Kirk Cameron Stands Ground on Gay Controversy, Denies Hate Speech: "I Love All People"

So much for love thy neighbor: Growing Pains star denies he was propagating hate when he declared homosexuality "unnatural" and "detrimental"

By Gina Serpe Mar 20, 2012 3:02 PMTags

The public firestorm that erupted in the wake of Kirk Cameron's comments condemning homosexuality earlier this month took plenty of people by surprise—but none more than the erstwhile Growing Pains star himself, who apparently can't quite understand what all the fuss is about.

In an interview with the Today show this morning, Cameron defended his stance and gave his best efforts at convincing the world that he wasn't propogating hate speech when he referred to gay marriage as "unnatural" and "ultimately detrimental to so many foundations of our civilization."

And even though he didn't amend his views on the matter, he did take a page from the D-list playbook and went so far as to blame that TV scapegoat editing for the presentation of his controversial rhetoric.

"Absolutely not, of course not. I love all people, I hate no one and, you know, when you take a subject and you reduce it to something like a four-second sound bite and a check mark on a ballot, I think that that's inappropriate and insensitive," he said, when asked directly by a particularly no-nonsense Ann Curry whether he meant to speak in such hate-speech terms.

"The truth is, these are issues that are very personal, they're things that need to be discussed in a context...and so, when things get edited down to that, it doesn't reflect, it certainly didn't reflect my whole heart on the matter."

Not that any small part, let alone the whole, of his heart has changed. However, he did feel like another part of his Godly message was left unsaid.

"Nobody should mistreat anybody—homosexuals should not be mistreated, heterosexuals should not be mistreated, bisexuals should not be mistreated. All of us who really think deeply about social issues like gay marriage and abortion and homosexuality have convictions on issues, and and we all have our convictions formed by different things, and mine are formed by my faith, they're informed by the word of God, and I found that to be an anchor for me, a compass and a guide for me.

"When people start bullying each other and calling each other names for those different convictions, then you get into problems."

Unnatural problems, perhaps?

Still, Cameron said that what most took him by surprise was the reaction to his rhetoric, as his opinion on the matter has been consistent over the years.

"I was surprised, frankly, that people were surprised by the things I said. I have been consistent for 15 years as a Christian. I'm a Bible-believing Christian. What I would have thought was more newsworthy is if I had said something that contradicted the word of God, if I had contradicted my faith."

Chalk that misread up to yet another gross judgment of error.