Kirk Cameron didn't need to reach rock bottom to become a Christian -- no plunge to the depths of despair or debauchery for the former teen idol and star of the 1980s sitcom "Growing Pains." He didn't awaken one day, surrounded by empty tequila bottles and prostitutes, then fear for his mortal soul and choose God over celebrity.
Instead, the smirking kid who gave us the impishly wholesome Mike Seaver for seven seasons on ABC was, according to his new autobiography, "Still Growing," just an indifferent atheist from the Valley who realized that becoming an adult meant far more than being a rich and successful young TV star.
Not that he doesn't continue to work his Hollywood mojo. It's just that now he does it less for himself than for what he considers a higher purpose. He has starred in a trilogy of movies based on the bestselling Christian apocalyptic "Left Behind" books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Later this year he will appear, gratis, as the only name actor in "Fireproof," a pro-marriage film made by Sherwood Pictures, a Georgia production company that uses the congregation of Sherwood Baptist Church as its primary, and unpaid, talent.
"I've never tried to intentionally re-create Kirk Cameron as this religious guy," Cameron said recently, sipping iced tea at the Wood Ranch in Agoura Hills, a hangout for him and his wife of 17 years, Chelsea Noble, and their six children (ranging in age from 5 to 11, with four adopted). The 37-year-old actor can still muster the patented Mike Seaver grin -- you know, the one that provoked wincing from his overachieving TV sister, played by Tracey Gold, and affectionate exasperation from his TV parents, Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns. However, Seaver's appalling wardrobe of '80s staples has been replaced by simple jeans and a zip-neck sweater, and Cameron himself now looks more like an alumnus of a Midwestern college fraternity than a guy who has been acting since age 9.
He insisted that he undertook "Still Growing" -- published by Ventura-based Regal, which has also brought out inspirational titles from UCLA coaching legend John Wooden -- not to revive a stalled career nor to enlarge the flock of his ministry, the Way of the Master, which he conducts with New Zealander Ray Comfort (among other things, they advocate "intelligent design" and are critical of evolution theory).
