How Will Christians Answer Disney’s Wokeness Concerning Children’s Entertainment?
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for The Walt Disney Company and the revelations of just how “woke” many of their employees really are.
In reaction to Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, the battle lines were drawn, with the strategy of Disney’s leadership revealing just how far the studio is moving toward creating programming that will introduce younger and younger children to LGBTQ-plus and transexual ideology.
I’m not here to argue about Disney’s choices, but to encourage Christians that it’s time to step up and produce high quality children’s programming from a biblical perspective.
In a political reaction, conservative site Daily Wire is committing $100 million to produce children’s programming featuring traditional values to counter the Disney initiatives.
But it’s also time for Christians to invest in our kids. I can tell you from decades working in Christian media that kid’s programming (particularly on TV) has always been very poor (and that’s being gracious.) There have been plenty of well-intentioned attempts, but time after time, they’ve fallen woefully short.
But now is the time to act. You can choose to cancel your Disney+ subscription or stop taking your kids to Disney movies, but that still doesn’t offer a better entertainment alternative. Unless we back up criticism with action, nothing much will change, and the options for kids will shrink.
I’m not an expert in children’s programming, but I’m putting the word out that it’s time to make a difference.
Christian investors, producers and creatives—will we answer? {eoa}
Phil Cooke works at the intersection of faith, media, and culture, and he’s pretty rare—a working producer in Hollywood with a Ph.D. in theology. His client list includes studios and networks like Walt Disney, Dreamworks and USA Network, as well as major Christian organizations from Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, The Museum of the Bible, The Salvation Army, The YouVersion Bible app and many more. He’s produced TV and film programming in more than 60 countries around the world, and in the process, has been shot at, survived two military coups, fallen out of a helicopter and in Africa, been threatened with prison. And during that time—through his company Cooke Media Group in Los Angeles, California—he’s helped some of the largest Christian and nonprofit organizations in the world use the media to tell their story in a changing, disrupted culture.
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