To where is the Disney Company leading innocent children? Figuratively speaking, are you willing to allow your own kids to board the Disney monorail system to go wherever Disney employees desire to take them? Don’t just keep them off; show them where they need to go and how to get there!
The wonderful family-friendly company that Walt Disney founded is gone, replaced by creepy corporate executives who have lost their minds, and will likely lose a lot of their customers. They certainly have lost me.…[T]he Disney company has become such a purveyor of soft porn and wokeism that instead of entertaining children with fantasy and magic, Disney’s new model is sexual fantasy. Outright betrayal and rejection of traditional values of marriage and gender. And instead of moral neutrality, Disney has opted for immoral advocacy.…[T]he only way to push back against this filth is to find other products and places when you purchase entertainment for your family.…I, for one, don’t want to enrich the people that have destroyed the Magic Kingdom and turned it into the Perverted Palace.
—Mike Huckabee, in a monologue posted on You Tube on Saturday, April 2, 2022—
Our greatest national resource is the minds of our children.
—Walt Disney—
Key points: Moms and dads must embrace their God-given roles as the primary influencers, instructors, and educators of their children. The Bible sheds a great deal of light on why — and how — parents can effectively perform these tasks. We live in a world where people call good evil and evil good, and in a world in which the most trusted family-friendly entertainment company has turned predatorial. In such an environment, the very souls of members of future generations are at risk.
This article is part of a series of articles, available here.
With this post, we conclude a journey we began in part one of this series, which I published on April 7, 2022. I released the introductory article for the series on Friday, April 1, the same day the Family Research Council’s Joseph Backholm served as a guest host for FRC’s regular program, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.
During the April 1 program, Mr. Backholm interviewed several individuals, the last of which was David Closson, the Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council (FRC). The two men talked about Disney and Disney’s recent tirade against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law. I found their conversation to be especially insightful and instructive for “ordinary” people” — people and families who are looking around and wondering how and why society is unraveling. How should we respond to the craziness all around us? Joseph and David offer helpful insights, and I’ve tried to unpack them to share them with you in parts 1-3 of this series.
The pushback by Disney against sanity and reason has been extreme. The new Florida law has been derided by its opponents — including Disney — as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Yet in reality, the new law is quite benign. It only
prohibits classroom instruction regarding “sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade “or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards” for those in higher grades.
On Monday, April 4, FRC posted a video of Backholm’s and Closson’s Washington Watch conversation. I’ve embedded it at the end of this article. There you can watch the entire 16-minute segment of the program without interruption.
To make it easier to digest the pro-family leaders’ entire exchange over the course of several posts, I divided Mr. Backholm’s and Mr. Closson’s conversation into six short audio clips. Each clip highlights an extremely important aspect the ongoing debate over Disney and the Disney Company’s departure from its value-rich roots.
We considered the first three sections of audio in part 1:
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- Section 1: Is Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill a Form of Bullying? White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says it Is, but Few Lies Are More Glaringly False.
- Section 2: Enacting and Upholding Good Public Policy Demands Courage, but People Hunger to See Courageous and Principled Leadership.
- Section 3: The LGBT Agenda Defies Reality, and at Great Cost.
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In part 2, we explored the fourth section:
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- Section 4: Southern Baptists of 25 Years Ago Are Vindicated, but Where Is the Southern Baptist Convention Today?
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Unfortunately, the answer to the question posed in our consideration of Section 4 is this: Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) are officially promoting Disney by offering discounted tickets to Disneyland to individuals and families who attend the SBC’s 2022 annual meeting. This year Southern Baptist messengers meets in Anaheim, California, the home of Disneyland.
Sadly, you’d never know that in 1997, Southern Baptists voted to participate in a boycott of Disney. Thankfully, some Southern Baptists are resisting Disney’s radical agenda and warning against it, but a close examination of the official promotions of Disney within the SBC reveals a lot about how far away from godly priorities the denomination has drifted.
To be completely fair and transparent, I should share that the recent posture of Southern Baptist Convention leaders in relation to Disney was not the primary focus of this portion of Joseph’s and David’s conversation. Rather, David cited the actions of the SBC 25 years ago as a legitimate response to Disney’s posture then and since then. Nothing at Disney has improved; in fact, Disney has become even more debased and predatory — and David also emphasized this. You can read part 2 and listen to the audio of Section 4 of Joseph’s and David’s conversation here.
In this article, we’ll hear the final two sections of the last 16 minutes of the April 1, 2022 edition of Washington Watch with Tony Perkins. In these audio clips, Backholm and Closson offer some welcome, practical advice to parents and everyone else wanting to protect members of the upcoming generation from sexual predators and groomers.
Section 5: Understand the Power of Stories in Shaping Perceptions of What Is Normal
Harking back to statements from two Disney executives he had showcased earlier in his conversation with David Closson, Joseph Backholm introduces a third. He says,
They begin to explain why this [Disney’s efforts to promote the LGBTQ agenda in its programming] is so important.
Not only do they describe why it’s important to them, but also why it’s important, period.
Allen March is a production coordinator at Disney, He says,
All this content is going to kids who don’t know any of this and even if they’re in households that have supportive parents they’re still getting all this information from media [about] what is normal. And we just — there’s a lot of power to that, and it just needs to be acknowledged.
Hear and heed the insights that Joesph and David offer in response to Allen March’s statement. At Disney, observes Joseph,
they understand the power of media to define what is normal. And they use the power of story, and they use art and the power of music and the combination of all of these things to create an environment where children will see things repeatedly over and over — attitudes, behaviors, scenarios — because they understand that that repetition shapes the hearts and the minds of young people so it affects what they view as normal — what they will celebrate in the future, what they will participate in in the future.
David Closson readily agrees that Disney’s strategy is extremely effective. He observes that the Allen March clip
was the most revealing clip of all, talking about defining what is normal. This is a form of discipleship. This is a form of catechizing. You know, Joseph, you and I have talked about how children from K through twelfth grade spend 16,000 hours in a classroom, which is why it’s so important to focus on education. But children spend almost every day, several hours as well, consuming media, consuming movies and entertainment. And all of those, Joseph, over time, gradually, subtly, have the effect of cultivating a worldview, of teaching us what is right, what is wrong, what is something that we should aspire to. And I think what we are seeing, Disney is in the business of cultivating and creating worldviews for the youngest of Americans. The story of Scripture — that’s our story: creation, fall, redemption, consumption. We’re in the business of stories, too, and its increasingly clear, the story that we’re telling in our churches and in our homes, is increasingly at odds with the story that Disney and other woke corporations want to catechize our children in.
This is why Christian parents need to expose their children repeatedly, day in and day out, to the things of God and share with with their kids their own experiences of the wonderful ways God has worked in their lives. As Moses told God’s people in what we now know as the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy,
6:1“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.…
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.…
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
—Moses to God’s people in Deuteronomy 6:6-7—
20 “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22 and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. 23 Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’”
Obviously, your own testimony about the things God has done for you won’t include an account of His bringing you out of a literal experience of being enslaved in Egypt — but that doesn’t mean you have no testimony. God has delivered every believer from slavery to sin and freed him or her to serve Him in the power of His Spirit. What is your story? Have you shared it with your children?
Further, every Christian parent can talk about the value of obeying God and the pitfalls they can avoid by doing so. Be sure you are communicating your love for God and the things of God with words and by example, in the whole of your life and in all of your relationships, and both outside and especially inside your home. My dad taught me integrity, not so much with words, but by being a man of principle both at home and in private, just as he was in public.
Section 6 — Be Intentional; Be Creative; Be Consistent
Jospeh emphasizes that a sense of normalcy is conveyed through patterns of choices made and the routine activities that arise from those choices and habits. David mentions the admonition of Moses to God’s people in Deuteronomy 6, which we’ve cited above. Traditions and a sense of heritage within one’s family and faith community also are important. This, indicates David, is about discipleship. Will you as a parent disciple your children in the things of God to protect them from being discipled by purveyors of evil? Will you disciple them in such a way that when they become adults, they will be able to effectively oppose evil themselves and contend for the truth of God?
Note this observation from David: “I think Christian parents absolutely need to take back this mantle, this understanding that sees them as first and foremost the disciplers of their children.” Through this training and discipleship process, children can grow into adults who, for their own benefit and the benefit of all who know them, are content to live in the world as God created it, and content to cooperate with reality. As Joseph warns, “For a lot of Americans now it’s becoming normal to use ridiculous phrases like ‘pregnant people’ and say ‘I don’t know what a woman is,’ because they see other people doing that, and it becomes ‘normal.’ We can also normalize goodness and truth, but we have to try to.”
I think Christian parents absolutely need to take back this mantle, this understanding that sees them as first and foremost the disciples of their children.
—David Closson—
Do you need help in thinking through and making educational choices for your children so that through their educational experiences, they become equipped with a biblical worldview? I encourage you to explore a ministry called RenewaNation and the resources it offers. Summit Ministries and the Impact 360 Institute also are fine organizations that help teens learn and incorporate a biblical worldview into their own lives. The resources and instruction available at Stand to Reason also are tremendous and potentially life-changing. At Word Foundations and Discover Bedrock Truth, I, too, have sought to address this need to the degree that I have been able. I have done so primarily in three series of articles (here, here, and here). Regardless of the resources tapped, Christian parents have the primary responsibility of discipling their children — not the church. It actually is the church’s job to equip and support parents in their discipleship roles, as well as to reinforce the godly training that occurs at home.
I love the message of the title of a book by Charles Swindoll published in 1979: Home: Where Life Makes Up Its Mind. It really is true that home is where life makes up its mind! Remember that most often, foundational truths are caught. Of course, they have to be taught in order for them to be caught, but they rarely will be caught if they are merely taught verbally, without displays of faith in God and demonstrations of commitment to Him and to those things that please Him.
Of course, in this mix, offering wholesome entertainment for individual and family enjoyment is crucial. Stories capture children’s imaginations, and they need to be utilized. At this point, a quote from G. K. Chesterton we showcased in a previous article comes to mind. Chesterton said, “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
—G. K. Chesterton—
In the introductory article in this series, we named several entertainment options, all of which are excellent alternatives to Disney. You can explore those here.
It is noteworthy that all of these ministries use stories to communicate timeless truths. In the article where we cited Chesterton’s quote about dragons, we explored the importance of stories by looking at the ministry of Lamplighter. Part of the emphasis of that article was that stories from history can capture the interests and imaginations of people of all ages, including children. Because they are true, they offer lessons that are especially powerful and insightful. To the above ministries, add this one: Drive Thru History.
The Bottom Line
We now live in a world where people call evil good and good evil. The American entertainment company that many years ago acted with integrity to earn the trust of parents — the company adults trusted more than any other to produce wholesome programing — has turned into a sexual predator. That’s the bad news. The worse news is that that it is aiming for your children.
There is good news, however! Parents don’t have to allow Disney to mess with their children’s minds! Indeed, parents and grandparents must protect the minds and hearts of members of younger generations. Christian moms and dads must embrace their responsibility to pass godly values along to their young. They need to be unashamed to speak to their kids about their love for, and their accountability to, God.
After all, Scripture and history both teach that true freedom and liberty are inseparably linked to God’s law. These realities and ideals, along with others, are embedded in a biblical worldview — and it is a biblical worldview Christian parents must pass down to their children. Over the long haul, in terms of ideas, a biblical worldview is the greatest and most effective protection against all forms of evil available.
Over the long haul, in terms of ideas, being equipped with a biblical worldview is the greatest and most effective protection against against all forms of evil available.
Among other things, this means parents must do all they can to engage their children — especially their young children — with stories that teach sound values and great moral truths. This means, of course, using stories from the Bible; but it also means tapping into stories that uphold biblical teachings and that present lessons consistent with God’s law. It means pointing out the benefits of following Christ and trusting in Him on a daily basis.
If you think for a New York minute that authentic freedom, fulfillment, and safety ultimately can be found anywhere else, you are quite mistaken.
As Scripture teaches, “[W]here the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” It also says,
Pslam 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.
May God help you guide your children down this safe, rich, and fulfilling path.
Copyright © 2022 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
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 Heather Maguire on Unsplash
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