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The Disney Company has changed, and unfortunately, so has the Southern Baptist Convention

This article is part of a series of articles, available here.

Disneyland, 1955

Original dedication of Disneyland —

Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland’s layout, December 1954 / Wikipedia Commons

“To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

Walter E. Disney, July 17, 1955

Unfortunately, after the death of Walt Disney in 1966, the Disney Company departed from its moral principles and its family-centered mission. In 1997, the Southern Baptist Convention took a stand against what Disney had become.

The Southern Baptist Convention, 1997

Lisa Kinney: 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.

Lisa Kinney / AFA documentary

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.

—Lisa Kinney, messenger to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Dallas, Texas, June 17-19, 1997, speaking in favor of the “Resolution On Moral Stewardship And The Disney Company,” in an appearance near the conclusion of this American Family Association documentary—

The resolution subsequently passed with a show of messengers’ ballots.

Dr. Adrian Rogers

Adrian Rogers: 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—

The Disney Company, 2022

Each one of these tweets from Christopher Rufo is embedded in this Breitbart News article.

The Southern Baptist Convention, 2022

Despite what Disney has become and despite the Southern Baptist Convention’s previous opposition to the Disney Company’s immoral and even wicked philosophy, policies, and marketing, the SBC Executive Committee is promoting Disney and promoting Disneyland.

Episode 5 of The Road to Anaheim / SBC / Vimeo

The following audio file consists of two clips — the first from Episode 1 and the second from Episode 5 of the video series “The Road to Anaheim.” Anaheim is the city that will host the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2022. It’s also the home of Disneyland.

Here is a frame from the opening segment appearing in all the videos in this series:

Frame in the introduction to each of the videos in the series “The Road to Anaheim” produced by the SBC / Vimeo

Disney’s positions on sexuality and their determination to continue to promote the LGBTQ agenda should come as no surprise to anyone, especially the leaders in the SBC. To my knowledge, since the controversy erupted and became a huge national issue (after the videos cited above — Episodes 1 and 5 in this series — were posted), we have heard no criticisms, retractions, disclaimers, or qualifiers about Disney or Disneyland from SBC executives and establishment leaders.

Thus, the silence of the leadership of the SBC regarding Disney is quite revealing. Why do we hear only crickets from SBC establishment leaders about what Disney has become, with just a few exceptions, Al Mohler being one of them? (Go here and here.)

J. D. Greear / jdgreear.com

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.

SEBTS President Danny Akin / SEBTS

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.

For its part, the Conservative Baptist Network 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.”
Conservative Baptist Network

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.”

Which Way?

Photo by Beth Macdonald on Unsplash

With regard to the Walt Disney Company, the posture of establishment leaders in the SBC does not 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. They must expect and even demand that their denominational leaders oppose the evil the Disney Company is promoting…

…for the sakes of innocent children, and for the sake of the gospel itself.

Perhaps the SBC will alter its course. I hope and pray it will.

 

top photo credit: Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

Much of the content of this article has been taken from “If Disney hasn’t yet overplayed its hand, then what must it do to overplay it? Part 2,” a Word Foundations article.

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