Are you going to watch it?
So, unless you have been living under a rock, you would have read or heard about the “nice, exclusively gay moment” in Disney’s latest offering, Beauty and the Beast.
A PR strategy?
I honestly think if Director Bill Condon had not given a press interview with Attitude Magazine, highlighting it, it would have been missed by many of us adults and probably all the children. It makes it seem like a deliberate public relations strategy to drum up interest and sales for the movie.
I say that because I grew up as an atheist and my parents had no rules about what we watched or listened to. Therefore, I used to watch a lot of secular and popular movies, and listened to a lot of secular songs. I missed all the sexual innuendos and word plays.
Yeah. I was that clueless! It was only after I grew up and wised up that I caught the references when I re-watched the same movies and/or listened to the same songs. I cringed.
Disclaimer : This does not mean that you can mindlessly expose your children to these movies and songs because you think they won’t catch on. Why? Because YOU know. And God knows you know. I didn’t.
Making a mountain out of a molehill?
But since Bill Condon did bring it up, there have been lots of comments and opinion spewed online. There are those who claim it is much ado about nothing. That LeFou had always been gay, and that it actually isn’t obviously gay enough.
Yet it seems to be important enough of an issue because Franklin Graham called for a boycott of the show, and our National Council of Churches released a formal statement about the film. Our neighbour, Malaysia, has even gone one step further by banning it altogether!
Insidious plot?
So, are the conservatives really making a mountain out of a molehill? Or is there really an insidious plot to brainwash our children?
The clip, from what I gather, (I have NOT watched it) is very short (one report said it was just all of 2 seconds long) and would be missed by most, if not all, children. So in that sense, yes, the conservatives are making a mountain out of a molehill.
BUT…
There is a LGBT agenda to get everyone to not only accept them but to allow them to spread their message to everyone, especially to children. Children are to be exposed to alternative lifestyles as young as possible. Let us all be alert and aware
As a Christian mother, I baulk at this. Another issue I take with the activists is that if we do not agree with them, we are immediately labelled homophobic, hateful, and unloving. But they can disagree with us and call us names. And that is considered freedom of speech. Why?!
Let us wake up. Today’s world is no longer the same as it was when we were growing up. The older we are, the more alien this current world seems to be. The push for acceptance of alternative lifestyles (fornication, adultery, co-habitation, etc) has always been through the media. Now, the push is getting stronger and less subtle. And reaching intentionally for our children’s minds and hearts. What Disney is doing is nothing new and only to be expected.
Should we avoid watching it?
How should we decide then? Beauty and the Beast : Facts for Christian Parents may be useful to you.
You have to make an active decision and not just blindly follow the crowd. It is your family, your prerogative. After all, while I am not for reading the Harry Potter series for my younger children, I am ok if my older ones choose to do so. So, there is also the issue of maturity – spiritual maturity – not just physical maturity, that comes into play as well.
Culture is not our ally
I agree wholeheartedly with what Jasmine Holmes said in her guest post Do you trust Disney with your kids? in the Desiring God blog.
She says, “…it should come as a timely reminder that we cannot relegate the work of teaching our children to Disney or Pixar, to Dora or Sesame Street. We can no more blindly take our kids to Disney movies than we can blindly sit them in front of the television to watch cartoons. This world is not our home, and this culture is not our ally, and our level of vigilance should reflect that.”
Teach Biblical Worldview
Ain’t that the truth? We must teach Biblical Worldview to our children and actively talk to them about it. Pointing out to them how certain acceptable norms in society actually runs counter to God’s Word. But do WE have a Biblical Worldview ourselves? We cannot teach what we do not know.
Don’t just shelter
We need to keep talking to our children about current events. Don’t just seek to avoid the nasties out there and shelter them. They will have to live in the world and fend for themselves eventually. We cannot be everywhere and be with them 24/7. It is better to prepare them for it then to just shelter. Because, culture, as Jasmine Holmes reminds us, is not our ally.
No one is responsible for shaping our children’s minds and values except us. And God will hold us accountable. Because He gave them to us.
Fairy Tales
By the way, I really dislike fairy tales. I do let my children read them and watch the cartoons. Just as I let them read and be acquainted with Greek myths. But I don’t encourage it. I don’t like the values promoted in any of the fairy tales.
- Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.
- Cinderella
- Sleeping Beauty
- Little Mermaid
- Beauty and the Beast
Be beautiful and all will be well
They all tout one theme – girls only need to be beautiful and their princes in shining armour will come sweep them off their feet and all their sorrows will end. Yeah, sure. And what’s with Snow White’s prince (does he even have a name?!) kissing a corpse? Necrophilia? Ewww! At least with Sleeping Beauty, she is asleep. But even then, it is the beauty-trumps-everything theme that is highly disturbing to me.
And in Beauty and the Beast, she didn’t even know that he was a man trapped in a beast’s body when she fell in love with him! Bestiality, anyone? Again, ewww! What on earth are we encouraging our girls to be, to do, to love?!
Yes, yes, I know. They are just fairy tales and you need suspension of disbelief to enjoy it. But, I’ll pass, thankyouverymuch!
Will you watch it?
I don’t plan to bring my younger children to watch it. If the older ones want to, they can spend their own money to do so.
And no, it is not because of the “exclusively gay moment”. I have nothing against people who declare themselves homosexuals. I have known quite a few in my previous job in the fashion industry. They were lovely, warm and funny people. I just don’t like the agenda of the LGBT activists. But I am not watching it because I just don’t see any value in watching Beauty and the Beast.
What about you?