Kirk Cameron Extinguishes Divorce in New Movie

Kirk Cameron Extinguishes Divorce in New Movie

plays porn-addicted fireman in $500,000 Christian production

When I started out my journalism career, I certainly never thought I'd be writing a story about Kirk Cameron, Charles Darwin, divorce, bananas, and internet pornography. Good holy God, I love my job.

The story so far: Our boy Kirk made a movie called "Fireproof" about a Christian family on the brink of divorce. Kirk plays the cyber-porn-addicted fireman who has fallen out of love with his wife, a hospital public relations representative who's getting jiggy with a coworker. Kirk's dad, knowing that there's trouble at the mill, gives his son a book of — wait for it! — "love dares" and challenges him to make his marriage work in 40 days.

Oh, yes. I did say "love dares".

The movie had a production budget of only $500,000 and features a very sexy silhouette of a firefighter on the promo poster, a firefighter who I very much doubt is Kirk Cameron. Kirk was last seen weighing about 125 pounds on YouTube, advising that Darwinism is disproven because God invented the banana.

In recent interviews, Kirk has said that divorce is the big white elephant in the room, the thing that nobody wants to talk about. Kirk, I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

This website wouldn't exist if people didn't want to talk about divorce. Its success proves that people going through the divorce process need an outlet, a community, and a place to reach out. As a culture, we've spent far too long not talking about divorce, and where has it really got us?

While every cell in my body wants to tear this movie to shreds, I can't. As a cynical, non-churchgoing urbanite, it's easy to brush this kind of movie off, but I think that's a big mistake. There's a tremendous need that it's filling.

In this country alone, there are millions of practicing Christians, and there are millions of crumbling marriages. Where those demographics intersect, there are couples in an amount of pain virtually incomprehensible by anyone on the outside. Divorce as a person of any faith entails more than the normal pain that comes with separation. Not only do you feel like you're failing yourself, your husband, your kids and your community — you feel like you're failing God.

If this movie makes even one couple fall back in love, keeps only one family under the same roof, enables just one more golden wedding anniversary, that's half a million dollars well spent.