c. 1996 Religion News Service

(RNS)-Wiley Drake quickly shed his Mickey Mouse tie Wednesday (June 12) after persuading his fellow Southern Baptists to call for a nationwide boycott of the Walt Disney Co., accusing the entertainment giant of promoting”anti-Christian and anti-family”values.

But Drake said his own boycott resolution, adopted overwhelmingly by delegates to the Baptists’ annual meeting in New Orleans, won’t keep him from going to Disney’s popular theme parks. That, he says, is because he’s already paid for annual passes.

Instead, Drake will protest Disney’s corporate behavior-most notably its decision to extend health-care benefits to partners of gay employees-by eating before or after he visits a Disney park, rather than paying to eat Disney’s food.”A boycott simply means that you spend dollars somewhere else,”Drake said.

The Disney boycott figured prominently during the Baptist meeting, which ended Thursday (June 13), but it was only one of a number of actions that reinforced the conservative direction the nation’s largest Protestant body-with 15.6 million members-has taken in recent years.

Baptist delegates also passed resolutions calling for stepped-up efforts to evangelize Jews; elected theological conservative Tom Elliff, a pastor from Del City, Okla., to lead the denomination over the next year; blasted President Clinton for his recent decision to veto a bill banning a controversial late-term abortion procedure; and adopted a statement condemning the proposed legalization of homosexual marriage.”Any law … that legalizes homosexual marriage is and must be completely and thoroughly wicked according to God’s standards revealed in the Bible,”the statement said.

A case is pending in Hawaii that could result in the recognition of same-sex marriages.

In addition, the 14,000 delegates affirmed a money-saving restructuring plan for the denomination, condemned a string of arsons at southern black churches and collected $281,000 in cash and pledges from individuals, churches and state associations to help the fire victims.

In his amendment, Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif., called on Baptists to”boycott the Disney theme parks and stores if they continue this anti-Christian and anti-family trend.” Disney responded by saying,”We find it curious that a group that claims to espouse family values would vote to boycott the world’s largest producer of wholesome family entertainment.” Some Baptists not in attendance at the convention vowed to follow the boycott.

The Rev. Steve Dusek, youth minister at Aloma Baptist Church in Winter Park, Fla.,-located 20 miles from Walt Disney World in Orlando-said he expects his church will no longer sponsor trips to the Night of Joy, a series of Christian concerts held at Disney World in the fall.”We think Disney has done a lot of very positive things but … being the church, it’s our responsibility to uphold certain viewpoints on morality in our country,”he said.”We’ve got to live by what’s right and wrong rather than what’s fun at the moment.” But Mike Patterson, youth minister at First Baptist Church of Alexandria, Va., predicted that not everyone in his congregation would go along with the resolution, which is nonbinding on Southern Baptists.”Our church is real diverse, so some would and some wouldn’t,”he said.

In the resolution on evangelization of Jews, the denomination pledged to”direct our energies and resources toward the proclamation of the gospel to the Jewish people”and added that Baptist evangelistic efforts have”largely neglected”Jews.”There has been an organized effort on the part of some either to deny that Jewish people need to come to their Messiah, Jesus, to be saved; or to claim, for whatever reason, that Christians have neither right nor obligation to proclaim the gospel to the Jewish people,”the resolution states.

Rabbi Leon Klenicki, interfaith director of the Anti-Defamation League in New York, said he was not surprised by the resolution,”but Southern Baptists should have grown up theologically by now and realized we each have our own purpose and mission in the world.”They should pay more attention to other things, like the burning of black churches in the South,”Klenicki continued.”That’s what they need to do to make known the goal of Jesus.” In other resolutions passed Thursday Southern Baptists:

-Denounced religious persecution across the globe.

-Called on the Republican National Convention to”maintain its strong pro-life platform and the Democratic National Convention and all other national parties to adopt a strong pro-life platform.” -Condemned assisted suicide, saying it is not”an appropriate means of treating suffering.” -Said parents have a”God-given right … to direct the education of their children.” -Supported legislation to help evaluate the effects of gambling on American society.

-Encouraged Baptists to pray for and give money to hunger and relief ministries around the world.

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