Tim Wildmon

AFA president

March 1997 – " Tim, can you come in here for a couple of minutes and watch this scene?” Randall Murphree asked me over the phone.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute,” I responded.

Randall has served as editor of the AFA Journal for 13 years and has been reviewing television programming for us for that long. About 10 years ago Randall decided to take his television set out of his home. He didn’t need any more TV.

I made the twenty-second trip down the hall and sat down in Randall’s office. He calls me over about twice a week to take a look at a clip from a network show. He set the scene for me, although the scene that followed didn’t really require any context. He hit the pause button and the tape began rolling with two women hugging each other on a couch and talking. Then the scene turned more intimate as the two moved in closer, as did the camera, and one’s face turned to meet the other’s and the two women began a lingering open-mouth, very passionate kiss. I was stunned.

“What show is this?” I asked in amazement.

“It’s called Relativity and airs Saturday nights on ABC,” Randall responded.

“I can’t believe this,” I said, looking at the television set and then turning to Randall. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”

“Not anything this graphic and this bold,” he said.

When I was a kid I looked forward to Saturday afternoons. At least once a month my parents or one of my friends’ parents would take three or four of us down to the Malco theater in Tupelo and drop us off for the matinee. We were excited! This was big time fun going to the movies without our parents. Why were our parents so trusting of the film we were going to see in 1972? Why? Because it was a Walt Disney movie, that’s why.

The Disney name had been synonymous with good, clean, family-oriented entertainment that parents could trust. Song of the South, Herbie the Lovebug, Ol’ Yeller, The Computer That Wore Tennis Shoes, and many, many other films were all so much fun in the eyes of a kid. There was no sex or sexual innuendo, there was no profanity or off-color language, and I don’t remember anything about the violence, if there was any. It was wholesome entertainment.

The name “Disney” equaled “trust” in our home and in America. Now, sadly, that trust is no longer.

In the AFA Journal, we continue to document the many violations of this trust. And this month we bring to you another. ABC, the network which is pushing homosexuality and lesbianism like never before, is owned by Disney.

Three of Disney’s top executives, including CEO Michael Eisner, sit on the board of Hollywood Supports, the most influential “gay rights” organization in the entertainment business.

Disney recently signed an occultic rocker called Danzig to produce “music” for them. I could go on and on
and on.

It’s really sad, if you think about it. Now it’s 1997 and there’s not a corporate name in America I trust absolutely with my children’s eyes, ears and minds.

AFA has been calling for a boycott of Disney until they change the direction of the company. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon. But if enough people and denominations join the boycott, speaking with our pocketbooks, we have a chance to demonstrate to Disney there are millions of people who are serious about this and it is costing them a lot of money.

Until Disney changes, I would ask you to pray for Michael Eisner and the corporate leadership at Disney.   

Tim Wildmon welcomes your responses. Write him at:
P.O. Drawer 2440 
Tupelo, MS 38803
E-mail twildmon@afa.net