Kirk Cameron exaggerated ‘record’ turnout at book reading: library

Paging a statistician!

Actor Kirk Cameron claims a record crowd showed up Thursday to hear him read his new Christian-themed children’s book at the Indianapolis Public Library.

“This is a message to every library in the United States,” Cameron’s publisher, Brave Books, tweeted at the time.

“In 137 years of the Indianapolis Public Library’s history, NEVER ONCE have they had over 2,500 people show up to a single event. UNTIL TODAY.”

But the library is pushing back against these attendance figures and other assertions, which Cameron repeated in a Fox News appearance Friday that drew more attention to his efforts to drag story hours led by drag queens.

“We are being inaccurately portrayed in news/social after a room rental yesterday,” the Indianapolis Public Library tweeted Friday. “Our estimated door count during the event is around 750, not 2,500. We’ve had larger events. We turn 150 yrs old in 2023. And our auditorium, which our guests chose not to rent, holds 300, not 2,000.”

Friday on Fox News, Cameron said more than 50 libraries across the country ignored or refused to host readings of “As You Grow.”

The “Growing Pains” actor described the book as “biblical wisdom and the fruit of the spirit, which is love, joy, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control.” He threatened legal action against the “woke libraries” — even going so far as to pull out a copy of the Constitution on air.

Cameron, 52, read his book Friday afternoon at the Scarsdale Public Library, but complained on Fox News he wasn’t given equal promotion to a drag queen story hour.

These reading programs have ignited controversy in recent months as attacks against the LGBTQ+ community rise.

A gunman killed five people and wounded 17 inside a Colorado LGBTQ+ club last month in what prosecutors have classified as a hate crime.

Cameron has criticized homosexuality in the past, describing it as “unnatural,” “detrimental” and “ultimately destructive.”