For the third time in December, Kirk Cameron played host to a large gathering of mostly maskless people singing Christmas carols. The Tuesday night event follows similar ones on December 13 and December 6, which Cameron has termed “peaceful protests” against California Governor Gavin Newsom‘s stay-at-home orders put into place to decrease the spread of COVID-19.
Cameron addressed the crowd of what CBS News estimated to be around 150 people. He wore a red hat and white Santa beard but no mask as he joined dozens of other maskless singers in performing Christmas carols at the Thousand Oaks Mall’s parking lot.
Kirk Cameron addresses the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit in September, 2016, in Washington, DC. Getty
Mall management called the gathering “irresponsible” and unauthorized on Twitter. The December 13 event was held at the same mall parking lot, and afterward, Thousand Oaks Mayor Claudia Bill-de la Pena commented: “Liberty and freedom are very fragile and they come with great responsibility. Continuing to hold large gatherings and ignoring all guidelines, I feel, is un-Christian.”
On Monday, Newsom said that the regional stay-at-home order the state imposed for Southern California will almost certainly be extended beyond next week’s scheduled expiration date.
“We are likely, I think it’s pretty self-evident, going to need to extend those regional dates,” Newsom said. “Based upon all the data and based upon all these trend lines, it is very likely based on those current trends that we’ll need to extend that stay-at-home order, [which] you recall was a three-week order when we announced it.”
