Thursday, March 2, 2017

Franklin Graham: we're boycotting Disney. We'll quietly drop it in 2025.


Franklin Graham, who now believes there is only one Commandment- "Don't Be Gay"- has called for a boycott of Disney on his "Who I Hate Today" Facebook page:
Disney has aired a cartoon with same-sex couples kissing. It has also been announced that their new movie "Beauty and the Beast" will feature a gay character in an attempt to normalize this lifestyle. They’re trying to push the LGBT agenda into the hearts and minds of your children—watch out! Disney has the right to make their cartoons, it’s a free country. But as Christians we also have the right not to support their company. I hope Christians everywhere will say no to Disney. I met Walt Disney when I was a young boy—he was very gracious to me, my father Billy Graham, and my younger brother when we visited. He would be shocked at what has happened to the company that he started. 
If you agree, comment below and share this with others. Let Disney know how you feel.
Franklin, whose every denunciation carries a reminder how he has been riding his father's coat-tails for decades, misses old Uncle Walt, who didn't like Jews, fired gay actors, and as far as blacks go, well just watch Song of the South. If you can.

So let's Franklin's new boycott works as well as some of the other attempts of the last several decades:

March 28, 1995, Catholic League of America:
"...we are embarking on a nationwide campaign aimed at Disney. We are calling for a boycott of all Disney products, a boycott of vacations to Disney World and Disneyland and a boycott of the Disney cable television channel. We are also asking the public to call Disney and tie up the lines by making a complaint...We will take out ads in nationwide newspapers targeting Disney...We will call on all Catholic organizations to sell Disney stock...we will use every means of communication to reeducate the public as to the new face and the new status of the Walt Disney Company."
Assemblies of God, August 6, 1996:
The church's General Presbytery passed a resolution which urged its congregations and members to boycott the Disney Corporation, and its affiliates. They commented that: "In recent years we have watched with dismay the productions of the Disney Corporation abandoning the commitment to strong moral values, and have noticed this moral shift in a number of Disney-sponsored films and events." Specific concerns were with: 
-Hyperion Press for publishing the book "Growing up Gay". They incorrectly identify this book as being targeted at teenagers. As noted above, the book was written by and for adult homosexuals who recall their teenage years in a rigidly homophobic society. They referred to homosexuality as a "lifestyle", thus promoting the concept that one's sexual orientation is a choice and is something that can be changed. 
-Miramax for making the movie "Priest," described above. 
-Disney for permitting Gay and Lesbian Day to be held at Disney World annually. They are in particular concerned that "families purchasing tickets for the park were not warned [in advance] of the "Gay Day." 
They requested that their "Spiritual Life Committee" monitor Disney products and theme parks. They called upon "the Disney Corporation to return to the values that strengthen and build this nation, such as honesty, respect, integrity, decency, and trust." Unfortunately, they did not explain how publishing the book for adult gays, making of the movie "Priest", or permitting "Gay Days" is dishonest, disrespectful, or lacking in integrity or trust. 
They did not criticize Disney's extension of health benefits to its gay and lesbian employees. That decision has formed a major part of other boycotts.
Christianity Today, October 6, 1997:
Representatives of several evangelical groups are combining forces to intensify a boycott of the Walt Disney Company. 
Leaders of denominations and parachurch organizations, including the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the Presbyterian Church in America, the Wesleyan Church, Concerned Women for America, and Focus on the Family, held a strategy session August 13 in Atlanta. 
They plan to form an organization to coordinate efforts, hold rallies around the country, place newspaper ads, and ask people to dump their stock in Disney companies. Those activities "are just the beginning," says Donald Wildmon of the Tupelo, Mississippi-based American Family Association. 
Organizations and denominations, such as the Assemblies of God, have been boycotting Disney in the past two years, citing the company's prohomosexual and antifamily policies and products. The effort took on added dimensions this summer when the 15 million- member SBC joined the effort (CT, July 14, 1997, p. 72).  
At the Atlanta meeting, Richard Land, head of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, distributed examples of bulletin inserts asking Christians to sign a pledge to withhold "at least $100" that they would have spent on Disney products or tickets during the next year. Also on the flier is a sample form letter addressed to Disney President Michael Eisner.
USNews on NBC, June 22, 2005:
The Southern Baptist Convention, which kick-started a widespread conservative religious boycott of Walt Disney Co. eight years ago, voted Wednesday to end the action but warned Disney that it was keeping its eye on the company. 
The vote by the 11,000 "messengers" here at the convention’s annual meeting added the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination to the list of conservative evangelical groups that have stood down from a confrontation that the American Family Association began in 1996. The AFA began the boycott to protest what it saw as Disney’s promotion of a gay agenda. 
The AFA dropped its boycott last month, and Focus on the Family, the influential evangelical ministry led by James Dobson, quickly followed suit. Like them, however, the SBC said it would continue to “monitor the products and policies” at Disney, whose ABC television series “Desperate Housewives” has been criticized for its sexual content. 
Critics said Christian groups were throwing in the towel, noting that Disney, which had no immediate comment Wednesday, maintained that it never changed any of its policies or practices in response to the boycott. 
But the Southern Baptist resolution defended the boycott as having “rightly and appropriately” challenged Disney and said that for a boycott to work, “it must be specifically targeted and of limited duration.” It said the action had “communicated effectively our displeasure”; the convention noted an executive shuffle and the dissolution of Disney’s deal with the founders of the Miramax studio, whose film “Priest” was the touchpoint for the boycott in 1996. 
That explanation echoed the reasons given last month by the AFA, the Tupelo, Miss.-based ministry run by the Rev. Donald Wildmon, which said that conservative Christians had made their point and that it was time to move on.

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