If Disney hasn’t yet overplayed its hand, then what must it do to overplay it? Part 2

When a rattlesnake is in the jungles, we say, Children, be careful! Don’t go down there! When a rattlesnake is in the zoo, we say, Be careful! Don’t go in that cage! But friend, what Satan has done is to put a rattlesnake on the playground — a rattlesnake on the playground. The jungle may be worse [in some ways], but the playground may be the most dangerous. Frankly, I feel betrayed. I feel betrayed by those who would say, We’re family entertainment. Come, and we’ll teach you how to lower your standard against that which God calls an abomination.

—Pastor Adrian Rogers in 1997, speaking to his congregation at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee about the Disney boycott, in an appearance near the conclusion of this American Family Association documentary—

This article is part of a series of articles, available here.
Go here to access an article that presents the same ideas in a different format.

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Key points: Recent events have shown that while Disney has gone further down the same road it was on 25 years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention, unfortunately, has changed its direction. It’s on a different path and needs to right its course. Southern Baptists, pay attention! You need to respond not only to Disney, but also to establishment leaders in the SBC as well.

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Last time, with the help of Joseph Backholm and David Closson, two pro-family leaders at the Family Research Council, we began examining six important aspects of the Disney Company’s stance against God’s created order. Disney’s disdain for God’s design as revealed in creation recently has been manifested in the company’s outcry against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, a reasonable law Americans support overwhelmingly.

In the final segment of the April 1, 2022 edition of Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, an episode in which Mr. Backholm served as guest host, Joseph and David engaged in a 16-minute conversation about Florida’s new law, Disney’s response to it, and the implications of the conflict between reality and the LGBTQ agenda.

Here is a video Mr. Backholm’s and Mr. Closson’s conversation. (I’ve embedded it at the end of this article.) I divided the audio file into six parts, the first three of which we considered last time. In this article we’ll consider the fourth audio clip, and in the next the final two. These excursions will give us an even greater understanding of the conflict we are witnessing and help us take the wise and strategic stands that we as Christians ought to take.

Section 4: Southern Baptists of 25 Years Ago Are Vindicated, but Where Is the Southern Baptist Convention Today?

In this clip, you will hear the voice of Disney executive producer Latoya Raveneau. You can hear her entire statement here, but you will hear enough in the clip below to fully understand what she is saying, what she is doing, and what she intends to accomplish.

Disney executive producer Latoya Raveneau basically said she now works to add “queerness” to Disney films and other items wherever she can whenever she can, and that no one stops her. Her colleagues actually are supporting her.

Here’s how David Closson responded:

I think there’s a lot of people that owe the Southern Baptists an apology. In the 1990s, Joseph, you might remember that the Southern Baptist Convention put out a statement condemning Disney for their “Gay Days.” And there’s a lot of people, even Christians who kind of mocked the Southern Baptists for being prudish, for being outdated. And look what’s happening. Disney is being unmasked. It’s fascinating,…those comments where she said that no one was trying to stop me. I’m going to sprinkle queerness wherever I can. 

Again, this shows, Joseph, an intentionality. This shows that Disney — creative people, producers, directors, animators — they are absolutely committed to a worldview that has completely accommodated to the demands, the desires of the very far left, the LGBT activists. And I think, again, I’m glad these videos have come [to light], because it’s showing that this has been going along [for some time]. For these people to be in these positions of influence, some of them have been with the company a long time, it shows that this is something that has been subtle, it’s been gradual, but it has now infiltrated the entire Disney Corporation. And it’s sad, Joseph. The family-friendly, family-trusted brand is no longer family-friendly or family-trusted.

Do not miss how strongly Latoya Raveneau and her coworkers are pushing the LGBTQ agenda. Their efforts are intense and intentional, with a flagrant disregard of parental concern and childhood innocence. Disney’s allegiance to this agenda clearly is hard-core.

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The efforts at Disney to push the LGBTQ agenda are intense and intentional, with a flagrant disregard of parental concern and childhood innocence.

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A quarter of a century ago, Southern Baptists apparently understood the dangers, even though Disney wasn’t as entrenched or blatant in promoting the agenda as it is today. Nevertheless, the handwriting still was on the wall, and the SBC, including the SBC leadership, got it!

If “a lot of people…owe Southern Baptists an apology,” they owe it to the Southern Baptists of 25 years ago; and sadly, to only some Southern Baptists today. Let’s take a journey through time, 26 years back.

1996 — Disturbed and frustrated by the trends evident at Disney leading up to and including 1996, Southern Baptists, meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, passed a resolution warning Disney that it could not take the patronage of Southern Baptists for granted, and that the moral direction of the company would influence the entertainment choices Baptists made. At the time, the American Family Association had launched a boycott of the Disney Company and were encouraging God-fearing Americans to join it. The SBC resolution specifically cited the following offenses on the part of Disney:

• • • (1) Establishing of an employee policy which accepts and embraces homosexual relationships for the purpose of insurance benefits;
    • (2) Hosting of homosexual and lesbian theme nights at its parks;
    • (3) Choosing of a convicted child molester to direct the Disney movie Powder through its subsidiary Miramax Productions;
    • (4) Publishing of a book aimed at teenage homosexuals entitled Growing Up Gay: From Left Out to Coming Out through its subsidiary Hyperion, connecting Disney to the promotion of the homosexual agenda;
    • (5) Producing, through its subsidiary corporations, of objectionable material such as the film Priest which disparages Christian values and depicts Christian leaders as morally defective

Among other things, the resolution also declared,

• • • BE IT RESOLVED, We as Southern Baptist messengers meeting in annual session on June 11-13, 1996, go on record expressing our deep disappointment for these corporate actions by The Disney Company; and
    • BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we affirm the employees of The Disney Company who embrace and share our concerns; and
    • BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we encourage Southern Baptists to give serious and prayerful reconsideration to their purchase and support of Disney products, and to boycott The Disney Company and theme parks if they continue this anti-Christian and anti-family trend….

1997 — A year later, on Wednesday, June 18, 1997, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Dallas, Texas, passed a resolution urging Southern Baptists

to take the stewardship of their time, money, and resources so seriously that they refrain from patronizing The Disney Company and any of its related entities, understanding that this is not an attempt to bring The Disney Company down, but to bring Southern Baptists up to the moral standard of God.…

It was titled “Resolution On Moral Stewardship And The Disney Company,” and you can read it in its entirety here. Following passage of the resolution, the American Family Association released a documentary about the growing boycott. You can watch this 30-minute film here; it is the source for numerous photos and audio clips in this article, including all those in this article that are enhancing our understanding of what happened among Southern Baptists and with regard to Disney a quarter of a century ago.

It is helpful to get a feel for the climate of the 1997 SBC meeting. Let’s listen to a portion of the discussion that took place before the SBC voted on the resolution. First, hear Richard Land, then-president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, describe the road leading up to the vote. Dr. Land made these remarks to the Convention on Tuesday, the day before the vote.

During the discussion that took place immediately prior to the vote, a courageous woman named Lisa Kinney spoke in favor of the resolution. She made the case for choosing Christ over an entertainment company that opposes Him. Lisa declared,

My name is Lisa Kinney, and I’m a very nervous messenger from Keene Terrace Baptist Church in Largo, Florida. I met Mickey Mouse when I was a small child. Living near Orlando, I went to Walt Disney World several times a year. I have purchased the toys, I’ve watched the movies, and I’ve spent many hours involved with the Disney Company. However, six years ago, I met Jesus Christ, and He changed my life. He not only saved me, but He called me and calls me to a personal holiness and purity according to His Word. Several years ago, I became convicted by the Holy Spirit of God, that I was sinning by spending my time and money on the Disney Company. I will not visit the park. I will not buy the products. I will not support the company in any way.

Do I think that my stand against them will change them? No, I do not. I know that it has changed me. Will a Southern Baptist boycott change the Disney Company? I don’t know. But it will change us. It will affirm to us and the world that we love Jesus more than we love our entertainment. Jesus has called us to purity, and we must take Him seriously. My pastor has told me, and he got it from someone else, and I don’t remember who, that we have made entertainment out of the things which Jesus has died for. If we must completely turn off our televisions, so be it. It’s no great loss. We should always pray for these individuals and seek to witness to them, but we cannot participate in their ungodliness. Thank you.

More was said, but in the convention hall, the direction the messengers would take clearly was evident. Here is a clip of then-SBC president Tom Eliff presiding over the vote. While you obviously can’t see the messengers vote in this clip, you can hear their applause.

Here was the Disney Company’s response to the decision by Southern Baptists to refrain from doing business with it because of its rejection of family values and its promotion of homosexuality. Basically, the Disney Company pretended it hadn’t abandoned family values at all.

2005 — Recognizing that formal boycotts cannot continue forever, Southern Baptists passed a resolution in 2005 to end the Disney boycott. You can read that resolution here. All three of the resolutions I’ve cited are available on one page here. On that same page, you’ll also be able to hear remarks Dr. Adrian Rogers made to his congregation about the Disney boycott in 1997. The remarks include those posted at the top of this article, and more.

Promoting Disney

2022 — Fast forward to today, in 2022. Unfortunately, the Southern Baptist Convention has changed. The SBC is promoting Disney, even after the once-family-friendly company has doubled down against family values, common sense, and God’s creative order.

After the passage of the Parental Rights in Education law in Florida in March of 2022, we saw in Disney’s response that nothing at the company had changed for the better, and that, in fact, things had only grown worse — much worse.

With all of this in mind, you’ll be fascinated to learn (if you didn’t know already) that Southern Baptists are planning to hold their annual meeting and Pastors’ Conference this year in Anaheim, California. These events are scheduled for Sunday through Wednesday, June  12-15. Anaheim, you may remember, is the home of Disneyland, and the park is mere blocks away from the Anaheim Convention Center where Southern Baptists will meet.

Families coming to Anaheim for the SBC can get discount tickets to Disneyland through an SBC website (see Episode 5 on this page). Of course, many Southern Baptists will see this as a huge problem, but before I get into that, I should clarify that convention sites are selected years in advance. No one could have anticipated all that has erupted regarding Disney, the new education law in Florida, Disney’s forceful and vocal opposition to the law, and the company’s blatant and very public rejection of family values just a few months ahead of Southern Baptists’ annual meeting.

That said, even a casual observer easily could have realized that Disney’s direction has not changed but has in fact become even more intentional. SBC leaders should have known better than to promote Disney and Disneyland, given its consistent, decades-long history of turning its back on family values and becoming increasingly blatant in its support of homosexuality and everything else connected with the LGBTQ agenda. Disney’s hypocrisy also is evident, because it plans expansion projects in places that ban homosexuality.

Here is the first in a series of videos the SBC Executive Committe is producing to inform messengers about the 2022 annual meeting and the city in which it will be held. While this introductory video is just two minutes long, I’ve extracted the seminal portion of it as it relates to Disneyland and have posted it just above the video.

You’d never even know that Southern Baptists have had any disagreements with Disney — ever. Episode 1 was uploaded on Vimeo on January 26, 2022.

Episode 5, which I’ve embedded below, is all about Disneyland. It’s certainly informative and helpful for families planning to go, but here’s the problem: The the approach the video takes assumes that Disney is a friend of the family when it has proven itself to be an enemy. Again, you’d never know that Southern Baptists have had any disagreements with Disney — ever.

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The Southern Baptist Convention is now promoting Disney.

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Episode 5 was uploaded on Vimeo on Friday, February 18, 2022. Obviously, this was before the Florida Legislature passed the Parental Rights in Education law and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it, and before Disney came out publicly against the law and in favor of teachers being able to talk to young children about gender identity, effectively grooming them.

Nevertheless, as we have indicated, Disney’s position should have come as no surprise to anyone, especially the leaders in the SBC. Even without the Florida education law and Disney’s involvement in the controversy surrounding it, SBC leaders should have anticipated problems with promoting Disney and its park in the first place. But here we are! And to my knowledge, since the controversy erupted and became a huge national issue, we have heard no criticisms, retractions, disclaimers, or qualifiers about Disney or Disneyland from SBC executives and establishment leaders. More on that in a moment.

Two articles from Capstone Report are noteworthy at this point.

• • • Conservative Baptist Network calls for fight against sexualization of children ~ April 1
    • Parents protest Disney while SBC continues promoting Woke company ~ April 7

The first article reports that the Conservative Baptist Network, an organization made up of rank and file Southern Baptists who are concerned about the denomination’s leftward drift, issued a statement on April 1

• • • challenging Southern Baptists “to unite in standing together for the protection of children and their innocence according to biblical values,” and
    • urging the Disney Corporation “to reverse course and stop its explicit assault on parents’ rights and its assault on children.” Unless this happens, the statement went on to say, “we cannot, in good conscience and Christian witness, encourage fellow Southern Baptists to support a company bent on this ideological course.”

The CBN statement went on to acknowledge that the SBC had made arrangements with Disney to offer discount tickets to messengers and their families. This notwithstanding, it rightly urged them to choose other options “rather than support the anti-biblical agenda now clearly present within the Disney corporation.”

The second Capstone Report article cited above states,

As secular conservative forces battle the Disney ideology and stand up for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the new Florida law protecting young children from sexual indoctrination in schools, the Southern Baptist Convention continues to sell discounted tickets on the SBC Annual Meeting webpage.

As of the morning of April 7, 2022, the SBC Executive Committee’s Road to Anaheim page still promoted the podcast and link to discounted Disneyland tickets.

This remains true in the early hours of April 10, as well.

The Silence on the Part of the SBC Establishment is Deafening

Why do we hear only crickets from SBC establishment leaders on this issue, with just a few exceptions, Al Mohler being one of them? (Go here and here.)

Where is JD Greear? Isn’t he concerned about sexual abuse? His leadership of the Caring Well Initiative ought to indicate he cares about all sexual abuse, not just abuse occurring in certain situations and places.

Where is Grant Gaines, Matt Chandler, James Merritt, and Danny Akin? In addition, one assumes that although he’s not officially a Southern Baptist leader anymore, Russell Moore surely still is troubled by and opposed to sexual abuse. Yet he’s been silent about Disney, at least as far as his Twitter account is concerned. Why?

Rachael Denhollander hasn’t addressed the current situation surrounding Disney, either. And if Pastor Bruce Frank, chairman of the SBC Sexual Abuse Task Force, has expressed any opposition to Disney’s overtly pro-LGBTQ agenda, he hasn’t taken to Twitter to express it. Nor has Bart Barber, a likely candidate for SBC president in Anaheim.

By contrast, Tom Ascol, another likely SBC presidential candidate, did make a public statement.

Disney has been discipling (grooming) our children for a long time. Parents, quit paying people to sell perversion to your kids. https://t.co/pluJ4IjU5Q

— Tom Ascol @tomascol (@tomascol) March 29, 2022

Takeaways

The battle swirling around Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law hasn’t just unmasked the Disney Corporation, although we can be thankful it has done that, even as ugly as the situation is. It’s also revealed just how far the Southern Baptist Convention has drifted from where it was a mere 25 years ago.

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The battle swirling around Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law hasn’t just unmasked the Disney Corporation. It’s also revealed just how far the Southern Baptist Convention has drifted from where it was a mere 25 years ago.

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With regard to Disney, the posture of establishment leaders in the SBC doesn’t reflect the moral outrage of Christians sitting in the pews of SBC churches, performing the ministries of those churches, and paying the bills. The people in the pew, as well as their pastors, must keep speaking out — and they must make sure they make wise entertainment choices — ones that likely will have to exclude options offered by Disney. Christian statesman Jon Harris offers insight regarding this in a recent Conversations That Matter podcast.

Whether or not Disney can be reclaimed is uncertain. Right now it looks doubtful. If it can’t, it must be abandoned. Sad to say, the Southern Baptist Convention also needs to be reclaimed. Perhaps this can happen, but if not, then doesn’t it also need to be abandoned? As a denomination, the SBC is heading in a wrong direction and must repent! It — we — must change course!

Southern Baptists, the time is now to take bold stands for truth and godliness in the world, and in your churches and in your denomination.

What or who have greater worth to you? Disney, or your children and grandchildren? The entertainment Disney offers, or the one true God, Maker of heaven and earth, and Jesus Christ, His Son, who died for you on a cross to buy your salvation?

Next time, we’ll consider the last two segments of the FRC video. Keep an eye out for part 3, coming soon.

 

Copyright © 2022 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.

top image credit: Photo by taylor gregory on Unsplash

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture has been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

top image credit: Photo by Gui Avelar on Unsplash