Tim Wildmon
AFA president
August 1997 – Someone called me after the Southern Baptist Convention had voted to boycott Disney because of the company’s recent products and policies that push immorality. He said he saw Michael Medved, a conservative movie review critic whom I consider one of the good guys in Hollywood, criticize the SBC for its action. Medved basically said it was a bad idea and that those who are upset with Disney should boycott the bad stuff and support the good.
Similarly, my friend Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, who basically holds the same philosophy on this matter as Medved, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that if the boycott by SBC members and others was successful “it could drive Disney to do more R-rated films, which is unfortunate, because Disney did not release any anti-Christian films last year and they even produced a few movies with Christian content such as The Preacher’s Wife.” Even some SBC members and other Christian leaders were publicly critical of those who were sent to Dallas in June to pass resolutions and set policy for the largest Protestant denomination in our country.
Now I don’t have a hard time understanding why secular social commentators and columnists criticize or mock the moral message the SBC is trying to send. Many of these critics see all moral issues as relative. Most of them see nothing morally wrong, for example, with homosexuality. “If they love each other, or even if they don’t and just want to do what they do, who should care? What’s it to you?”
But I do have difficulty understanding why other Christians, and even someone like Michael Medved, who understands the Bible’s clear teaching about homosexuality, would be so critical of the reasonable and lawful methods the SBC, AFA, the Assemblies of God, the Free Will Baptists, and others, have chosen to employ against Disney – at least until the entertainment giant changes its ways.
It’s Disney who went out of their way to sign Danzig, a band whose music, according to the Los Angeles Times, is “laced with satanic themes.” We didn’t do this.
It’s Disney who showed network television’s most passionate open mouth kiss between two women on ABC’s Relativity. We didn’t do this.
It’s Disney, through their wholly-owned subsidiary Miramax films, who has put out numerous offensive movies such as Priest. Medved described Priest as “the most profound hostility to the Catholic Church I have seen in 15 years.” Again, we didn’t do this.
It’s Disney that has allowed CEO Michael Eisner to sit on the board of Hollywood Supports, a very influential homosexual advocacy group in the entertainment industry. We didn’t do this.
It’s Disney who, through its Hyperion Press, is publishing all manner of homosexual literature such as Growing Up Gay and Out & About Gay Travels, a new line of travel guides targeting homosexuals. (What can this possibly be except a guide to gay bars and gathering places?) We didn’t do this.
It’s Disney who brought Ellen out of the closet in the super bowl of lesbianism this past spring on ABC. We didn’t do this.
It’s Disney who allowed “One Mighty Party,” June 7, 1997, to take place at the Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando where thousands of homosexuals and lesbians gathered for a dance to celebrate their lifestyle. We didn’t do this.
It’s Disney who left us. We didn’t leave them.
“I personally will not support a boycott of theme parks and will urge my fellow Baptists not to support a boycott,” said Rev. Jim Henry of Orlando’s First Baptist Church. What more does Disney have to do, Pastor Henry? I would like someone to give me one valid reason why I shouldn’t boycott Disney.
Many Americans, including evangelicals and Catholics, feel strongly about what the Bible says in Romans 1 concerning homosexuality being immoral and unnatural. We feel it’s unhealthy and destructive for a society to embrace an agenda that will redefine the family. It leads to cultural decay. Certainly Jesus Christ – as evidenced by his words to the woman caught in adultery – can forgive and restore. However, he also said “go and sin no more.”
Concerning the strategy to “buy the good and boycott the bad,” as espoused by some leaders, I agree with that thinking up to a point. However, I believe in some cases, as with Disney, a company is doing so much evil that I can no longer in good conscience give them money for anything.
I really doubt that Disney needs to be shown that family entertainment makes millions. Isn’t that how Walt built the empire in the first place? As columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., wrote in the Wall Street Journal (6/24/97): “Disney finds itself in hot water with the Southern Baptists precisely because Disney – not Time-Warner, Sony or Fox – presented itself as the avatar of ‘family entertainment,’ while out some unmarked side door the conglomerate was shoveling something else. If customers now want to complain because they see the company moving in an ‘anti-Christian and anti-family direction,’ Disney can thank itself. It trained them to expect better.”
And the idea that somehow those who boycott the company will be responsible for Disney creating more R-rated movies and sinking further into the moral abyss is ridiculous. If Disney creates more garbage, that’s Disney’s choice, not mine or anybody else’s. Disney is fully aware why thousands of Americans no longer do business with them. They have aligned themselves front and center with the homosexual groups who stand diametrically opposed to the Word of Almighty God. Disney is pushing sin and Christians have no obligation to subsidize it.
“But if we want to bring Disney to its knees, we ought to spend time on our knees, praying for them to do the right thing,” Pastor Henry told the Orlando Sentinel.
Pastor Henry, I’m convinced that God is answering that prayer and using this boycott as His means.
I’m all for a corporate revival at Disney. But what can we do in the meantime as they go after our kids with the pro-homosexual message? Do we show them Jesus by giving them money to attack Judeo-Christian morality in such an unabashed fashion? Can’t we do both? Can’t we pray for Disney and at the same time quit supporting them?
One other criticism of the boycott has been that there are other entertainment companies as bad or worse than Disney. That’s arguable. The implication is that if we don’t boycott all the bad companies, we shouldn’t boycott any because that would be inconsistent. What a red herring! It’s the old, “If you can’t change the world then don’t do anything,” argument that others have always thrown at activists. It’s supposed to shut us up and end the argument.
For years, groups like AFA have promoted targeted boycotts. Here you have to balance pragmatism and principle. In order to be effective in bringing change, energies and resources must be focused. For example, about 10 years ago AFA boycotted 7-Eleven stores because they were a leading retailer of pornography. At the time there were other large chains of stores such as Circle K doing the same. Why did we pick out 7- Eleven? Several reasons. First, they were the largest convenience store chain selling porn. Secondly, they were a well-known company. We made it simple for people to participate and be a part of making a stand. We made it practical. Instead of just saying, “Boycott all stores selling pornography,” we gave ourselves something by which we could measure our effectiveness. That’s not to say we didn’t encourage people to avoid all stores selling pornography. As a result of the targeted boycott, many other smaller chains quit selling porn after the giant, 7-Eleven, fell. In short, we made our point and won a major victory for America’s children when 7-Eleven pulled the porn from 4,500 stores after a two-year boycott.
I suspect that for many of our critics, we are simply an embarrassment. Or maybe they don’t like hearing the truth about Disney because it brings conviction. Maybe it’s the “kill the messenger” mentality. I’m not exactly sure. But one thing I do know is that boycotts are voluntary. No laws have been passed. No one is twisting anyone else’s arm. If you don’t like the idea of boycotting Disney, then don’t. It’s up to each individual and each family.
But can’t you find something better to do than criticize your brothers and sisters who see America, the land we love and want to pass on to our children, “slouching toward Gomorah,” as Judge Robert Bork describes it? Can’t you find somewhere else to aim your fire than at those of us who wish to uphold virtue, righteousness and Biblical morality in America and who don’t want to be a part of Disney bringing Ellen out of the closet?
We’re only expressing ourselves in a scripturally permissible and thoroughly American way – with our prayers and with our pocketbooks.
We’re not the bad guys. 
