Kirk Cameron Faces Backlash for Caroling Protest

Kirk Cameron Faces Backlash for Caroling Protest

By Movieguide® Staff

Christian actor Kirk Cameron participated in a caroling protest at a Thousand Oaks, California, mall earlier this week, garnering fierce backlash.

“If you’re not in the Christmas spirit yet, join us. … We’re going to be singing Christmas carols by candlelight,” Cameron said ahead of the event held on Dec. 13. “It will lift your spirit, and it will remind you of our great God-given liberties and our constitutionally protected rights, especially at this time of year, to gather, assemble, and to sing about the birth of our savior.”

About 500 people gathered at the mall, worshiping and singing carols while not wearing masks. The move directly defies California’s regional stay-at-home orders.

“Liberty and freedom are very fragile and they come with great responsibility,” Bill de la Pena said. “Continuing to hold large gatherings and ignoring all guidelines, I feel, is un-Christian.”

The protest is part of a larger movement called “Sing It Louder.”

“Feel like you’re done with all the mandates telling you how many people you can have in your home or how you’re supposed to eat or that you cannot sing?” said Texas pastor Steve Riggle in a video posted to the group’s website. “Here we are at the Christmas season, and there’s a way to stand up against that.”

Some of Cameron’s followers were less than supportive of the actor’s protest.

“This is one of the most irresponsible things I’ve seen lately,” one person wrote in reference to California’s spiking coronavirus infections. “To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin…”

Another fumed, “No social distancing and only a couple of people wearing masks? This is so disrespectful and disappointing.”

Despite the pushback, Cameron says he will “absolutely” host similar events.

“All I can tell you is that I’m looking around in my community and I’m seeing the devastation and the suffering of people whose businesses have been bankrupted, people dealing with anxiety, depression, suicide is spiking, the abused being quarantined with their abusers, and I can just ignore that,” he said.

“People are just clamoring to come and be a part of [the events],” Cameron said. “This is the land of the free and the home of the brave and there are thousands and thousands of people in our community who would rather not suffer in isolation and come out to sing and express their gratitude because we believe that there is immunity in community, but there is desolation in isolation.”