Southern Baptists Set to Boycott Disney

The Southern Baptists, whose 16 million members are the nation’s largest Protestant body, are expected next week to formally declare a boycott against the Walt Disney Co. to protest what they call “promotion of homosexuality.”

The Baptists, meeting Tuesday through Thursday in Dallas, are expected to approve a resolution urging churchgoers not to patronize the entertainment giant, church leaders say. They contend that Disney ignored their warning last year of a boycott if the company continued “this anti-Christian and anti-family trend.”

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Members of the conservative denomination are upset with the annual Gay Day at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and corporate policy by Burbank-based Disney extending insurance benefits to companions of gay employees. Southern Baptists also criticized the Disney-owned ABC television network when the lead character in the “Ellen” sitcom came out as a lesbian, along with the actress playing her.

Last year’s resolution by church leaders carried only the threat of boycott, but Disney spokesman Tom Green said that the company thought a boycott had already been in place for 12 months.

That misimpression may have been fed partly by campaigns initiated by the nondenominational American Family Association. A series of protest packets focused on Disney have been mailed to more than 25,000 Southern Baptist pastors since 1995, including a brochure sent out in the past month, said AFA President Donald Wildmon of Tupelo, Miss.

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The AFA director for Southern California, the Rev. Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, introduced the boycott measure at last year’s Baptist meeting.

This week, Drake said he thought that “an overwhelming number of Southern Baptists” had already decided to boycott Disney rather than wait for a formal declaration. Citing information in a Hollywood trade paper, Drake contended that it was “not a coincidence that 3 million people canceled their subscription to Disney Channel” in late 1996.

In response, Green, the Disney spokesman, said that the cable channel has gone from 18.9 million subscribers in June 1996 to 27 million as of May 29, “and expects to pass 30 million soon.”

Disney enterprises have prospered, realizing profits from films such as “Ransom,” “101 Dalmatians” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” during the past year, a period in which many other movie studios found profits elusive.

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Richard Land, president of the denomination’s Christian Life Commission, told reporters he will suggest a “targeted boycott” of Disney theme parks and stores rather than a sweeping call not to buy any Disney product during next week’s annual meeting of Southern Baptists.

“Some Southern Baptists think a targeted boycott may be too narrow,” said Bill Merrell, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Executive Committee. “But my sense is there is a very good likelihood that [delegates] will approve a resolution calling for a boycott.”

Resolutions are traditionally considered the will of that year’s convention messengers and not binding on individuals.