The Gospel of Optimism

Two days ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to take Mark Pinsky out to lunch.  We had a fascinating discussion about how the presence of the Disney Company has effected the church scene in Orlando.

Mark is the former religion writer for the Orlando Sentinel.  He describes himself as a liberal Jew, but because of his position, he is an expert on the evangelical presence here.  Mark has written several books, including A Jew Among The Evangelicals and The Gospel According To The Simpsons.

Mark came to Orlando at just the right time for a religion reporter.  He arrived just as the Southern Baptist Convention endorsed a boycott of the Disney Company.  At the same time, Jim Henry (whose daughter Kate will be singing at Faith on Sunday) was pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando.  In his congregation was a large number of Disney employees.  He was caught between a rock and a hard place as he was president of the SBC that was encouraging the boycott and pastor to the people the boycott was designed to target.

The boycott essentially was designed to highlight what the fundamentalists believed were Disney attacks on family values.  This seemed an odd criticism to make of a company that had for generations been family focused.  In the end, it also proved that despite their advocacy and ability to make the papers, the fundamentalist movement was unable to convince the people in the pew to follow the strident dictates of the pulpit.  Disney continued to make money and fill hotel rooms and quietly, some years later, the boycott organizers claimed victory (with no evidence of success) and dropped it.  Apparently Johnny and Suzie's desire to go to Disney World trumped the Reverend's warnings that going would just further the cultural collapse.

Mark is an extremely gracious man and was generous with his time and thoughts.  A few years ago, he wrote The Gospel According To Disney in which he examined all of the Disney cartoon films for their religious content.  His conclusion was that Disney promoted a religious view that could best be described as optimism.  The religious references are never explicit, but essentially point to a theology of hard work with some sort of magical intervention and everything will work out in the end.

Assuming his analysis was accurate, I asked him what was the spill-over of this Disney gospel into the church.  He suggested that the first noticeable effect was the rise in expectation of performance values in Orlando churches.  This necessitated larger congregations that could provide the facilities necessary to compete with the bar raised by Disney entertainment in the parks.

Most interestingly, he suggested that this emphasis on entertainment values had led to a surface treatment of religion that lacked real depth.  The presenters were not angry, yelling types but friendly and approachable.  Their sermons were designed not to alarm their suburban audiences but to make them comfortable.  He did not say it, but implied that the hard gospel was replaced by Disney's gospel of optimism.  God's Kingdom was replaced by the Magic Kingdom.