Some listeners of a certain age may still best know Kirk Cameron as the charming Mike Seaver from the 1980s sitcom “Growing Pains.” But since then, he has invested his time and energy into faith and family-focused films, television shows, and live events. He joins the Busted Halo Show to discuss his latest movie called “Lifemark,” which centers on adoption. Cameron is an executive producer and plays the adoptive father in the film.
The film follows the true story of David Scotton, who embarks on a journey to meet his birth mother. “[The movie is] about an 18-year-old girl who chooses adoption over abortion; she has her son adopted by a loving couple. They raise him for 19 years, and then he has an opportunity to meet his birth mother. And she thinks he probably hates her, but he just wraps her up in a loving embrace,” Cameron says. “He just says ‘thank you, thank you, thank you. I love my family. And I just wanted to tell you, that you are a hero to me.’” The movie then follows their relationship as it continues to grow.
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Cameron found it to be providential that the film was delayed for years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, since it now is released after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. “Right on the heels of that landmark Supreme Court ruling, here comes a movie that just happens to be in the theater celebrating the value of life in the womb and the beauty of adoption,” Cameron says. “We couldn’t have planned the timing…[and] we couldn’t have scripted anything better than what the story actually is.”
The movie’s themes are also personal to Cameron; his wife Chelsea is adopted, and they have six children together, four of whom are adopted. “This is very close to my heart. I’m very passionate about it, and I’ve always wanted to do something to celebrate and to protect a culture of life in our country,” he says. “I even think about the fact that Jesus himself was the result of an unplanned pregnancy from Mary’s human perspective. Joseph adopts him, and adoption is at the heart of God and the Gospel. And I think it ought to be at the center of our hearts too.”
He describes the journey he and his wife took when they first started their family and chose to adopt. “We read in the Scriptures that true religion is taking care of orphans and widows in their time of distress,” Cameron says. “And God is father to the fatherless, he places the lonely into families. And we thought, man, that just lines up with everything that we want to do and who we are, so let’s do this.”
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Father Dave praises how Cameron and the Kendrick Brothers, co-producers of the film, were able to use the story of an adopted child reconnecting with his birth mother as “a vehicle to go back in time and talk about that difficult decision of the original birth mother to choose life.” Cameron explains how birth mothers sometimes feel shame about potentially giving their child up for adoption, and he hopes this movie can offer a different view.
“I’m hoping that people have an entirely new perspective on adoption, and see it as the loving choice, as the compassionate and selfless choice,” he says. “I’m so excited for people to see this, because now we are going to be having so many more babies born with the Dobbs decision…this is an opportunity to adopt children, to meet a real need.”
Cameron also notes that following the movie, he and the Kendrick Brothers talk directly to the audience about different resources if one is considering adoption. Lifemark was just extended in theaters through Thursday, September 22, 2022.
