Join Dr. James Dobson and Gary Bauer in an enlightening discussion with actor Kirk Cameron as they explore the impact of entertainment on children’s development. Addressing concerns about media’s influence today, Cameron introduces his series, Iggy and Mr. Kirk, aiming to reinforce traditional family values through heartfelt storytelling. This episode offers valuable perspectives for parents and grandparents eager to provide nurturing content that supports moral and spiritual growth for the next generation.
Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It’s a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I’m Dr. James Dobson and I’m thrilled that you’ve joined us.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Roger Marsh, and today we’re going to be exploring how faith-based entertainment is making a powerful comeback in America’s living rooms. Today’s conversation is hosted by our own Gary Bauer, Senior Vice President of Public Policy at the Dr. James Dobson Policy Center. And Gary’s special guest is actor Kirk Cameron. Now, Kirk has built an impressive legacy in entertainment with faith-driven projects like the movie Fireproof, the homeschool awakening, and the movie Life Mark. Today, he’s introducing us to his exciting new children’s series called Iggy and Mr. Kirk. And if you like a little bit of Sesame Street and a little bit of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood with a biblical worldview, you’re going to love this program. Now, in a media landscape often void of positive values, this charming show follows the adventures of a lovable iguana named Iggy, get it, and his friend Mr. Kirk as they learn about biblical principles like forgiveness and unconditional love. Each episode is carefully crafted to engage children’s imaginations while developing their character and faith. So whether you’re a parent, grandparent, or simply concerned about the content shaping young minds today, you will not want to miss this inspiring conversation about bringing God back into the forefront of children’s entertainment. So we’re glad you’re here. Let’s get right into it right now on today’s edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk.
SPEAKER 02 :
On today’s Family Talk broadcast, we’re going to take a look at an area where the enemy has been relentless in his attacks on the family. And that is the area of entertainment geared toward young children in America. Many of you will remember that years ago, Dr. Dobson and I wrote a book called Children at Risk, the battle for the hearts and minds of our children. That battle is still raging, my friends, and it’s a battle we need to be deeply concerned about. Children are getting smartphones at younger and younger ages. They have access to TVs, tablets, video games, and other technology in the home. And they’re getting a lot more screen time every day than they did in previous generations. It’s actually kind of shocking how much time they’re getting. I just saw a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says the typical child – I’m hoping this isn’t true. The typical child between the ages of 8 and 10 spends an average of six hours each day in front of a screen. And what are they being exposed to is even more shocking. We talk about these issues. Dr. Dobson talks about them all the time. Transgender ideology, you know, the moral relativism, often anti-Christian messages subtly buried in the entertainment industry. Well, our guest today here on Family Talk is essentially a one-man army fighting against these forces of evil in the public square and the forces that have targeted our children. He’s become a trusted friend of Dr. Dobson and all of us here at JDFI. His name is Kirk Cameron. I’m sure that rings a bell with most of you. And he’s got a new video project, which is right now. And it is designed for children and their parents. So all of you parents and grandparents out there, listen up. This is a great tool for you. It’s called Iggy and Mr. Kirk. and Mr. Kirk, as I said, is Kirk Cameron. Kirk, it’s great to have you here with us again on Family Talk. Dr. Dobson and his wife, Shirley, send you their warmest regards.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you for having me on to talk about our culture and to talk about what we can do to reform it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Folks, I think many of you already know the accomplishments of Kirk. Back in 2022, he launched the nationwide campaign called CU at the library, which ended up impacting tens of thousands of families nationwide. And it was kind of emblematic, Kirk, of what you’ve done, which is not just rail against the darkness, but to give people things they can do, alternatives. And so instead of just criticizing libraries that were having these drag queen campaigns, reading hours, you reminded parents, hey, these are public libraries. Why don’t you go to the library and request the time for reading things that would be consistent with our values? And a lot of parents did that. You’ve been involved in all kinds of pro-family entertainment over the years, the Left Behind series, the series Takeaways, and then one-on-one with Kirk Cameron. But I think a lot of people – I certainly remember you for the first time. When I’m thinking about you, I think back to the Growing Pains days, that sitcom, which really launched a career that has been unbelievable. But just to remind our listeners, it launched something else for you, right? I mean, it wasn’t only that that’s when people first came to know you, but it’s where you met your wife that I believe you’ve now been married to for, what is it, 30 years? 35 years. Wow, fantastic.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you for taking us down that little… Trip on memory lane. Yes, my wife and I have been married for 35 years. We have six grown children now, one granddaughter. My wife and I actually met on the set of Growing Pains. She was my girlfriend on the show. We had an off-screen romance, got married.
SPEAKER 02 :
So you took your role really, really seriously. Very seriously.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, I was a method actor. It was the only way I could make the romance believable on screen is I had to marry her in real life. And I came to faith in Christ when I was about 17 and a half years old, was an atheist prior to that. And it was right in the middle of growing pains that the Lord saved my soul and converted me. So I never thought I’d be doing the things that I’m doing today, fighting for the sanctity of life and advancing American Christian constitutional principles for the blessing and protection of our kids and our kids’ kids and talking with you on James Dobson’s show. But here we are. And I couldn’t be more thankful.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, we’re thankful that you’re in this battle and thankful that you’ve been so generous over these years with your time to spend some of that time with us at JDFI and some of the events we’ve hosted that you’ve been working on. one of the most acclaimed speakers in. We appreciate that. But I want people, when they hear this show, Kirk, to really want to run out there and get this video series you’ve put together. So tell us a little bit about it and at what age of child this series is aimed at.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. As I travel around the country, parents and grandparents are lamenting about the moral decay that is so obvious. And our children are being pumped full of this moral sewage every day through books, through television shows, through cartoons. And it’s coming from trusted companies everywhere. At least they used to be trusted, like Disney, Scholastic Books. And now those are the very companies that are perverting good morality and values, calling them family, the new family values. And it’s confusing kids. It’s rotting their brains. And it is perverting morality. their souls. So rather than complaining about it, how about we start creating what we want for our kids? Rather than being whiners, like so many conservatives have been, let’s become winners of the culture and build the world we want our kids to live in. And that’s what we’re trying to do through a It is a show that engages kids’ imaginations for good, and parents can feel great about putting their kids in front of it. Because think of a modern-day Mr. Rogers with lovable puppets and engaging adventures that teach children clear, biblically moral lessons, like forgiveness. Putting others first, self-control, overcoming fear, honesty, teamwork. And kids relate to this little five-year-old green iguana named Iggy as he has to interact with all of his other lovable animal friends and friends. navigate his way through the lies of a vulture named Culture, who’s always trying to deceive Iggy. And so he’s got to rely on prayer, God’s word, and the wisdom that he gets from his parents.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, last night I took a break from going through the latest reports of what the politicians in Washington are doing these days for the work I do for the James Dobson Family Institute here in Washington, D.C. And I used that break to watch – Some of the episodes that you all have produced, I believe the third one is on the theme of forgiveness, which is a really hard thing for children to learn. When you’re a kid and somebody does something to you, you want to pop them in the nose, right?
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
You want to get even with them. It’s interesting that you compared it to Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood because that’s exactly what came to mind when I was watching. It had that sort of feel to it. And, you know, Mr. Rogers is gone, but boy, we could sure use another one. And wouldn’t it be wonderful if Kirk Cameron ended up being the new Mr. Rogers with the messages that are in this series? They’re just first class.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, while I don’t wear a cardigan sweater in this TV show for kids, I do wear a leather bomber jacket. And I put it on at the end of every episode, just like Mr. Rogers. And I look into the camera and I say to the children watching, brave explorers, may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you peace. I mean, Gary, this is a rare show. that parents and children can watch together. It’s a co-viewing experience where children’s imaginations will be ignited. Their attention span won’t be destroyed like it is with so many TV shows today. Do you know that they say that Today’s TV shows for kids, especially little kids, like the cartoons, it’s akin to junk food, like Skittles, like candy, like soda. It’s designed to be cheap and addictive, which is great for the companies who are making it, but it’s terrible for your kids’ nutrition. And these TV shows… are terrible for your children’s brain development because it worsens their ADD with all the fast cuts and the non-diegetic sounds and the inappropriate content. Within nine minutes, studies are showing that it already has a negative impact on your children’s brains. And we wonder why they’re all on Ritalin, why they need these other types of things to settle them down and get them to focus and pay attention. They seem so disconnected and unable to obey their parents. Could we consider that maybe it’s what we’re feeding them? So let’s give them something healthy and nourish their heart, nourish their mind. That’s exactly what we’re going to do with Iggy and Mr. Kirk.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, I’ve been on planet Earth a little longer than you, Kirk. And when I was growing up, I did go through the 60s and 70s. But before then, and even getting into the 60s and 70s, almost all the adults in America were on the same page. if you had a child or a wanted the same outcome for children that you did, that your parents did. That’s not what we have now. And so it’s really important to have these places that reinforce what’s going on in traditional homes and in American homes instead of warring against them. And that’s exactly, it appears to me, what this series does. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, that’s exactly the idea. And importantly, we are not trying to do parents jobs for them. And this is really important. And I don’t mean to sound condescending when I say that, but we as human beings, you know, apart from the Lord working in our heart, giving us a hard work ethic and giving us this spirit of self-government, we tend to be lazy and take the easy way out. In fact, you mentioned earlier about government bureaucrats. And what a sad situation we have when the country is being run by bureaucrats who overspend and they underwork and they take so much into their own pockets. Well, this is what we can do also as parents when we outsource the most sacred responsibility that God has given us. to teachers, pastors, or politicians to do the job of parenting for us. And we certainly are not wanting to do that with our TV show. We want to give you a tool that supports you as a parent to teach moral lessons to your children and faith lessons. But it is your responsibility as mom, as dad. It’s my responsibility as grandpa, as father to my kids. And what we hope to be doing is making a show that fosters cognitive development and virtue, teaching moral lessons about self-control and kindness that parents can trust because It’s made by the people who want the same values for our children as you want for yours. And that’s what we’ve got to get back to is personal responsibility and helping one another, not outsourcing this sacred responsibility to people who do not have your children’s best interests in mind.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you’ve put a whole team together, right, that have people that share these values. As I recall in doing some prep for the show, I mean, there’s some people that one of the co-stars worked at Disney before they went off the rails. And then there were some folks that were associated with VeggieTales, which had their moment.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ve assembled an all-star team. It’s kind of like, you know, if you like the Avengers, this is like the Avengers team for making children’s TV content. So the composer from VeggieTales, who made all those wonderful songs… is composing the music for our show. Lee Allen Baker from Good Luck Charlie on Disney. She is playing Creative Lee, who does arts and crafts as part of the show. We’ve even got, you know how Mr. Rogers had a mailman? Remember Mr. McFeely? He would show up, speedy delivery, speedy delivery, and he would just give a package to Mr. Rogers. Well, we have our own mailman, Dan, who shows up with a brand new Brave book for Mr. Kirk and Iggy to read during each episode. And these are, again, stories about the sanctity of life. Episode number four is teaching kids about identity in a world today where five-year-olds are being encouraged to choose their gender pronoun and decide if they want to be called a boy at home and a girl at school. And politicians will actually have gender reassignment surgery scheduled for them, if not chemical castration, paid for by the parents’ tax dollars without their permission. Kids have got to be immunized from this kind of poison and woke virus that is spreading throughout our country. And we’re hoping that that we can help parents do that with a wholesome, biblical, and fun show like Iggy and Mr. Kirk.
SPEAKER 02 :
Kirk, what age range would you say you’ve aimed to show at?
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ve been showing this to four, five, six, seven, eight, nine-year-olds.
SPEAKER 02 :
So figure four to nine. Any previous time in our history would have been a pretty safe age range range. That most kids weren’t going to be seeing a whole lot of things.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. It’s the demilitarized zone. Everyone knows you don’t go after the little kids. And, you know, if you want to be a man and you want to moonlight as a drag queen and show up at a gay bar later, that’s something that’s your business as an adult. And you’re not going to get the preschool teacher to condone that kind of behavior with four-year-olds. But… As values change, culture is downstream of those values, and then we get people in positions of power who will force you to bow down to those moral standards and even defend them and pay for their advancement. So that’s why what you’re doing, Gary, is so important. We can’t just talk about Jesus in heaven and where we go when we die. We need to also understand that that worldview produces a beautiful world and a culture for our children. But if that spirituality does not go beyond the church walls or just your home, you create a void and then other people are in charge of your kids’ culture. And everything goes south. So the politics are important. The community, local values are important. Your church is important. Your family is important. And you governing yourself is important. This is how our children will have a future.
SPEAKER 02 :
No question about it. I want to make sure that people know where they can find this. So let’s talk about that a little bit. You have a great online presence online. where you bring up a lot of these issues. So talk a little bit about that and what people can find there and how they can get access to this series.
SPEAKER 03 :
You can watch Iggy and Mr. Kirk on Brave Plus. Brave Plus is a brand new streaming platform that has over 50 TV shows for kids that have stood the test of time. So No inappropriate content, no overstimulation, none of the stuff that’s bad for your kids. Shows like Bob the Builder, shows like Strawberry Shortcake, and of course, my new TV show, Iggy and Mr. Kirk. So you can go to braveplus.com and you can sign up for less than the price of coffee. you can have all of this content for your kids and you to watch together. And it’s actually 100% free if you are part of the Brave Books Book of the Month Club. Then you get a book delivered to your house every single month with a pro-God, pro-America value, and you get all episodes forever for free of Iggy and Mr. Kirk. So check out braveplus.com. And if you want, you can also just see the first five episodes for free on YouTube. We crowdfunded those. And so everybody can get a taste of it. See if you like it. Episodes on forgiveness, self-control, the sanctity of life, honesty, the importance of family. And then you can sign up for the Book of the Month Club or get a subscription at braveplus.com for the TV show.
SPEAKER 02 :
Kirk, that’s just fantastic. And you mentioned that there’s 50 shows on there that parents can access. It’s really an important point because periodically Disney gets it right. They might have a show that if we watched it, we could look at it for a half hour and say – Okay. That was okay. But if you put the kid in front of the TV set watching Disney, you have no idea what the next show is going to be. And you tend then to be off doing something else. And now it’s going off the rails. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s exactly the case. That’s the case of what’s happening with books. It looks like a benign cover and the kids open it up and the first five pages are fine. They’re hooked on the story. But then on page six, you’ve got a non-binary hero character who is now teaching your children that you can be male or female or you could be neither or you could be a furry. And all of a sudden, kids are being targeted without their parents’ knowledge. And the same thing happens with TV shows, even beloved TV shows. So in trying to find a home for Iggy and Mr. Kirk, we couldn’t find the perfect platform. It’s not going to be Disney. It’s not going to be Netflix. As they are, there’s too much harmful stuff. So we created our own. It’s called Brave Plus. And every show is vetted by parents for children’s health. And in fact, the standards are so high, only one in 20 shows make the cut. Only one in 20 shows make the cut. And we found 50. That means that we’ve screened over a thousand shows to possibly put on there and only the very best and only the good remain.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re doing work that parents in the busy lives that they live can’t possibly do. They can’t screen everything out there.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is how we help each other. We carry one another’s burdens, as Scripture tells us to. And we understand that we’re much, much better and more effective together, but we’ve each got to do our part. It’s the biblical concept of the one and the many. We’re one big family and household of faith in Christ, but each member is vitally important. And let’s help each other and still do what God has called each of us individually to do as parents.
SPEAKER 02 :
Wow, Kirk, this is such a great conversation. I know how busy you are. Is it possible you could come back and do another show with us so we can talk more about this great project?
SPEAKER 03 :
I would love to come back. Thank you for inviting me. I could talk with you all day long.
SPEAKER 02 :
Fantastic. Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you’ve been listening to a special edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, featuring an inspiring conversation about bringing God back into children’s entertainment with our host, Gary Bauer, Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dobson Policy Center and actor Kirk Cameron. Kirk is the star of the brand new children’s series called Iggy and Mr. Kirk. In a world where young minds are constantly being bombarded with concerning messages, this refreshing show offers biblical values wrapped up in engaging stories that children will love. Now, if you missed any portion of today’s broadcast, go to drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. Once you’re there, you’ll find the complete program along with more information about Iggy and Mr. Kirk. And by the way, if you’d like to see the entire series, you can visit braveplus.com. We have that linked up at drjamesdobson.org. And also for more information about Kirk Cameron’s books, bravebooks.us. And we’ll have that link on our website as well. Speaking of family values, I’m so excited to tell you about a resource that we’re offering to you right now in preparation for the Easter holiday, courtesy of Dr. James Dobson’s wife, Shirley, and his daughter, Danae. The book is called Welcome to Our Table, and it’s a beautiful resource filled with cherished recipes, inspirational stories, and and ideas for seasonal celebrations, like for Easter, that can help make your home a place of ministry. It’s a stunning hardcover book featuring award-winning photography from Julie Johnson, and it’s as much a family memoir as it is a cookbook. It offers lessons in blessing others through the art of hospitality. Now, we’ll be happy to send you a copy of Shirley and Danae Dobson’s book called Welcome to Our Table. As our way of thanking you for your gift of any amount in support of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute today, go to drjamesdobson.org or call us at 877-732-6825. You know, your prayers and faithful financial partnership with Family Talk makes a tremendous difference in homes all across America. In a culture where positive faith-based content is increasingly rare, your support enables us to continue broadcasting biblical truth that strengthens marriages, equips parents, and nurtures children’s spiritual growth. Every donation, no matter the size, helps us reach more families with messages of hope. You can make a secure donation online, by the way, when you go to drjamesdobson.org. That’s drjamesdobson.org. Well, I’m Roger Marsh, and on behalf of Dr. James Dobson and all of us here at the JDFI, thanks so much for listening today. Be sure to join us again next time right here on the next edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, the voice you trust for the family you love. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
