TUPELO, MI – Thousands of Christian children may be able to enjoy “The Happiest Place on Earth” for the first time in nine years, if their parents officially withdraw their boycott of the Walt Disney Company. The American Family Association, an anti-porn and pro-censorship conservative “values group,” is amongst the organizations reconsidering their boycott of Disney – a boycott that was started due to Disney’s allegedly anti-family, pro-homosexual entertainment. An upcoming meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention will determine officially whether or not the nine-year boycott of all things Disney will continue or, as is expected, whether victory will be declared against the media giant.Although the American Family Association claims 1996 as its start date, in 1997 the AFA joined forces with the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights to protest what the group considered to be Disney’s continuing “decline in moral and family values from the days of founder Walt Disney.” The company’s repeated depiction of orphans or single parent households headed by a widows or widowers was not at issue. Instead, it was what AFA President Tim Wildmon described as the promotion of “immoral ideologies such as homosexuality, infidelity, and adultery” that raised the Protestant group’s collective hackles, resulting in the 1997 SBC’s resolution to no longer patronize “Disney or any of its related entities.” The Catholic protest from the previous year had been inspired by the company’s release of the film “Priest,” which sympathetically portrayed a gay priest struggling with his sexuality and his faith. In time, the boycott was joined by the Assemblies of God, plus well-known censorship advocates Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family.
Although Widmon did not point out any specific changes in the entertainment mega corp’s policies, he indicated in a recent press release distributed by AFA that “Disney now appears to be more aware of how much its reputation had been damaged among one of its primary constituencies – Christian families.” Further, Wildmon indicated that his organization currently finds it more difficult to locate “evidence of new missteps by Disney.” Indicators that the group finds optimistic are the departure of controversial Disney chief Michael Eisner, the Disney/Miramax Films split, and an upcoming Disney treatment of C.S. Lewis’ beloved and metaphorical Christian young adult series, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
However, Widmon assures Disney that the company is still on “probation,” and that individual Christians may continue to scorn its entertainment options. The upcoming vote, however, may mean the end of any official sanctions so that the various organizations can focus their might elsewhere in the battle against homosexual parity in the media.
Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, warned Disney and other straying media moguls against doubting the power of his organization’s diverted dollars. Although he did not indicate what companies benefited from the unspent entertainment dollars, he emphasized that “anyone who says the economic action against Disney lacks punch isn’t looking at the full picture,” and added that the boycott “may well have ushered in a whole new era of corporate awareness and activism among evangelical Christians.”
Final decisions on this and other weighty issues will be made during the next Southern Baptist Convention, to be held in Nashville, TN from June 21 through the 22nd of this year.
