On radio this morning, Glenn spoke to actor Kirk Cameron about his new documentaryUnstoppable. Kirk’s first film, Monumental, explored America’s founding principles, and his latest endeavor tackles a more theological theme that revolves around one of the most frequently asked questions: Why does God let bad things happen to good people?
Unstoppable is set to show in partnership with Liberty University at theaters across America for one night only on Tuesday, September 24 (information and tickets can be found here).
Read a rough transcript of the interview below:
GLENN: I am proud to call as a friend Kirk Cameron who is just a great, great guy. We worked with him on his movie Monumental, and we urge you to go see that. And if you haven't seen it yet, go rent it. Go buy it. Monumental, it's phenomenal. He's got a new movie out coming September 24th called Unstoppable, and it's based on the idea of, how can there be a God? How can he possibly let all these things happen? And where is your faith? Kirk Cameron, welcome to the program. How are you, Kirk?
KIRK CAMERON: Good morning. I'm doing great, Glenn. Nice to be talking with you.
GLENN: So tell me what tell me the motivation behind the movie that you've made.
KIRK CAMERON: Boy, you've still got me thinking about all these things you were just talking about before, before we started talking. I've got to switch gears here. The reason that I made Unstoppable was because this is this is something that's been gnawing at me lately because one of my very good friends, a 15 year old boy, Matthew Sangren, just passed away and died of cancer. In fact, last night I was in the emergency room with my grandfather who's just had a couple of heart attacks, and we're praying and we're singing and other families are weeping and wailing because of tragedy in their life, and this has just hit so close to home for me recently that I wanted to get to the bottom of this, of this faith wrecking question: Where is God in the midst of tragedy and suffering. And I'm trying to approach the subject without just an intellectual apologetic treatise connecting the dots between a loving god and the real existence of evil and tragedy but offering a holistic, emotional and spiritual answer that is nourishing to people's faith and helps them come out the other side of trials with their faith stronger rather than shredded and destroyed.
GLENN: I will tell you, Kirk, I am really concerned because I think we have such a lack of understanding, as a society and whole, a lack of understanding of who God is and how He works and how tragedy fits into that and everything else and, you know, just exactly what you're addressing. And I really, truly believe that with the dark days that could be on our horizon that they will be dark days because too many people will say, "Well, there can't be a God, and He's just..." and there will be others that say, "Well, He's angry at us" and everything else. No. No. God is there to comfort and to guide. And as we go astray, we will have the punishments ourselves because we are our walking on the wrong path will be our own punishment. He is always is there and He's always loving. And too many people I just saw it in our own circle of friends. Somebody passed away and they were inconsolable. The family was inconsolable. And Tania and I walked away and we said, you know, they claim they're Christians, but they don't really even understand the real† they will say, "Well, we're going to see him again," but they don't believe it. And that's the difference. If you really believe it, if you really apply it, tragedy can become something that is uplifting in a strange sort of way.
KIRK CAMERON: Well, I think that so much of what you're saying resonates in all of us. We understand that God has a plan for things and- but often we're just wrestling and struggling to understand what that plan is. And my approach in dealing with this question is I'm thinking, wait a minute. If maybe maybe I'm so close to my pain that I can't see past it. But if I could climb up into heaven's balcony and if I could have heaven's perspective on tragedy and pain, not just in my lifetime but throughout all of history, and I try to take you as a viewer back to the Garden of Eden where we have the very beginnings, the genesis of pain and suffering, and show you the murder of one brother by his other brother and go into the flood of the entire world and then through the nation of Israel, the crucifixion of the savior and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, you see that the author of the story has allowed tragedy from the beginning and somehow he's been steering all of it to work together for good for those who love Him and produce in you the very apex of the heart toward others when they go through trials.
GLENN: Kirk, I'm going to send you a link to a Man in the Moon because you're describing much of what we just did in a completely different format this summer and you need to see it and watch it with your kids because you'll love it. Your movie comes out on September 24th, Unstoppable. It is a one night event. It's a Fathom event. Go to Unstoppablethemovie.com. See this incredible trailer at Unstoppablethemovie.com. Facebook and YouTube originally blocked the links to this originally, didn't they?
KIRK CAMERON: Yes, they did. And we don't know if that was something that happened internally or simply a result of the safety mechanism that you can press on any video: Hey, click this if you want to report it as spam or unsafe. And if enough people click that, well, they could shut it down. So we had a few million people let Facebook know that they wanted to see it and they put it back up. So we're thankful for that.
GLENN: What a Christian way to answer that question.
STU: (Laughing.)
KIRK CAMERON: You know, it's the Kirk Cameron versus Facebook headlines that I'm standing in line to see.
GLENN: Kirk, it's always good to talk to you and it's always good to see you, and I hope we see you here in a couple of weeks when this is out and we'd love to do something again and try to encourage our audience to see your work because it is it's truly inspiring and it's good to see a good man of faith stand up and speak the truth as much as you do. Thank you very much.
KIRK CAMERON: Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be talking with you guys and please keep up the good work.
GLENN: You got it. Kirk Cameron, Unstoppablethemovie.com.