Born to Be Brave: How to Be a Part of America's Spiritual Comeback

by Kirk Cameron

What if the present cultural setback is really a divine setup for a spiritual comeback?

Ungodly forces have devastated American culture. The family of faith is feeling intimidated and fearful. Worse, many of us think that nothing can be done about it—that society will inevitably get worse.

Actor, producer, and conservative activist Kirk Cameron says this hopelessness is completely misplaced. God has given His faithful followers a birthright of courage. If we choose to live in this bravery, we will realign the nation with Christian values.

With biblical insights and true stories of individuals who acted bravely out of love for God and others, Born to Be Brave equips us
stop thinking our opponents are too big for us to overcome and start seeing our culture as something we are called to mold. recognize the Christian backstory of America and see how this gives us direction for the future. understand that politics needs the gospel, because real change requires heart transformation. hold on to our God-given compassion for others, even when we face backlash and opposition. boldly engage friends, family, and the community with gospel truths that affect all of society.
If we’re going to change the nation and the world, we need to move beyond paralyzed outrage and start acting with courage and confidence. God is already on the move, and we can be a part of the big things He is doing. Because we were born to be brave.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Faith, Christianity

178 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 8, 2024

About the author

Kirk Thomas Cameron is an American actor, director, and Christian evangelist. Kirk is best known as the lovable teen heartthrob Mike Seaver, of the award winning series Growing Pains. He entertained audiences worldwide as the charming troublemaker. He is also known to many Christians as "Buck Williams" from the Left Behind films -- based on the NY Times runaway best selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

But much more noteworthy than his acting career was his conversion to Christianity. Kirk was not raised in a church-going home and describes himself as a devout atheist from a very young age. By the age of 14 he was so convinced there was no God that he laughed at those who thought there was. But that all changed one afternoon as he sat in his sports car pondering the first Gospel message he had ever heard. You can hear Kirk's testimony in his own words here: http://www.wayofthemaster.com/mp3/Kir...

Kirk continues to be actively involved in quality family entertainment and travels throughout the country, making the most of every opportunity to further the Gospel. He speaks in schools, churches and at community events. He is also a producer and host of The Way of the Master television series and radio program..

Kirk and his wife Chelsea have six children and live in southern California.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second half of this book is stronger than the first half, but Mr. Cameron does offer some biblically based wisdom for Christians who desire to see our culture redeemed. I don’t fully agree with his application throughout, but there is also some good truth contained in these pages.

[Jason Selman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe this was a solid book that challenges Christians to stand for Christ in a way that honors Him. He really addresses how the church must be an army of compassion and love to those that do not believe in Jesus Christ and support the woke agenda. The love of God is what brought every born again Christian to the foot of the cross and it will be the love of God through the church that will draw people unto Him. Enjoy this great read

[Tam Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me…

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Update, 6/18/26.

I read back over this review and realized that every book I recommended (save one) was written by a man. I’ve now included alternate titles with more diversity, a word that that the audience for Kirk Cameron’s book just loves to hear.

——————————————

I wonder if Kirk Cameron is aware that the cover of his book looks like a Civil War photograph, because that’s where he’d like to send us, back to a time when men were men and women knew their place, to when the word ‘minority’ — if it was used at all in the context of people that didn’t look like Cameron himself — would have been an insult. Let’s do away with all that pesky social progress. The author has a solution for you, an invisible god that Cameron promises not only exists, but who has spoken to Cameron himself. Trust him. He wouldn’t lie to you. There’s no chance an aging 80s pretty boy is deluded.

This is the problem with Religious Conservatives. They believe they have the right to tell you how to think, whom to love, what to say and what not to say, how to dress, how to feel. The blurb says they want to “realign the nation with Christian values.” If you believe anything they say, believe this. They will use any means necessary to get their way — and just so there’s no confusion: their way is autocracy, fascism. They profess love, but in the end will not hesitate to resort to violence. If they can’t save you in life, they will save you in death — damn your beating heart but save your ‘eternal soul’.

Run as far and as fast as you can from the likes of Kirk Cameron. While you’re running (and if you’re an American) run as fast as you can to the ballot box and send the likes of Cameron and his ilk back to the premodern world whence they came. The rest of us then can enjoy the freedoms we’ve developed over the centuries, freedoms found not just in political action but through things like education, empathy, thoughtfulness, and true bravery. In the end real bravery isn’t found in oppression and giving over one’s free will to a non-existent deity. Bravery is facing the world head-on, with calm enlightenment, happy to let other people live their lives their way while you live your own.

In the spirit of “build up more and tear down less”, I wanted to recommend a couple books as counterpoint, but then realized that Cameron wasn’t just offering up a book but rather an entire worldview. At 176 pages, he obviously failed. I would like to present an alternate, more comprehensive and frankly much more realistic worldview. This list of ten books, taken together, accomplishes that.

I think if you read these books you would see how anemic and small Cameron’s perspective is — you would gain understanding of just how more vast is human experience and diversity, how unfair the views he presents as moral actually are, and just how much Truth eludes those who give up their ability to think deeply and complexly in favor of a false security:

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon — In this book, Solomon…

writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down’s syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, and Solomon documents triumphs of love over prejudice in every chapter.

Alternatively: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich — Whereas Solomon investigates the effects of differences between parents and children, Ehrenreich here illuminates the plight of another overlooked group: the victims of late-stage capitalism.

Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the “lowliest” occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

===============

Robert A. Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson Series — I’m cheating a little bit, giving you five big books instead of just the one, but taken together they form a whole. Or will do if Caro actually ever finishes the fifth book before kicking the metaphorical bucket. What this series of books teaches us — besides the obvious subject matter — is that nothing is more ambiguous than an actual moral worldview. Highly flawed, Johnson did more for racial equality than anyone since Lincoln. Complexity and nuance are not hallmarks of the Religious Right (or for that matter of the religious in general). These books demonstrate just how simplistic such thinking is.

Alternatively: How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America by Heather Cox Richardson and We the People: A History of the US Constitution by Jill Lepore — Both history books which differ in subject matter from Caro’s book, but which share a spirit and precision, a love of truth and goodness.

===============

Angels in America by Tony Kushner and Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart - Nothing seems to get under these people’s skin quite so much as the thought that not only do gay people exist, but that someone is actually acknowledging their existence. I would be remiss in not including at least one such book. Here are two. I hope this causes no one distress. Both are excellent stories told by masterful storytellers. As a bonus you can watch the HBO adaptation of Angels in America. For generations who have grown up since and might have missed it, this visual and auditory feast could be a haven, a drink of cool water, a dessert oasis, surrounded as we are by fundamentalism and religious nonsense.

Alternatively: Pipeline to Power: The 40-Year Plan to Capture the Supreme Court by Vicky Ward — Kushner and Stuart gave us fictional insight into the gay experience. Ward indirectly provides insight into one of the greatest threats to gay rights to come along in a long time: The Supreme Court of the United States of America:

First they came for the Communists,
And I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists,
And I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
And I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

—German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller

===============

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie— Almost as scary to the fundamentalist as gay people is the thought that other cultures exist. Most American Christians have little awareness of just how differently people from other traditions and nations perceive the world. I could also have recommended Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Then of course there’s The Satanic Verses, which I quite like, but is hard to recommend as a first Rushdie book to readers.

Alternatively: On Beauty by Zadie Smith — One of my favorite novels. She walks in the footsteps of Rushdie, and perhaps does him one better. I also hear good things about White Teeth .

===============

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie— Rushdie makes a second appearance on this list. If you want a simple answer to why some of us so oppose religion, you could do worse than Rushdie’s account of the attempt on his life by a knife-wielding fundamentalist.

Alternatively: The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Koontz — I came up short in the search for an analog for Knife. Coontz, though, writes about nostalgia and the dangers it presents. This is right in Rushdie’s wheelhouse. What, after all, is the twisted fundamentalism of Rushdie’s attempted assassin beside a rotted and poisonous nostalgia. Coontz…

examines two centuries of American family life and shatters a series of myths and half-truths that burden modern families. Placing current family dilemmas in the context of far-reaching economic, political, and demographic changes, Coontz sheds new light on such contemporary concerns as parenting, privacy, love, the division of labor along gender lines, the black family, feminism, and sexual practice.

===============

Larry McMurtry: A Life by Tracy Daugherty — Let it not be said that all progressives are cappuccino-sipping, messenger-bag-toting prisses. McMurtry had the heart of a cowboy and a mind of the poet. His life story is fascinating and a testament to the power of complexity, thoughtfulness, nuance, creativity, and dogged determination.

Alternatively: Books: A Memoir and Literary Life: A Second Memoir and Hollywood: A Third Memoir by Larry McMurtry — Turnabout is fair play, and so with these three books we hear it from the horse’s mouth. Of the McMurtry books I’ve so far read, these are my favorites.

Larry McMurtry’s fascinating and surprisingly intimate memoir of his lifelong passion of buying, selling, and collecting rare antiquarian books is “a necessary and marvelous gift” (San Antonio Express-News). [Books]

…McMurtry follows up his memoir Books with this engrossing and deeply personal reflection on the life of a writer. [Literary Life]

“One thing I’ve always liked about Hollywood is its zip, or speed. The whole industry depends to some extent on talent spotting. The hundreds of agents, studio executives, and producers who roam the streets of the city of Los Angeles let very little in the way of talent slip by.” [Hollywood]

===============

The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened by Bill McKibben — One of my favorite books of the last five years.

Like so many of us, McKibben grew up believing—knowing—that the United States was the greatest country on earth. As a teenager, he cheerfully led American Revolution tours in Lexington, Massachusetts. He sang “Kumbaya” at church. And with the remarkable rise of suburbia, he assumed that all Americans would share in the wealth.

But fifty years later, he finds himself in an increasingly doubtful nation strained by bleak racial and economic inequality, on a planet whose future is in peril.

And he is curious: What the hell happened?

Alternatively: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right by Laura K. Field

The story of the radical conservative intellectual movement shaping Donald Trump’s agenda—and how it threatens American freedoms, values, and democracy. […] Incisive and urgent, Furious Minds tells the story of the thinkers of the New Right—and their powerful assault on American freedoms, values, and ideals.

===============

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin Seligman— Representing more than just a tectonic shift in modern psychology, Martin’s book (and his philosophy overall) offers a counterargument to the notion that ‘only through God can happiness be found.’ Seligman himself is counted among the religious— as are many authors on this list— but his understanding of the world is based in rationality and the principles that govern science. As such, Learned Optimism might be the most important book on the list.

Alternatively: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt — I won’t even pretend that there is a connection between Seligman and Tartt’s novel, although I’m sure at some point Tartt deals explicitly with the idea of optimism in Goldfinch. She’s bound to right? — the largest edition I could find clocks in at 962 pages! The point though is to recommend a very good novel by a woman, and this is that. Some have argued that it is in fact a great novel. I will leave that up to the reader to decide.

===============

The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield — Ostensibly a meditation on the creative process and the difficulties artists face when they brave it, there’s so much more here. I’ll let Pressfield speak for himself:

[…] the fundamentalist reserves his greatest creativity for the fashioning of Satan, the image of his foe, in opposition to which he defines and gives meaning to his own life. Like the artist, the fundamentalist experiences Resistance. He experiences it as temptation to sin. Resistance to the fundamentalist is the call of the Evil One, seeking to seduce him from his virtue. The fundamentalist is consumed with Satan, whom he loves as he loves death. Is it coincidence that the suicide bombers of the World Trade Center frequented strip clubs during their training, or that they conceived of their reward as a squadron of virgin brides and the license to ravish them in the fleshpots of heaven? The fundamentalist hates and fears women because he sees them as vessels of Satan, temptresses like Delilah who seduced Samson from his power.

To combat the call of sin, i.e., Resistance, the fundamentalist plunges either into action or into the study of sacred texts. He loses himself in these, much as the artist does in the process of creation. The difference is that while the one looks forward, hoping to create a better world, the other looks backward, seeking to return to a purer world from which he and all have fallen.

The humanist believes that humankind, as individuals, is called upon to co-create the world with God. This is why he values human life so highly. In his view, things do progress, life does evolve; each individual has value, at least potentially, in advancing this cause. The fundamentalist cannot conceive of this. In his society, dissent is not just crime but apostasy; it is heresy, transgression against God Himself.

When fundamentalism wins, the world enters a dark age.

Alternatively: Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen — Lest we forget where fundamentalism ultimately leads. The religious mind has its sights on the heavens, on what comes next, and is thus less concerned — and often unconcerned — about the death and destruction wrought by the very religious beliefs it holds. It’s a brutally dark shadow, a blind spot so wide that a stadium full of Jungs could not make those so blinded see. Jacobsen makes visceral and palpable the inevitable annihilation which results from thinking of nuclear bombs as tactical weapons, rather than what they are: the end of everything, for everyone, for all time.

[JD' · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most 1,000 Oaks book ever and it deserves 1,000 stars!

I was invited by a Darin Foster,a class mate I graduated with from Hillcrest Christian School to attend a little church in Agoura, and Kirk Cameron's was there BBQing food. I was at the end of the line and he gave me the last piece of food that was actually for him. I felt bad because I was a guest who never went to that church and he gave up his food for me..a total stranger! Kirk Cameron had an empty stomach that night but also wore the biggest smile and had the most joyful disposition.

From stories of Rob McCoy, the pastor of God Speak, in Newbury Park. I got to meet

Born to Be Brave: How to Be a Part of America's Spiritual Comeback, he shared the story of pastor Rob McCoy, a mayor of the city and was also pastor of God Speak, in Newbury Park.
The 1st time, I ever attended Rob McCoys church, the pastor asked me to come again and preach a sermon. He also inquired if I would be interested in going to Bible College at Calvary Chapel. I had graduated from Kings College a Bible College after cramming a 4 year degree into 7 years. But looking back on life now, I should have jumped at the offer and just said yes!

Kirk Cameron shares about the pandemic, and how governor Gavin Newsom closed down California she forced everyone to stay at home. A funny story of Rob McCoy, who did a strip tease at church, removing his tie and taking it off in front of everyone. Why? The strip clubs were allowed to be open and were considered essential but the church was non essential and illegal to be open.
So McCoy did the exotic dance to show that the Calvary Chapel church was essential. While the riots were happening and Gavin Newsom did nothing in the criminal activity, he would have to go to court for opening his church during the pandemic and said at a Court hearing, "I'll see the inside of a jail cell before you see a penny of that money." In the end the 1,000 Oaks church was given a restraining order, and was fined 100s of thousands of dollars. But pastor McCoy fought with a Braveheart and refused to pay any of the fines, never was forced to close the doors by police and was never jailed. The church however tripled in size and even Kirk Cameron would attend the church in 2020.

"The kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing." Jesus

[Beth Selesky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a shot of adrenaline to a failing heart, Born to be Brave reminds the Christ follower that God is on His throne and we are not alone in this world. We need to remember whose we are and allow the Word of God to transform our nation, starting first by allowing the Word to transform our own hearts and lives. Trusting in the power of the truth of God’s words to us in Scripture, we are born to be brave, and make a difference in our generation.

[Wanda Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was good. It used biblical, history and current events to show why we should stand on our political beliefs. Regardless of your stance this book enlightens on how you can still stand and show love. A difficult balance to be master, for sure.

I didn’t find anything wrong with it nothing outstanding about it either. It was just ok.

[Alex S Gima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uplifting

Encouraging and brave are essential messages woven in this book of Godly faith. History becomes evidence of things seen to reinforce bravery and courage. This book goes beyond knowing into doing what is right.

[Alicia Kirkman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a good book to read right now while tensions are so high in the USA with the upcoming election and with other big issues that are making lots of noise. I’ll be lending this copy to people for them to read and reading it again myself at some point for sure.

[Scott O'Briant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding truth from Kirk Cameron.

Loved reading this book from Kirk. So much truth in what he says about what’s happening g today. Highly recommend. We need to get off the bench and turn things around.

[Jodi Uplinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty motivating and encouraging book. I really liked how he seemed encouraged by the state of our country and focused more on changing us and our relationship with God and using that to affect our country and the people we interact with.

[Jan Norton · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading this, I thought this was going to be an autobiography type book. Though there are some points that he puts in relating to his life, Kurk talks about how all of us are born to be brave.

[Robert Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading about the history of the early church forefathers in Colonial America and the meaning behind the National Forefathers Memorial in Plymouth, Massachusetts. I was encouraged to be salt and light in my sphere of influence for the glory of God.

[Jeremy Hezlep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came away from this book feeling more courageous, hopeful, peaceful, optimistic, and inspired by God’s word.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed it and learned a lot.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. Inspiring and uplifting.

[Concetta Kellough · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book contains inspirational thoughts on living the Christian life in a courageous way to affect our communities and nation. But we need to do it with reliance on God and through His love.

[Hannah Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very wordy. A lot of stories. Could have been shorter. But some good stuff in there.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is by no means a bad book. It is incredibly simple. The ideas are not ground-breaking, they are not new paths never before thought of or discovered. They are simple. I would give credit to Heidi St. John for being the first speaker to stand in front of a crowd (with me in it) of Christians and tell them to get off the fence about living out their faith.

That is really all Cameron is saying here. He says it well, he offers plenty of Biblical backing, and is mostly solid theologically. The problems come in the simplicity. When you make something so simple anyone can understand, it tends to have flaws.

My biggest problem with the beginning of the book, he mostly clarifies by the end. Cameron is not the type of Christian who believes that the US is God's new nation. That being a Republican or voting Trump makes someone a Christian, that isn't the point. And I enjoyed and respected Cameron a lot more for clarifying that idea.

My largest struggles were the complete acceptance of the Catholics, charismatics, and arguably the Mormons depending on how you read the tone or voice of some of his sentences. Again, when you make something that can conceivably appeal to everyone, you start to have flaws.

In fact, I struggle with the idea behind "heavenizing earth." Again, I don't think Cameron means anything by it, but his ideas come far too close to NAR, and their 7 hills that Christians must conquer to set off the end-times.

Christians aren't necessarily called to fight to win the culture back. We are called to witness for Christ no matter the consequences. This is going to mean rejecting a lot of culture and never looking back. That's not pessimism, that is faith. Rejected what the world offers because God is more to us.

We don't need to start a new TV show to fight woke shows, we reject TV.
We don't start new book drives to fight scholastic, we reject their woke books.

Not that those are BAD, or sinful avenues, please offer Christian based, quality television and books, just understand that that is not the goal. Seeking Christ is the goal.

Again, I think Cameron does a good job explaining this by the end of his book. I wasn't put off and frustrated with his lack of practical solutions, nor was I frustrated with his poor theology. I think Cameron wrote a really solid book here.

People need to stop riding the fence about their faith, and start putting their faith to work.

Faith without works is dead.