Morality boycotts cant defeat media millions
Imagine my surprise, as I sat watching a Disney video about a little deer named Bambi, with a wee child by the name of Linzie by my side, to read in a newspaper that the Southern Baptists had asked all its members to boycott the enterprise known as Disney.
Kazaam!
No more videos. Stay away from Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. Dont wear T-shirts with pictures of spotted puppies. No fair having a vacation romp at Disneyland or Disney World.
Its all over for the little critters that have filled Disney films over the years and then, in the best capitalistic sense, been turned into merchandising icons all over the world.
All of the adults in the Southern Baptist Convention got together in June and decided Disney stuff was destructive to the morals of the nation.
A boycott was called, and the adults decided to deprive their children of Disney merchandise before their morality withered away.
I wonder, did anyone ask the kids? Did any of those adults get down on one knee and try to explain why the Disney videos had been hidden in the attic?
Did anyone ask why somebody went through the kids favorite clothing and removed anything with Disney critters? Did anyone ask the kids if Thumper had threatened their moral sense?
Of course not. The Southern Baptists want children to lead the crusade for morality, and thats the way its going to be.
The Southern Baptists, of course, really arent against Thumper and the gang. Theyre against recent Disney movie productions, such as Priest, which shows homosexual Catholic priests in kissing scenes. And they complain that Disney has become too gay-friendly because the company offers health insurance to partners of gay men and lesbians.
Incidentally, I have not seen the movie Priest, and I would guess many Southern Baptists have not plunked down their hard-earned cash to see priests kissing. Nor, for that matter, would they spend money to see gay Protestant clergy involved in such intimate moments.
What the Southern Baptists have done is react to the current moral climate. They are reminding people in the media that certain people do not enjoy watching people of the same sex make love.
And they are protesting the policy that treats homosexual couples exactly like heterosexual couples.
Some may say Disney is simply trying to treat gay couples fairly. Further, Disney supporters may believe that what those couples do in their bedrooms should not affect how the company deals with their health insurance coverage.
All the Southern Baptists are saying is: We dont like the policy, and we will not treat homosexual couples that way in our church.
They have a right to say that, even a responsibility, and their only weapon is to sting Disney in the wallet.
That has been religions response to moral issues for many years. Religious people, after all, reacted negatively to Elvis gyrating on The Ed Sullivan Show 40 years ago, and the uproar caused the cameras to zoom in on his mouth rather than his hips at least for a few weeks.
That may not have saved Christianity, but it fulfilled religions mandate to react to the moral drift of a society, whether for good or bad. At each stage of our moral challenge movies, television, 24-hour sports entertainment, casinos and betting on animal races religion has reacted with statements, protests, boycotts and pickets.
The problem with those measures is, they dont work over the long haul. Eventually a religions resolve weakens as it faces these media giants and their billions.
This boycott certainly wont work, because sooner or later, the children will find the videos in the attic and theyll dig back into their closets and find their favorite T-shirt with the Dalmatians running across the front.
And one day you will find them mesmerized in front of the television cheering on Thumper and the gang. Some days you cant win.
Clark D. Morphew
8-16-97
