The Southern Baptists have really taken a brave stand...Wait a minute. What's that? The Baptists aren't upset about the role Disney has played in rearing a generation of girls to look upon themselves as pretty little future wives, just waiting for a prince to rescue them? They're upset that the company is giving out health insurance too freely. Too many gays and lesbians, in the minds of these Baptists, are getting the likes of annual teeth cleanings and Pap smears. They also don't like "Ellen" or "Pulp Fiction." So the convention voted to banish Mickey from their homes, Snow White from their VCRs and Peter Jennings, who works for ABC, which is owned by Disney, from their living rooms. No doubt their kids will be better off. I'm not a big fan of any of that stuff anyway.
No one has to watch something they find objectionable, whatever their reasons. The First Amendment grants all of us the option to make our own spiritual decisions. That is apparently what one delegate was trying to do when she proclaimed that the boycott will change us. "It will affirm to us and the world that we love Jesus more than we love our entertainment." In case she or any of the other convention delegates ever wonder why the Religious Right are sometimes seen as hateful and bigoted and judgmental, look at how this appears from the outside. The Baptist Convention is boycotting not because it believes Disney treats some group or individual badly, but because they think the company treats a group of individuals too well.
Singling out Disney's health-care policy as "anti-family," when so many companies don't provide employees with health care at all, makes Baptists seem as if they don't care about helping struggling families as much as they care about hurting the families they don't like. The boycott is not about easing miserable conditions at overseas factories. It's not about shaming highly profitable companies for laying off loyal employees. It's not about shunning a movie that spreads hateful stereotypes or ugly untruths. In a world of sin and suffering, they're upset that one group of people isn't suffering enough.
It seems awfully strange to make a moral judgment that puts everything that touches Disney off limits-from the seemingly ancient, sweet sentiment of "It's A Small World" to a "20/20" interview with Billy Graham-but that excuses the production of crass productions like Beavis and Butt-Head, skin TV like Baywatch and often-crude comedies like Married With Children."
These Baptists pick their battles like everyone else. The individuals pushing this agenda should at least admit that their biases are their biases. They are boycotting ABC not because they love Jesus more than entertainment, but because they love the parts of the Bible that preach against homosexuality more than they love the parts that preach against hate, or gluttony, or gossip, or working on Sunday, or women cutting their hair. They are not, after all, boycotting NBC for providing health benefits to Katie Couric, with her sinful bob...or Willard Scott, with his shameless gut.
Does anyone really think that Jesus is worried that too many people are getting health-care coverage?
NOTE: While the Southern Baptists are boycotting Disney for their domestic partnership programs, they're forgetting a couple of other organizations which follow suit. They have a lot of boycotting to do. D O M E S T I C � P A R T N E R S H I P