c. 1999 Religion News Service

RALEIGH, N.C. _ Two years ago, when the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution boycotting the Walt Disney Co., critics said it would be hard to keep.

They were right.

Earlier this month, the Biblical Recorder, North Carolina’s weekly Baptist newspaper, surprised readers by running an ad from a Christian organization inviting church youth groups on a four-day, $394 trip to the Magic Kingdom to learn about”religious freedom”and”our responsibility to care for God’s creation.” The quarter-page ad, which ran in the Feb. 6 issue _ and readers’ responses to the ad _ is further testament to the Baptist divide over Disney.

Conservatives who pushed through the resolution complained about what they see as the company’s permissive attitude toward homosexuals and its abandonment of family values. Moderates rejected the boycott, calling it ineffective and downright silly.

Two surveys conducted since the boycott took effect showed that fewer than a third of Southern Baptists support the boycott. A full boycott of the entertainment conglomerate means not only avoiding children’s classics such”The Lion King”and”101 Dalmatians;”it also means turning off ABC and ESPN, which Disney also owns.

So far, 10 people have called or mailed letters to the Biblical Recorder protesting the ad.”I am getting embarrassed to tell anyone I’m a Southern Baptist,”wrote Perry Comer of Marshville.”We seem to be talking out of both sides of our mouth.” The 166-year-old Biblical Recorder is run by an independent board of directors appointed by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

Tony Cartledge, who took the helm as editor in January, defended his right to run the ad, saying Baptists have historically held up the freedom of individuals to form their own opinions.”I grew up in a conservative Southern Baptist church, but every pastor I had taught me that one Baptist does not speak for another,”Cartledge wrote in an editorial to be published in this week’s issue.”The priesthood of all believers and the responsibility of each person to pray, study, think and decide for himself (or herself) is at the very heart of what it means to be a Baptist.” But Paige Patterson, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the idea behind the boycott was to take a stand for wholesome family entertainment.”The purpose of the boycott is to make our people aware we have a responsibility as Christians to decide what entertainment we choose,”said Patterson.”We never had an idea of bringing a great empire to the ground. At the proper turn, God will do that anyway.” Michelle Bruhn of Fayetteville agreed.”I was terribly dismayed to see an ad promoting Disney World,”Bruhn wrote in a letter to the Biblical Recorder.”My teen-agers are informed enough to be outraged that a `Christian youth company’ would be involved in anything Disney.” The ad space was bought by Passport Inc., a Christian youth camping organization in Louisville, Ky. Colleen Burroughs, vice president of the company, said 375 teen-agers and their adult chaperones took the trip to Disney World when the company offered the program last year. Except for one Presbyterian group, all were Baptists.

While there, the children learned about U.S. history, rang a replica of the Liberty Bell and signed a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Passport leaders held classes on religious liberty.”Given the boycott, we wondered if it would fly,”said Burroughs, herself a Baptist and a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.”It did.”

DEA END SHIMRON