With Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, came Disney’s ire.
Along with that ire came the conservatives dismay and dilemma over Disney’s staunch support for teachers discussing sexual orientation, etc. with 4-8 year olds in the classroom.
In case you somehow missed all this… here it is in a nutshell. Disney’s agenda is no secret.
Conservatives don’t want this agenda pushed on their children… while most of these same children frequently watch Disney + and, like any kid, would one day love to see Disney World.
So, then comes the question that’s been swirling through the evangelical community… to boycott or not to boycott?
I Have Thoughts… As Usual
According to Merriam Webster the meaning of boycott is:
To engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (a person, a store, an organization, etc.) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions.
As conservatives, when we choose to boycott a company, it’s usually with the intention of making sure that said company “misses our money” until they realize the error of their ways. We want them to see their sales drop, we want to take from their gains, we want them to suffer financially until they regret the evils of their decisions and turn back to the “straight and narrow.”
The conservative’s go-to power play is to keep our pocketbooks closed.
Even as I’ve watched it play out in my own life, I’ve never been completely sure if I was comfortable with the idea, but I couldn’t figure out why. But as I’ve pondered it more and more, a little light has been shed on the topic.
You don’t have to agree. This is, of course, simply an opinion piece.
So, today, let’s discuss our motives and intentions as we decide whether to boycott Disney or no…
1. Are We Being Inconsistent?
Ok, first off, I want to talk about how inconsistent the boycotting happy conservatives must seem at times. We pull support from one company because we found out that said company supports something unbiblical, while continuing to support countless companies in ignorance to the fact that they support the same things or worse.
Look, if you don’t want to give a certain company your money, fine. That’s your choice. And I’m not saying it isn’t commendable. And I understand, especially when you don’t want your money supporting the things God hates.
But we need to be honest with ourselves here. Whether or not you realize it, if you were to boycott every company which supports lifestyles and cultures that God has called sinful… you would literally have to go off grid. And even then, it might be impossible.
1 Corinthians 5:9-10 puts it this way:
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
I really don’t think most well-meaning boycotters understand how often they unknowingly support, on a daily basis, companies they’d strongly disagree with. A two second Google search would show how virtually impossible it is to avoid this.
Let’s be set apart… but let’s be Biblical and consistent in this.
2. The Matter Of Money
“Well, they’ll change their tune once they feel it in their wallets!”
“Maybe when they lose millions of conservative dollars they’ll quit this nonsense.”
“Money talks!”
I’ve heard these sentiments time and again and I used to stand behind them. But I’ve begun to realize a few things regarding this common stance among conservatives.
The first problem is this: I don’t think we realize the billion dollar organizations that back and support companies like Disney.
We like to think that pulling our $7.99 a month Disney + subscription and skipping that (maybe annual, if not once in a life time) $3,000 trip to Disney is really going to put them in their place.
Will Disney feel the loss of “the commoners” cash? Perhaps.
Are there bigger fish than us in the pond with more to give and more to gain from Disney’s woke agenda who will gladly continue their support? Absolutely.
Now, I’m not saying that humans should shy away from what looks to be a losing battle based on our own abilities. That alone is not a reason to give up.
But let me move on to the second problem: If our hope begins and ends on the power of money, we are in trouble.
1 Timothy 6:10 says : For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
If our main motivation and only playing card in boycotting is withholding our cash from greedy hearts until they give us our way… it seems that perhaps we are using the love of money as a playing chip in a fight for moral power.
That doesn’t seem like a God honoring way to protest.
And let’s just say that Disney did feel the effects of the boycott and decided to pull back from its woke agenda simply to regain our financial support… so we can begin to fill their pockets once more… are hearts truly changed? Is Christ honored or God glorified in any way by this? Have we really won the battle at all?
Our concern shouldn’t be over shrinking the pockets of the high ups at Disney… our concern should be for their rebellious hearts, awaiting God’s judgment for these acts of unrepentant wickedness.
Our concern should be for the dangerous influence this company and its policies pose to our children.
Which leads me to my third concern.
3. The Call To Something Higher
If anyone thinks I’m writing this in support of Disney… you couldn’t be more wrong.
My husband and I have had many discussions lately on whether or not to cancel our Disney + subscription and pull away from the overall influence of their movies. We had no eminent plans to visit Disney World/Land anyway, so that wasn’t really on the table.
Disney’s depravity is nothing new, but we’ve realized there’s a proverbial line in the sand and we need to figure out how to handle it.
So… for our family, we’ve decided to pull back from Disney’s influence and cancel our subscription.
It’s not an easy decision. Our kids love Disney movies. They won’t fully understand why until they’re older. Plus, it’s easy, cheap entertainment. It’s nostalgic. It’s a given part of childhood for so many kids.
So, if our decision were based solely on wanting to make Disney feel the loss of our money… in about two days I’d be saying “Forget it, kiddos, watch away!” because I don’t find this to be Biblical, God honoring reasoning that I can stand on.
But as we’ve worked through this dilemma, I’ve come to realize that as Christians and as parents, we have a higher calling that we cannot forget. A higher calling than money withholding or serial boycotting.
We have a calling to teach our children to cherish the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. (Genesis 1:27-28 & 2:24, Hebrews 13:4)
We have a calling to teach our children that God made them in his image, male and female, that he sees them, he formed them, he knew them before they were born, and they were fearfully and wonderfully made from the very start. (Genesis 1:27, Psalm 139)
We have a calling to teach our daughters that God has made her with beautiful purpose and meaning. That the power of being a woman comes from embracing who he’s made her to be. He’s called her to be intelligent, courageous, strong, discerning, pure, gentle, and kind. He’s given women and women alone the honor and strength to bring life into this world. He’s granted her the joy and nurturing abilities to care for her family, for friends and neighbors, for fellow Christians and for those in need of Christ. He’s given her the strength she needs to love, pray for, respect and submit to her husband and to encourage the men in her life, not degrade and tear them down. He’s called her to walk with and be a blessing to the women around her, rather than seeing them as competition. (1 Cor 11:12, Proverbs 31, Titus 2, 1 Peter 3.)
We have a calling to teach our sons that they have great value in a world that says otherwise. We are called to teach them that God calls boys to be men and men to be strong, diligent, hardworking, purposeful, bold, and courageous. He gave them the strength to support, provide, guide, protect and care for their wives and children. We are called to teach them that they are needful, that they don’t need to back up and stand down, they need to step up and stand strong. God has called them to lead boldly and love selflessly. To be discerning and wise. To follow God and lead others to Him. To love and sacrifice like Christ himself. (1 Cor 16:13, 1 Tim 5:8, Eph 5:25, Joshua 1:9)
We have a calling to teach our children that their strength, purpose and identity are found, not in themselves, but in Christ. We are called to teach them that their worth and value comes, not from themselves, but from being called children of their Creator God who loves them more than they could ever love themselves. We are to remind them that the goal is not to see yourself as perfect but to realize Christ alone is perfect and he loves them so much that he has placed his righteousness on them if they trust him. We are to remove the weight of perfection from their shoulders and offer them the grace they so desperately need. (Rom 5:8, Matt 10:31, Eph 2:4-9, 2 Cor 12:9)
This is our higher calling. These are the things we are called to teach our children.
“Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Prov 22:6
Disney not only fails to teach these things, but influences our children to believe and embrace everything that goes against what God has called them to in His Word and for their good.
Now, that’s a reason I can stand strong on in pulling my support from Disney. All money talk aside.
In A Nutshell
Perhaps we should consider more fully our tendencies to boycott.
We need to ask ourselves what our motives are.
Let’s be sure our sacrifice is one that will truly point people to Christ and is rooted in His Word.
Basically, if you’re going to “boycott” Disney or any other company:
Don’t do it to make them all the more money hungry.
Don’t do it out of a spirit of revenge.
Don’t do it out of spite.
Don’t do it in a spirit of self-righteousness.
Do it with solid, consistent, Biblical reasoning.
Do it with a desire to dispel lies and encourage truth.
Do it for purposes of eternal weight and eternal gain.
Do it for your children and their desperate need for Gospel truths.
Do it to protect your own heart and mind.
Do it out of a desire to spend your time and finances as wisely as possible.
Do it for God’s glory and Christ’s honor.
My Family Freedom 