Here’s a brief history of Kirk Cameron, for readers too young to remember the 1980s: back then, Cameron was famous and very popular among teenage girls for playing Mike Seaver, a beloved sitcom character with a best friend named Boner.
Then things got weird. Cameron started practicing the particular brand of Christian fundamentalism that denies evolution in favor of Biblical creation narratives. In 2006, he inspired mass online wincing when he and creationist Ray Comfort made a video arguing that bananas prove the falsehood of evolution (a Creationist argument so often debunked, it has its own name: the banana fallacy).
More recently, Cameron inspired another controversy when he told CNN’s Piers Morgan that gay marriage, gay people and homosexuality in general are “unnatural,” “detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.”
The controversy continues to rage on Twitter.
Cameron’s old sitcom co-stars quickly tweeted denouncements of their old colleague’s bigotry, and the non-celebrities on Twitter are every bit as disapproving.
Former fans of Cameron mostly wished they weren’t. One tweeted: “Me too!!RT @TheAdvocateMag Sarah Colonna: “Wish I could go to the 80s & un-buy that Kirk Cameron poster.””
Another mourned, “And to think I LOVED Kirk Cameron as a kid…. :( ”
But not all former fans abandoned all hope: “Wish I never had a Kirk Cameron poster on my wall. I’m sure someday he’ll wake up.”
Proponents of mainstream Christianity were quick to distance themselves from Cameron’s version of it: “Kirk Cameron, STOP OPENING YOUR MOUTH. You make Christians sound like psychos.”
Others figured Cameron was being deliberately provocative to get headlines: “The only reason Kirk Cameron said those things on Piers Morgan is because he’s got a new documentary he needs publicity for.”
Those who weren’t offended by Cameron thought of him as a sad, smutty joke. @badsandwich said: “I don’t know about the ‘athiests nightmare’ but I can say for sure that my dreams involve Santorum and Kirk Cameron 69ing. #theirdreamstoo”
(That “nightmare” comment is a banana fallacy reference; Creationist Ray Comfort argued that bananas are so good at proving evolution is a lie, they’re the “atheist’s nightmare.)
As Kirk Cameron’s name started generating hundreds of new tweets per minute, Badsandwich wasn’t the only one to recall Cameron’s odd scientific views. Kristen Johnson tweeted a link to another Cameron video: “This guy is totally fucking nuts…kirk cameron takes on charles darwin.”
Many celebrity-gossip fans simply retweeted headlines about the outrage Cameron’s remarks spawned among fellow celebrities: “Kirk Cameron Backlash: Alan Thicke, Craig Ferguson, Debra Messing, More Slam Gay Hate Spee[ch]”
Others took schadenfreudy pleasure in reading these stories: “lol. I think Kirk Cameron pretty much just black listed himself in hollywood. sooo many celebs hate him now.”
Yet other Twitterers doubted it would affect Cameron’s career either way: “Does anyone seriously give a fuck what Kirk Cameron has to say ? He is just a washed up scumbag bigot.”