Reprinted from Moody magazine, 10/97

June 1998 – Consider the Virginia family who unwittingly chose the first weekend in June for a visit to Disney World.

Complained the mom to the Washington Post, “I’d like to hear how Michael Eisner would explain that to my kids.” That was a bare chested homosexual man wearing a black patent leather mini-skirt and mouse ears with pink rhinestones. “Just tell them it’s Gay Days,” the man said. “For three days we get to be the majority. And if you don’t like it just close those little eyes.”

For the past seven years, Gay Day – now expanded to Gay Days – has been an annual event at the Orlando theme park. Although Disney does not sponsor it, the event is big business for Disney and the other businesses that have sprung up around the park – a reported 60,000 showed up for this year’s Gay Days weekend.

And they were conspicuous. Many wore the official red Gay Days T-shirt emblazoned with “A Day of Magic, A Night of Pleasure” and the address of the official Gay Days web site. Other park patrons complained that many were openly engaging in activity that would be inappropriate for married couples in public. Even some homosexual couples attending Gay Days were embarrassed by the lewd behavior of others.

Shortly thereafter, the Southern Baptists voted to boycott Disney and its related companies for what they see as pro-homosexual company policies and for the increasing sexual and violent content in productions by Disney subsidiaries.

Whether this blanket boycott will make any difference is a matter of contention both within and without the Southern Baptist Convention. Critics argue that Disney is so big, one denomination’s boycott won’t hurt it much financially. And how reasonable is it to expect any family to know what all of Disney’s holdings are? The Baptists distributed a list of more than 200 – which included entities as diverse as Vista Insurance Services and the Kansas City Star. Put simply, Disney has its fingers in almost as many pies as Sara Lee.

And beyond the bottom line is the valid question of whether a boycott is the best way – or even a good way – to represent Christ to that company or to the public in general, where Baptists have been labeled by some as a bunch of moralizing, homophobic witch hunters.

Christians run the risk of censure whenever they make a splash in the public or political arena. But there are key issues that neither Christians nor Disney can in good conscience ignore: the best interests of children and the erosion of trust.

Every year Disney rolls out a major marketing campaign to persuade families to take their children for extended (and expensive) visits to its theme parks, to sell its animated films, and to sell other merchandise targeted to children. But lately certain Disney policies – the most blatant is its cooperation, if not sponsorship, in Gay Days – have overlooked one basic premise: Children have the right to be children without being bombarded with overtly sexual messages, no matter what their nature and no matter what their source. That’s not radical, “religious right” rhetoric. That’s just common sense.

The homosexual community’s choice to launch such an in-your-face exhibition in a place where they know children will be present is one more example of sacrificing what’s best for children to the selfishness of “adults.” Disney’s choice to allow it is beyond comprehension. Both parties have been begging for a confrontation, and neither should be surprised that it has come. Parents rightly feel betrayed by a company that for years has banked on its pristine image.

Does that mean that Christians are obligated to declare total war on Disney? Not necessarily. Those who have chosen to honor the boycott as a matter of personal holiness and concern for their children are following personal convictions – as Paul told the Romans, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind… He who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God” (Romans 14:5-6).

Paul would have respected their decision. But he might also have chosen to try to keep the lines of communication open with Disney, pointing to the good things the company has done, and graciously explaining his objections to others.

Issues of immorality are not exactly new. In Paul’s time, homosexuality was widely practiced. So were infanticide and prostitution. But beyond their sin, Paul saw people who needed Jesus Christ. Paul might even have gone to Orlando during Gay Days, seeing an opportunity to witness to that crowd akin to his experience at Mars Hill. After all, Jesus died even for the man with the rhinestone mouse ears.