By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Kentucky Christian University held their annual fundraising event Gala, and this year’s guest speaker was actor Kirk Cameron. Cameron is best known for his role as Mike Seaver in the popular television sitcom Growing Pains which first aired in 1985 and ran through 1992. More recently Cameron is known for his appearance in Christian themed works such as the Left Behind series and as an author and public speaker.
KCU President Dr. Terry Allcorn welcomed everyone to the event and recognized the students from the Worship Collective who provided live music for the event. Allcorn also congratulated the members of the university that provided the meal for the evening.
“Many people have been involved with making this event happen,” Allcorn told those in attendance at the sold-out event. “And I want to say that we appreciate everyone and their hard work.”
Allcorn took a moment to speak about the school itself, and where it was currently and planned to be in the future.
“It isn’t every day you have this many people in the same room together,” President Allcorn said. “So, I’d like to talk about the school a bit.”
“It’s an exciting time at KCU,” he continued. “As I look at higher education, and what is happening out there, it’s my view that innovation and change is only going to get faster. And I believe that universities, no matter their size, that embrace innovation and maybe an entrepreneurial spirit will be the ones that thrive. And at KCU that innovation has to sit, must sit, on the foundation of the timeless truths of scripture.”
After discussing some of the goals on the horizon for the university, Allcorn then turned the stage over to KCU Director of Community Outreach Danny Stamper.
“The idea for this Gala began over three years ago,” Stamper told the crowd. “I wanted to figure out what we could do to get people on campus and show them what God is doing at KCU.”
“This Gala is the first step,” he continued, explaining, “it is a fundraiser to support student scholarship.”
“This evening we welcome Kirk Cameron as our keynote speaker,” Stamper told the audience. “He is an actor and filmmaker best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the 1980’s show Growing Pains, and documentaries such as Monumental and the Home School Awakening. He hosts the Kirk Cameron Show on YouTube and starred in the movie Fireproof.”
Stamper also mentioned Cameron reading children’s books and hosting See You at the Library.
Cameron then took the stage and thanked the crowd for attending.
“I think it was one of the most meaningful moments of my entire life,” Cameron began. “I was sitting in my sports car at 17 and a half years old and had just finished a day of work on the television show Growing Pains. I had just dropped a girl off at an acting class, and I was praying for the very first time as an atheist to a God who I didn’t even believe in.”
“The reason I was praying was that I couldn’t get out of my mind a sermon that I had heard the weekend before,” Cameron explained. “Atheists don’t normally show up in church. But I had met this girl. She was really cute, and I asked her out on a date.”
Cameron went on to tell the crowd that the only way he could get near her, according to her father, was if he met them at church on Sunday morning. The young actor of course agreed to the father’s terms and said that he was “blown away” by the pastor who talked about the God of the Universe creating the heavens and the earth and everything in them.
“I had never heard this story before,” Cameron admitted.
The message he heard that Sunday morning, Cameron said, radically changed his life for the better. One thing that truly stuck with the then young man was the realization that in spite of the fall of man from God’s Grace yielding what he deserved, God himself deployed, as Cameron said, a “Rescue Mission” in the person of Jesus Christ. This single sermon, listened to in exchange for the opportunity to go on a date with a “really cute girl,” was what Cameron credited with the beginning of his life of Christianity.
Cameron spoke at length on many subjects but stressed that he believed that Christian based education was the hope of the world. He said that everyone must do all they can to ensure that children have Christian education available to them, to help them grow spiritually, and develop a lifelong thirst for knowledge.
On a political front, Cameron quoted Noah Webster who said that every civil government is built on some religion or philosophy of life.
“The education of that nation will propagate the religion of that nation,” he continued the quote. “In America (Webster said) that religion was Christianity.”
Cameron told the crowd that given the current political climate, many people might think that “we are coming to the end,” and that history itself was about to wrap up. However, he countered that possible opinion with the thought that the current climate is leading the country and the world toward a positive change.
“What if the current cultural setback is really a divine setup for a spiritual comeback?” Cameron asked the audience.
The spiritual comeback, Cameron said, would be led by the family of faith.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
