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After initiating a boycott against the Walt Disney Company
in 1996, AFA has decided to end the campaign, citing new challenges
in the culture wars and some positive signs at Disney, including
the resignation of CEO Michael Eisner, effective this September.
"We feel after nine years of boycotting Disney we have made our
point," AFA President Tim Wildmon said. "Boycotts have always been
a last resort for us at AFA, and Disney’s attitude, arrogance
and embrace of the homosexual lifestyle gave us no choice but to
advocate a boycott of the company these last few years."
Wildmon said that, from the very beginning, the Disney boycott
was about raising issues that were of concern to AFA – especially
the promotion of homosexuality in the culture and in the media.
"For the first four years or so, the Disney boycott allowed us to
do that in countless media outlets," he said.
However, since 2001, Wildmon said Disney almost became "lost among
the other battles being fought on a crowded cultural battlefield."
In fact, over the last several years, AFA has received numerous
phone calls asking for updated information that justified the continuation
of the boycott. But AFA had moved on to other important issues,
such as an increasingly activist judiciary and the push for same-sex
marriage.
He noted the increasing success of AFA-supported Internet activist
outlets like OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillion
Dads.com. "These outlets are helping us fight the battle for decency
across the board," Wildmon said. "We will continue to keep an eye
on the decisions of Disney/ABC, and we may even have our supporters
contact the company periodically about the decisions it makes in
respect to decency and morality."
Some
positive signs
One of the positive things to come out of the boycott,
Wildmon insisted, was that Disney seemed to become more cognizant
of how it had hurt its family-friendly image among many Christians.
"When those phone calls came in, asking for evidence of new missteps
by Disney, we were pleased to discover that they weren’t as
plentiful as before," Wildmon said.
Highlighted in AFA Journal articles in 1998, 2000 and 2001,
Disney made what appeared to be a determined effort to clean up
its act and return the company to its heyday as the preeminent platform
for family-friendly entertainment.
Wildmon said there were more recent events that lend hope for a
more cautious Disney approach to entertainment. One example, he
said, is the coming departure of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who
will step down from his post in September – a year earlier
than initially planned. According to a 1998 article in the AFA
Journal, AFA had placed much of the blame for Disney’s
turn for the worst on Eisner, who became head man at the Mouse House
in 1984.
Another positive sign has been the breakup of Disney and Miramax,
the controversial film producing company that the Mouse House bought
in 1993 for $80 million. The split was announced in late March.
Miramax movies were often the ones that were most offensive to
Christians. Commenting about the recent Disney/Miramax divorce,
Los Angeles Times writers Claudia Eller and Richard Verrier said
that, after the two companies united, "The marriage soon developed
strains over such controversial Miramax releases as the 1994 gay-themed
release Priest, the teen sex drama Kids in 1995 and
the 1999 irreverent religious comedy Dogma."
Wildmon said, "We hope that the end of the partnership between
Disney and Miramax will mean the end of films that were extremely
offensive to Christians."
Finally, the news that Disney was co-producing a film based on
the Christian literary classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,
by C.S. Lewis, has brought cautious approval from some evangelicals.
The film, co-produced with Walden Media, will be released in theaters
December 9.
According to an article by the Orlando Sentinel’s Mark Pinsky,
Disney has mounted a 10-month marketing campaign to reach the Christian
community with news of the film. Toward that end, Disney has hired
two Christian marketing companies, Motive Marketing and Grace Hill
Media.
Pinsky noted that Disney’s involvement with The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe represented a remarkable change. "For
Disney, the Christian marketing campaign represents a sharp break
with corporate policy. Apart from Disney World’s annual Night
of Joy concerts, the film is the company’s first undertaking
with the religious community," Pinsky said, adding that Disney "has
carefully avoided religion for most of its history."
In taking the step of marketing The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe to the Christian community, he said, Disney may have
disarmed much of the antagonism towards the company that led many
evangelicals to boycott the company.
Keeping
an eye on the Mouse
While there are still troublesome stains on the Mouse
House – the annual "Gay Days," for example – Wildmon
said AFA was broadening its focus beyond Disney. "For AFA, the boycott
of Disney is now a matter of personal conviction, rather than a
matter of AFA ministry emphasis," Wildmon said. "We encourage people
to continue boycotting if they believe that to be the right thing
to do."
Still, that does not guarantee that AFA will never again call for
a Disney boycott, should the company do something particularly egregious.
"If, for example, Disney removed the clear Christian symbolism from
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe film, then all bets
would be off," he said. "So I guess one could say that, as far as
we’re concerned, Disney is on probation."
AFA
ACTIVISM
P&G
hears consumer concerns
Proctor & Gamble (P&G), a long-time advocate of the
homosexual agenda, appears to be cleaning up its act – at
least on one front – in response to a successful boycott
initiated by AFA in November 2004.
AFA announced its suspension of the boycott in April. "Judging
by all we found in our research, it appears that our concerns have
been addressed," said AFA chairman Don Wildmon. "Insofar as we can
tell by our monitoring, P&G has stopped their sponsorship of
TV programs promoting the homosexual lifestyle, such as Will
& Grace, and they have stopped their sponsorship of homosexual
Internet sites."
AFA commended its supporters and others from groups such as Focus
on the Family for the actions they took to uphold the boycott. Nearly
400,000 consumers signed AFA’s pledge to boycott the corporation.
P&G spokesperson Vicki Mayer told WorldNetDaily, "We are always
reviewing our consumer viewing patterns and preferences – what
it is our consumers prefer and what they’re viewing." However,
she would not confirm or deny that the corporation made any adjustments
in regards to consumer preferences.
For a time, P&G was the leading sponsor of programming that
normalized homosexuality, giving over $8.2 million in only six months
to shows such as Will & Grace and $2 million to Queer
Eye for the Straight Guy. In addition, the company gave over
$40,000 to help overturn Cincinnati’s Article 12, an 11-year-old
law prohibiting special rights for homosexuals, and granted a leave
of absence to one of its executives to head a homosexual rights
group that pushed for the repeal. The executive is no longer with
the corporation.
Movie
Gallery buys Hollywood Video
AFA will closely watch Hollywood Video outlets for pornography,
after the recent acquisition of the company by Movie Gallery.
AFA has been boycotting Movie Gallery because of its porn distribution.
The company is infamous for its back rooms filled with XXX-rated
films that may violate obscenity laws.
The merger makes the new company the second largest video rental
company in North America. Movie Gallery is the nation’s largest
retailer of hard-core porn.
Randy Sharp, AFA director of special projects, asks consumers to
monitor Hollywood Video stores for porn, and report findings at
rsharp@afa.net.
Wal-Mart
approves homosexual employee group
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the world’s largest retailer,
appears to be caving in to the pleas of homosexual activists, as
evident from an internal memo issued in April, noting the approval
of a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) group within
the corporation.
GLBT Associates is one of seven Associate Resource Groups, also
referred to as Affinity or Network Groups, recently approved by
Wal-Mart as part of a new program. The purpose of the new effort
is to "enhance our ability to attract, retain and develop female,
minority and representative talent in the Home Office," the memo
stated.
In addition, it said that these are "groups of associates with
common interests or backgrounds who wish to contribute to each other’s
professional development, foster a sense of community, and enhance
their individual and collective abilities to contribute to Wal-Mart’s
business mission."
AFA Chairman Don Wildmon said, "Based on the the memo, Wal-Mart
is recognizing homosexuality as equal to race and national origin.
It is only a matter of time before this group demands same-sex partner
health benefits, ‘pride parades’ and diversity workshops."
One thing Wal-Mart has not done yet is extend domestic partner
benefits to homosexual employees. The May issue of AFA Journal
cited other media which reported the company had done so.
Wal-Mart had altered a narrow policy that expanded the definition
of family to include domestic partners and civil unions. However,
that policy was only meant to cover conflicts of interest for employees,
and not to alter its benefit plan.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716
Toll free: 1-800-WAL-MART
• H. Lee Scott, President/CEO
E-mail: hlscott@wal-mart.com
• Rob Walton, Chairman
E-mail: srobsonwalton@wal-mart.com
• Board of Directors
E-mail: directors@wal-mart.com
CULTURE
Abstinence
program renders success
Best Friends abstinence program proves to be successful
in reducing sexual activity and drug use among preteen girls, according
to a peer-reviewed study recently published in the Institute
for Youth Development’s Adolescent & Family Health.
Participants in the program are substantially less likely to use
drugs and have premarital sex than are their peers who are not involved
in the program. According to study author Robert Lerner, the findings
also proved true among the program’s high school participants,
referred to as Diamond Girls, who are 100 times less likely to engage
in sex outside marriage as compared to non-participants.
"We must continue to support programs that have real outcomes –
and these are real outcomes," said Mary Ann Solberg. Solberg is
deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy who called the findings "impressive."
The Best Friends program does not teach contraception but instead
provides them with a strong abstinence message. Elayne Bennett,
founder of Best Friends, views the study as "concrete evidence"
of the program’s effectiveness.
"The teens get it. The young people get it. This is the message
they want to have," Bennett said. "I just wish more of the adults
got it."
www.washingtontimes.com, 4/28/05
 ENTERTAINMENT
PG
out-performs R-rated films
Even though greatly outnumbered in 2004, films rated
PG had a bigger share of the box office than those rated R –
something that hasn’t occurred since 1984.
According to numbers released by MovieGuide, a publication
of the Christian Film & Television Commission, the 98 R-rated
movies released last year took in just over $1.8 billion. However,
PG-rated films bested that figure by more than $300 million. (See
chart.)
The performance of R-rated movies is put into even greater perspective
when it is noted that a single R-film – The Passion of the
Christ – brought in more than $370 million by itself.
John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater
Owners, said, "Diversity is great, but family films sell better
than R-rated films. Sometimes it seems like Hollywood overlooks
the middle of the country, which wants movies that everyone can
enjoy."
GOVERNMENT
Abstinence
slowing AIDS in Uganda
The nation of Uganda has been celebrated as an example
of how a Third World nation can successfully combat AIDS. How that
decline occurred has been a subject of great interest to public
health officials in the West.
In the early 1990s, Uganda had one of the worst AIDS problems in
the world, with 30% of its population infected with the fatal disease.
Since that time, Uganda’s AIDS infection rate has fallen to
its current 10% level.
According to Dr. Edward C. Green, anthropologist and senior research
scientist in the School of Public Health at Harvard University,
the remarkable turnaround in Uganda was based on what was called
the "ABC approach." Since the early 1990s government and health
officials have been encouraging their people to Abstain, Be faithful
to their spouse or partner, and use Condoms if A and B fail. Teenagers
were actively encouraged to wait until marriage before having sex.
Government officials in Uganda claim that the more traditional
approach – rather than relying on condoms – was the major
reason for the decline in AIDS. Janet Museveni, the nation’s
First Lady, gave credit at a World AIDS Day event to "the time-tested
message of abstinence from premarital sex and faithfulness in marriage."
One might think that health experts would embrace such good news,
but Green said nothing could be further from the truth. He said
that he and his fellow researchers presented their studies to officials
at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the federal
agency in the U.S. responsible for dispensing government moneys
to combat AIDS in Africa. Green told them that "the key factor in
the decline was less casual sex, more fidelity … more abstinence
among youth." However, he added, USAID officials and others "were
evidently horrified by what we said."
Why were they horrified? According to Vinand Nantulya, a senior
advisor at the United Nation’s Global Fund, USAID officials
rejected the evidence "because the studies were not showing that
the condoms were the only things that worked."
Moreover, an investigative article in Citizen magazine charged
that USAID may be attempting to cover up research like Green’s.
The agency "has shelved scientific evidence showing that the ABC
strategy is much more effective at reducing AIDS in the Third World
than simply handing out condoms," said the author of the article,
Candi Cushman.
She said Green’s research has not been published by USAID.
Furthermore, the agency demoted Green as head of the study task
force and hired a well-known advocate of the condom-based approach
instead. Now an entirely new approach to Uganda’s success story
is being written, and Green said it will tout condoms as the successful
ingredient in the African nation’s approach.
But that story is not the truth. "You cannot show that more condoms
had led to less AIDS in Africa," Green said.
Citizen, 3/05; www.stwr.net, 4/05;
CNSNews.com, 1/13/03
HOMOSEXUALITY
Lesbian
minister reinstated in UMC
Openly lesbian Irene Elizabeth Stroud had her minister’s
credentials reinstated in a successful petition to the Northeastern
Jurisdictional Committee on Appeals of the United Methodist Church
(UMC), after being defrocked in an ecclesiastical trial last December.
Stroud had declared publicly that she was living in a lesbian relationship
while serving as an associate pastor in a UMC church in Philadelphia.
The clergy that heard the charges in December convicted her under
the church’s laws, which clearly state that "self-avowed practicing
homosexuals" could neither be ordained nor appointed to the ministry.
It was the first time in 17 years that the UMC convicted an openly
homosexual member of its clergy.
However, in April the appeals committee overturned the conviction
and ordered Stroud’s credentials reinstated.
According to Mark Tooley, who keeps track of trends within the
UMC for The Institute on Religion and Democracy, the committee’s
ruling "was an ill-reasoned, obtuse and tortured attempt to avoid
applying the plain unequivocal meaning of the Scriptures and church
law."
He said the committee justified its decision by claiming the UMC
had not clearly defined what "practicing homosexual" meant, and
that the church’s prohibition of sex outside marriage was a
doctrine of only recent origin.
"These arguments are simply silly," Tooley said. "The committee
pretends not to know about over 3,000 years of consistent Jewish
and Christian teaching about homosexuality."
He predicted that the latest ruling will be appealed to the UMC’s
top court and overturned, thus reinstating Stroud’s conviction
and loss of ministerial credentials.
The ruling "represents the fading voice of a declining, elite minority
within United Methodism that is still enthralled by the failed,
revisionist theologies of the last century," Tooley said.
www.ird-renew.org, 4/29/05; www.news.umc.org,
4/29/05
Cable
networkds offer gay programs 24/7
Three major cable providers are buying into the launch
of two new homosexual cable networks that will air homosexual programming
around the clock for the first time in U.S. television history.
In April, Comcast and Cox Communications agreed to offer the gay
network "Here," put out by Regent Entertainment through their video-on-demand
offerings. Viacom will offer its own advertiser-supported gay and
lesbian network, "Logo," as a basic cable channel starting on June
30.
"I don’t think most parents want their children flipping
channels on their way to the Cartoon Network and running across
a scene of two men kissing in bed on the Logo network," said AFA
President Tim Wildmon. "Most of us have enough to explain to our
children nowadays."
Wildmon also sees potential for late-night programming on
the networks to turn pornographic in nature. "The very nature of
homosexuality is based on eroticism and infatuation with sex," Wildmon
said. "This programming will be targeted to a group of people who
define themselves by their sexual behavior, and one can expect the
gay networks to follow the trend in offensive late-night programming
such as we saw with NYPD Blue, only in a more deviant homosexual
context. The gay and lesbian networks are geared toward mainstream
homosexuals who view sexuality and define pornography very differently
from the majority of mainstream Americans."
The New York Times reported that Viacom’s Logo network
already has access to 10 million homes and is supported in advertising
by Orbitz, Subaru and Paramount Pictures.
"We will hold accountable companies who sponsor this type
of offensive heavy-duty homosexual content," Wildmon said. "This
type of programming invading cable reinforces the need for a la
carte choices instead of forcing people to pay for a 24-hour homosexual
network."
www.nytimes.com, 4/11/05
PORNOGRAPHY
Porn
pulled from family resort
Adult programming will no longer be available via television
at any of the five Great Wolf indoor water park family resorts located
in the U.S.
The decision came after Sharon Kelley, a physician in Lansing,
Michigan, and her daughter arrived in their "Kid’s Cabin" room.
Kelley gave her daughter permission to turn on the TV, but when
the child did, she was bombarded with hardcore pornography on the
screen. Evidently, the child inadvertently punched a combination
of buttons that led to the images.
Kelley described the images as "totally disgusting and unbelievable,"
and said she never expected to find adult programming in a resort
that caters to children.
Rex O’Conner, a spokesperson for Great Wolf, explained that
the resort bought a programming package from its TV, Internet and
video-game service provider that included both adult programming
and children’s programming. He described the bundling as an
all-or-nothing deal offered by the provider.
Kelley’s experience proved to be the perfect argument for
breaking up the programming package, something that Great Wolf corporate
officials had already been trying to negotiate with the provider,
according to the Lansing State Journal.
www.lsj.com, 4/20/05
Sexual
predators being nabbed by Feds
Pro-family advocates applauded the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement office in its efforts, through a program known
as Operation Predator, to catch sexual predators who target children.
Operation Predator recently arrested its 5,000th suspect and in
the process has deported more than 2,100 non-citizen offenders.
In addition, the operation recently netted more than 1,200 alleged
Internet child pornographers.
"This program is not just something that will help protect American
children," said Jamie Zuieback of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
"but we’re also living up to our responsibility to keep Americans
who try to abuse children overseas from doing so."
www.family.org, 3/4/05
PRO-LIFE
Abortion
linked to premature births
A new study from France recently published in the British
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology confirmed a link between
abortion and future premature births.
Such findings are based on data collected and analyzed by Dr. Caroline
Moreau of Hospital de Bicetre and her colleagues. As reported by
LifeSite.net, the researchers concluded "that women with a history
of abortion were 1.5 times more likely to give birth very prematurely
(under 33 weeks gestation), and 1.7 times more likely to have a
baby born extremely (under 28 weeks gestation) preterm."
The group’s findings coincide with previous research showing
the higher the number of abortions in a woman’s history the
higher the odds of the woman delivering prematurely during future
pregnancies.
In addition, a 2003 study conducted by Brent Rooney and Dr. Byron
Calhoun revealed that "in women with a history of four or more abortions,
the risk of future extremely early premature birth (less than 28
weeks gestation) is increased by eight times."
Researchers also connect abortion to the numerous problems caused
by premature births, including an increased risk of infant death
and an increased tendency for the development of cerebral palsy.
www.lifesite.net, 4/29/05
RELIGION
State
high court says Bible inappropriate
A recent 3-2 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court deemed
the Bible to be an improper outside influence in the sentencing
of rapist and murderer Robert Harlan.
The high court upheld the decision of a lower court to throw out
Harlan’s death sentence after jurors consulted the Bible for
wisdom in reaching a verdict during the sentencing phase of the
man’s trial.
"Jurors must deliberate … without the aid or distraction of
extraneous texts," the majority ruled.
The biblical consultation came after the trial court judge sent
jurors to deliberate about the death penalty and instructed them
to make an "individual moral assessment" about the life or death
of Harlan.
Although the jurors voted unanimously for the death penalty, the
Colorado Supreme Court changed the sentence from death to life in
prison without parole.
In their dissent, the minority on the state’s high court wrote:
"The biblical passages the jurors discussed constituted either a
part of the jurors’ moral and religious precepts or their general
knowledge, and thus were relevant to their court-sanctioned moral
assessment."
www.nytimes.com, 3/29/05
Ruling
in favor of Christian overturned
In a unanimous ruling in April, the Indiana State Supreme
Court rejected a request by DePauw University employee Janis Price
to have her case heard by the state’s highest court.
While working as a part-time instructor at the university, Price’s
titles and teaching duties were stripped from her after she made
available in her classroom what one university official construed
as "anti-gay literature."
The literature was actually Teachers in Focus magazine,
published by Focus on the Family. One of the magazines contained
an article that instructed teachers on how to confront homosexuality
in the public schools. DePauw students were not required to take
a magazine nor was the literature part of an assignment.
A jury agreed with Price’s claim that the Indiana school officials
treated her unfairly and violated her rights. However, although
she was awarded more than $10,000 in lost wages by the jury, a three-judge
panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the verdict.
Price appealed to the Indiana State Supreme Court because she claimed
various conflicts-of-interest tainted the appellate case. For example,
the December 7 online edition of the DePauw University newspaper
contained an announcement of the overturned verdict a week before
the court made its decision public.
"The document that I received – and that my lawyer received
– that was stamped by the court was dated December 14," Price
explained. "So I don’t think you have to be too intelligent
to connect the dots and to see that there was communication between
[Judge Terry Crone of the Indiana Court of Appeals] and the university
a week before the document was actually stamped."
Another impropriety noted by Price was the fact that Crone, who
was one of the appellate court panel members, is an alumnus of DePauw.
"He is also well-acquainted with John Neighbors, who is the DePauw
lawyer and a 1971 graduate of DePauw University," Price said.
www.news.umc.org, 3/1/05; AgapePress,
3/8/05, 4/5/05
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