Sometime in March, an outcry was made over the airing of a kissing scene in which a gay couple was featured on an episode of Star vs The Forces of Evil, a Disney XD production. Negative reactions were directed towards it and calls were made for people to boycott Disney.
Prior to this, Disney had announced the inclusion of a gay character in the remake of the Beauty and the Beast film that sparked a world-wide outrage, with Russia putting a 16+ age restriction on the film and a Christian-run cinema in Alabama, U.S. out-rightly refusing to show the movie, saying that they want their customers to feel “free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language”.
The series, Star vs the Forces of Evil, is about a young princess from another planet who is sent to earth to learn a couple of things and she is put in a high school and befriends a couple of the kids there. Since, Star is in high school, the version of our secondary school in Nigeria, one would wonder why teenagers are involved in a kissing scene at all. We are then left to wonder if there’s a veiled message to our young ones to embrace the gay lifestyle.
Nothing Holy About Hollywood
Hollywood, has in recent times inserted a gay couple in almost every film released, thereby conditioning the minds of people to accept this as the norm. There’s a gay couple in a medical drama, romance drama, Sci-Fi thriller, comedy skit, and now it seems, in cartoons. While it is a certainty that cartoons are not meant for children, according to the Webster dictionary, a cartoon in this context is “a film or television show made by photographing a series of drawings: an animated film or television show”, it is the unspoken fact that certain cartoons are tailored towards a specific age group, that is between 2 and 12. Cartoons that are inappropriate for children are specified in the ratings, like a popular cartoon “Family Guy” that uses swear words and portray nudity and violence. Even the popular one, “The Simpsons” is not suitable for a certain group of children.
The original Beauty and the Beast of 1991, featured a young girl who is sent to live with a beast as a fulfilment of a promise by her father, and later falls in love with the beast, who is under a curse and her love ultimately saves him from and breaks the curse. This 2016 version, however, introduces a twist where the side kick of the antagonist struggles with his sexuality and at the end is seen dancing with a man, as a sign of “coming out” with his gay identity.
The question therefore begs to be asked; is it necessary to introduce that kind of plot twist in what should originally be a kiddies’ movie? Is the reign of Disney finally over? Dare we truly boycott Disney cartoons to protect our children from these toxic influences? Kingdom Times sought the views of a cross section of persons on this matter.
Eleanya Ndukwe explains, “I don’t condone it. From a religious, moral and conscientious point of view, I didn’t like it one bit. It’s a major ploy by the Western media to influence the younger generation into its deeply-flawed ideologies. From a societal view, the rest of the world might see it as a big step towards liberation or enlightenment and bringing the world together in terms of sexual orientation and identification and acceptance or whatever trash one might define it to suit his or her own shifted paradigm of perception.
“So you must understand both sides of the coin. It’s a crazy world we are living in and we must hold up the values we acknowledge or, dare I mention, cherish. But then again, so many people – world leaders, influential figures, the real powers that be – all have a stake in the way the world moves; the financial gains, their deeply flawed ideologies, etc. But as Mario Puzo would advise, “Be aware. The world is what it is and you are what you are”. The next obvious question then arises, how would you shield kids from these things?
For Abiodun, a newly wed, she would do everything to protect her children even if it means not allowing them watch TV at all.
Gerald Egeonu, on the other hand, wonders why we should expose our children to the media at such an early age. He says that the most formative years of a child’s mind is from 0-3 years when their major character is formed. He readily accepts that from thirteen years, it might be harder to put a restriction on what they explore and that’s why sound values must be inculcated in them from the ages of 3-13.
Uchechukwu does not plan to have a legion of children, so that he can be intentional with the way he raises them. In his opinion, people tend to bite off more than they can chew and they end up not being able to focus on their primary roles of being involved parents. “Where things go wrong is when we try to outsource the job of parenting to a stranger because we think we’re too busy,” he says.
Despite these restrictions, Benjamin points out that sometimes too many boundaries pique an insatiable curiosity and that of a child’s should never be downplayed. He says that communication is key and he would allow his children watch certain cartoons only after he and his wife have screened them. For him, the issues must be talked about with the children and they must be made to understand the dangers involved.
Taking A Stand
A mother of two living in London, expressly states that Disney was not allowed in her home and while they (she and her husband) trust God to keep their children, they are also deliberate in ensuring that their children do not even feel like they are missing out on anything. For one, she does not buy the branded products of the company so her little boy has no idea who Mickey Mouse is and could care less about it and the same goes for her little girl who is not obsessed with the numerous princess characters that are churned out by the company, as she firmly believes the word in Proverbs 22:6 regarding training of the child.
She instead encourages them to read books, believing that we must begin early to go against the flow of the world system. She, however, acknowledges that she does not cage her children, as they watch other appropriate Christian cartoons and programmes.
When asked if she believed Christians could fight this evil by producing kingdom-based cartoons, she says; “Let’s face it, we are living in a dying world. It was prophesied by Jesus in the Bible. What exactly are we fighting for, the world or the people? We should rather channel our efforts to rescuing people from hell by preaching the gospel in whatever way we can, however we can, whenever we get the opportunity.
“We are living in a dying world. We must, therefore, focus on preaching Christ to people so that they can choose Jesus and be rescued, as there will be a new heaven and earth as we’ve been promised in Revelations 21:1. That’s our job as we have been commanded in 2 Timothy 4:2.”
She, however, cautions that if you are called to the creative arts, then you must develop your gifts and create Kingdom-based content but it must be done with the right motives. Not because the kingdom of darkness must be defeated by you but because you want to promote the Kingdom of God.
Her advice for the children; “While we commend them to the hands of God, we must teach them the right things as in John 17:17 where they must be sanctified through the truth, the word. Parents must be involved in the activities of their children so as to avoid the problem of having ‘child-like adults’ in the society with mommy or daddy issues.” She ends by saying that parenting must be intentional.
Quoting from 2 Timothy 3:16 she says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness….” This, she believes, should be our roadmap in life, the word of God.
While these views may seem extreme, we must remember that the world does not care if anyone is offended by their ideologies. They actually accuse you of intolerance if you choose to go against their beliefs.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” This statement may seem very harsh but it stands as the truth till this day. May we not lose our children or kingdom values in a bid to be “politically correct”.