[1]SALT LAKE CITY (BP)–One year after Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted to boycott The Disney Company, the president of the denomination’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Richard Land, has coauthored a book on “the abc’s of making your voice heard at Disney.” “Send a Message to Mickey” by Land and Frank D. York was released June 1 by Broadman & Holman, the trade publishing division of the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board. York is a freelance writer and a former editor and writer in the public policy department of Focus on the Family.
The resolution urging a boycott of Disney attractions and products was passed at the 1997 SBC annual meeting in Dallas.
Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, called the 87-page book “the clearest, most objective look yet at Disney’s deliberate departure from wholesome family values.”
“The Disney Boycott: Questions, Answers and Simple Steps to Success” is the title of the first of five chapters that trace what Land and York describe as the “dark side to Disney.” Throughout the book, the authors use the analogy of a family restaurant where people enjoy a wholesome environment but which also has a “back room” where children and adults are exposed to pornographic movies, deviant sexual behavior, drugs and alcohol.
Biblical passages about Christians confronting sin are explored, along with historical and contemporary examples of effective boycotts on behalf of social and moral issues. The book includes a list of 34 organizations, in addition to the SBC, which are boycotting Disney.
Land and York urge those involved in the boycott to alert the Disney Company to their action by writing letters outlining the reasons for their boycott. The authors urge writers to include the amount of money they would have spent on Disney-related products had they not been involved in the boycott. Samples of letters and the company’s Internet address, www.Disney.com, are among resources included in the book.
Five appendices document what the authors term “the power of the media” and the “homosexual agenda,” along with the text of the 1997 resolution and a list of Disney holdings. Information also is provided about “For Faith & Family,” a radio program launched by the ERLC in February 1998 and hosted by Land.
The book is available at Baptist Book Stores and other Christian bookstores.