ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER note: above
THE LARGEST Protestant denomination refers to the entertainment giant as ``anti-family.''
Some 13,000 Southern Baptists meeting here Wednesday accused the Walt Disney Co. of being "anti-family" and "anti-Christian," and threatened a boycott of the company if it doesn't change its ways.
"Messengers" to the annual meeting of the nation's largest Protestant denomination overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning Disney corporate policies that they say promote homosexuality and "disparage Christian values."
The annual convention can speak only for itself in such resolutions, which are not binding on any individual Southern Baptist or any of the denomination's 40,000 congregations.
However, resolutions that receive near-unanimous approval - such as the one on Disney - are generally believed to have widespread sympathy inside the 15.7million-member denomination.
After the vote, denominational officials said they expect the resolution to get the attention of the gigantic Disney empire, despite published reports that Wall Street analysts think the company is unlikely to be affected by any action of the convention.
Disney spokesman John Dreyer told the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel on Wednesday that "a boycott of the most family-friendly company in the world [sends] a very strange message to the rest of the entertainment industry."
Specifically, the resolution names five offenses that it says signal "a significant departure from Disney's family-values image, and a gratuitous insult to Christians and others who have long supported Disney and contributed to its corporate profits."
The list includes: "an employee policy which accepts and embraces homosexual relationships for the purpose of insurance benefits"; "hosting of homosexual and lesbian theme nights at its parks"; "choosing a convicted child molester" to direct the Miramax movie "Powder"; "publishing of a book aimed at teen-age homosexuals, `Growing Up Gay: From Left Out to Coming Out,' through its subsidiary Hyperion"; and producing the movie "Priest," which "depicts Christian leaders as morally defective."
The resolution calls for boycotts of Disney products, stores and theme parks if the company continues trends the resolution calls "anti-family."
Outgoing convention President Jim Henry - pastor of a large Orlando, Fla., church that includes many Disney employees among its members - said in a news conference that the denomination is willing to wait and see how the company responds before initiating any action.
"This is a provisional call for action" that is not aimed at hurting Disney or any of its employees, but to get the company to pay attention to Southern Baptists' concerns and address them, Henry said. There will be no proposal to boycott the upcoming Disney movie, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," for instance.
The resolution includes no deadline for a Disney response, and since the convention meets only once each year, it is unlikely there would be any call for a boycott before next year's meeting in Dallas, Henry said. The Southern Baptist Convention meeting scheduled for Orlando in 2000 is not likely to be affected no matter what Disney's response is, Henry said, because planning such a large meeting must be completed years in advance.
In any case, "New Orleans is not a mecca for healthy living either," he said, but the convention meets here regularly.
Resolutions committee chairman Nancy Victory said the committee has read Disney's previous responses to the criticisms raised in the resolution and found them "inadequate." The company has defended its extension of insurance benefits to same-sex partners, and contends it cannot legally deny group-discount ticket sales to gay and lesbian organizations that attend its theme parks.
The company also has pointed out that the movies and books the resolution objects to are not produced with the Walt Disney name on them, but under the logos of subsidiary companies. Furthermore, the book "Growing Up Gay" and the film "Priest" are several years old.
Some other Christian groups - including the Knights of Columbus and the American Family Association - also have called for boycotts or otherwise criticized Disney on the same grounds as the Southern Baptist resolution.
Convention messengers passed two other resolutions Wednesday, one condemning the recent series of arsons of black churches, and the other blasting President Clinton - himself a Southern Baptist - for his veto of a ban on so-called "partial-birth abortions."
The arson resolution included a call for prayer, financial help and vigorous prosecution of the perpetrators of the crimes. The convention also planned a special offering collection Wednesday night to be distributed to burned churches.
Messengers called Clinton's veto of the abortion ban a "shameful" act and expressed their "strong disapproval" not only of the veto, but also of the votes of any legislators against the ban.
The bill would have banned an abortion procedure in which a fetus is partially delivered, then its brain tissue destroyed and removed before the head is delivered. Opponents of the ban, including Clinton, contend that the procedure was necessary in some cases to save the life of the mother. Critics disagreed.
The resolution also included "our disapproval of the President's suggestion that God would reveal to him in prayer that any abortion method, particularly one so barbarous in technique and so cruel in effect, would ever have God's approval."
Messengers refused to delete from the resolution language that says abortion may be necessary in "very rare cases where the life of the mother is clearly in danger."
The Southern Baptist Convention concludes its business today with action on a series of other resolutions and an address by Bill McCartney, founder of the Promise Keepers Christian men's movement.
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