm believing for a revival in the hearts of people. You can see a culture that's turned its heart away from God. We look at the founding of our country, and Benjamin Franklin said that it was very difficult to go anywhere and find someone who was not a Christian. And so, we've certainly made a big shift, but I think Christmas is a story that is so powerful that it can turn the hearts of a nation back. And that's why I want to highlight it in Saving Christmas."
If Cameron was one of the Wise Men, visiting the baby Jesus, and he could have said something is there anything he would have liked to have said to Jesus?
"Oh, I don't think, I don't believe so, I don't think I would have said anything, but I would have simply fallen on my knees in worship!"
How does the story of Christmas trees and St. Nicholas relate back to God's ongoing story for his children and the birth of Jesus?
"When I grew up, I certainly knew all about Santa Claus, but I didn't know anything about St. Nicholas. And what I bring out in 'Saving Christmas' is the truth behind the real Santa Claus. And Santa Claus is a character wrapped up in fairytale packaging over the centuries. But when you take all of that away you actually have a man named Nicholas who was a faithful Christian man who defended the doctrine of the trinity at the council of Nicaea and got into a fight with a heretic in order to keep the Nicene Creed intact, with Jesus remaining God in human flesh. So Nicholas was a very important man in church history and he was also famous for giving gifts to children and helping the poor."
Does he bring that out in the movie?
"Well, we reenact the church council of Nicaea, and Nicholas getting into an altercation with the heretic at the church council. We reenact this whole thing."
He then quipped, "In 'Saving Christmas,' St. Nicholas looks a lot more like Willy Robertson.
So what does Cameron hope people will take away from it besides being astounded that he's a good dancer?
"Well, I hope that people will walk out of the theater and break into uproarious celebration and wrap both their arms around their Christmas trees, and get out their cook book and cook the most delightful meal they've ever made, and tell everyone about the story of this great king's kingdom and invite them in," Cameron said.
About Cameron's sister, Bridget, being in the movie, he said she's never been in the movies before, "but being in a family with two actors, me and my sister Candace [Cameron Bure], we've always said that the real entertainer in the family is our sister Bridget and she's never been on a television program. So we're excited for people to watch Bridget and I together, not just dancing, but acting
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| (Photo via SavingChristmas.com) |
Cameron was asked what was Christmas like growing up for him?
"Christmas for me growing up was a great time of year," he told Wooding. Like I said, it's always been my favorite time of year. And so we had the house decorated and my mom would always go to great lengths to make the Christmas tree just perfect with bows and ribbons and lights. We always looked forward to presents under the tree Christmas morning. You know, we've taken a lot of those Christmas celebrations and traditions and brought them into our house.
"My family today what we add to it is the Christmas carols all about the birth of Christ Christmas Eve. We have the great big dinner at our house and we talk to our kids about the angels and the shepherds and the wise men and the birth of Christ and Mary and Joseph and really use it as a time to celebrate this holy season."
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"Christmas is for everyone because everyone needs a Savior. I'd start there, and then I'd get tickets to see 'Saving Christmas' on November 14th with your family, and let that give you inspiration to make this the best Christmas ever."
As most Americans will be celebrating Christmas here in relative freedom, what does Cameron think about the people in Syria, Iraq or Pakistan who won't be able to sit down for a nice meal like we do and open gifts—they'll be in a refugee camp, they'll be suffering an awful lot of pain? How can we as Christians here in the West encourage them? Is there anything we can do?
"I think we need to be praying for them," he replied. "It's so easy to overlook what's going on in other parts of the world when we live in such relative freedom and abundance and prosperity. So we need to be praying for them. And what should give us great hope is that there are missionaries that go to these places to bring aid and to bring the Gospel.
"And remember America got to be what it is today because of some persecuted Christians. When you look at the separatists who were facing terrible persecution under the tyrant of their day and what they did is ultimately they wrapped their arms around their Bible and their children and they got on a boat and they went somewhere and they started a new community as families as churches which grew into the greatest nation on the planet that sent missionaries out all over the world to bring Heaven to the four corners of the Earth.
"My hope and prayer is that countries that don't know the Gospel, that don't know Christ, will have just a few who will be faithful and will share the Gospel. Even if it's not publicly, if they'll do it privately, treasure these things in their own heart like Mary did and share it with their children and the power of that Gospel is the power that will bring Heaven to Earth over time.
"So we need to be working together through prayer, through support, and through a big celebration here in America where we still do have that freedom, because that's important as well. We cannot hide it under a bushel. We should not NOT celebrate Christmas because others in other places cannot celebrate it. We should celebrate it more loudly and pray for those there so that they will have the strength to be able to hold on during these difficult times until freedom comes."
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