Kirk Cameron, From Sitcom Star to Evangelist

March 17, 2006 — -- As Mike Seaver, the eldest son in the smash hit sitcom "Growing Pains," actor Kirk Cameron could make audiences roll with laughter. But now he wants to bring them to the Lord. And he's deadly serious.

The show, which began in 1985 , dominated the television ratings. Cameron joined the cast at the age of 14.

At first, he says, he was mesmerized by Hollywood and all the benefits that came from his newly acquired celebrity status. But soon he grew weary of signing autographs and a lifestyle that seemed entirely superficial.

The transition came about after Cameron reached his 16th birthday.

He sat in Beverly Hills in his newly purchased car and decided to pray. "I said, 'God if you're there, I want to know,'" he told Nightline. "'I don't want to be fooled or blinded by any sort of religion, but if you are real I need to know because I've completely ignored you my entire life. And if I die and find out that I am wrong about your existence, I've played the part of the biggest fool, and all of my money, popularity will not mean anything on that day.'"

Soon, Cameron started attending church and began to deepen his own theological understanding and grasp of Christianity. This eventually led to a clash between his personal and professional interests.

"There was a scene where Mike Seaver was to be lying in bed with a girlfriend and as I wake up in the morning, Mike ... rolls over and just says, 'Hey babe, tell me again, what's your name?'"

He found the scene conflicted with the Christian values he had embraced.

"I'm faithful to my wife. I don't wake up in bed next to another girl because I know my children are going to learn by my actions, and I felt that was the responsibility of our show ... to portray real life but in a way that left people with something that would move them up higher morally."

At first he tried to reason with the show's producers.

"If something came up, I thought, let's find another way to say it, let's find another way of doing that. And of course when I would bring that up, then that suddenly became connected with the fact that I was now a Christian. That got spun into 'Kirk is trying to push his religious views onto the show.'"