The threat - retaliation at the box office - was unmistakable. It was a declaration of economic warfare against one of the world’s most powerful entertainment conglomerates (1996 revenues: more than $21 billion). What lent it credibility was the fact that the Baptist Church, with 15.3 million members, is the nation’s biggest Protestant denomination and one of the mainstays of the militant Christian right. The announcement triggered outrage among gay and lesbian activists on both coasts. ““It’s tremendously mean-spirited - more evidence of the maniacal, obsessive nature of the religious right’s focus on gay people,’’ said Beatrice Dohrn, legal director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York. But it prompted only yawns on Wall Street, where analysts said the boycott would have little effect on Disney’s profitability. The company itself shrugged off the threat with a terse statement reiterating its commitment to wholesome family entertainment.
To Southern Baptists and many other religious conservatives, the issue is inherently political. They’re taking a stand against the trendy secularism of a bicoastal culture that, under the pervasive influence of the mass media, increasingly depicts homosexuality in a positive light. NEWSWEEK’S latest poll shows that the public still opposes gay marriage (56 to 35 percent) and adoption (49 to 40 percent). But Americans overwhelmingly support tolerance on issues such as equal rights in housing (80 percent) and employment (84 percent).
The bottom line, arguably, is that the Southern Baptists are out of step with the nation’s cautious progress toward accepting gays and lesbians. But that clearly did not matter to those in Dallas last week. The specifics of their indictment against Disney include programming like comic Ellen DeGeneres’s coming-out episode on ABC, which is owned by Disney, and the company’s decision to extend health benefits to the partners of its gay and lesbian employees. Many Baptists also object to ““Gay Day’’ at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., which draws thousands of gays and lesbians to the giant theme park each June. (Disney does not organize the event.) Boycott backer Tim Wildmon, vice president of the American Family Association, says these are signs that Disney supports ““the homosexual agenda.’’ While conceding that ““homosexuals are Americans, too,’’ Wildmon said Baptists are ““asking people not to go buy [videos like] “Hunchback of Notre Dame’ because . . . that’s giving [Disney] the money to produce “Ellen’.''
The easy question is whether the Baptist campaign will produce its desired effect. The answer, as Wall Street recognized last week, is almost certainly ““no.’’ Boycotts are hard to organize and harder still to lead to a successful conclusion: Disney, with its vast holdings in the entertainment industry, is unlikely to change its policies and evidently sees no reason for doing so. The Baptist Church, meanwhile, is no monolith. Historically based on opposition to religious hierarchy, it is a diverse collection of 40,000 local congregations and pastors, many of whom are skeptical about the boycott. Like everyone else, Baptists have kids who love Disney products - from films like ““Hercules’’ to vacations at Disneyland and Disney World. The Rev. Gary L. Johnson, pastor of the Wayside Baptist Church in Miami, captured the dilemma nicely. ““I don’t know how a family with children could actually boycott all the Disney enterprises,’’ Johnson said. ““I just can’t picture us being overly zealous about it.''
The larger issue is theological and moral - and it is one that troubles thoughtful believers like the Rev. Charles Wade, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. Like most Baptists, Wade sees homosexuality as sin, and he, too, is offended by shows like ““Ellen.’’ But Wade says gays have reason to feel oppressed and that a boycott is not the Christian way of confronting immorality. The right way, he says, is learn what Jesus taught: let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
