Disney, Environmentalism, and Churches

We’d just had baby, couldn’t nab a sitter, and were desperate to get out of the house. We went to a drive-in.

Beggars can’t be choosers. The lame Disney movie we watched concerned a brother and sister helping their naturalist parents raise a cheetah. At some point, they learned of a poaching scheme involving cheetah pelts, just as their cheetah was reintroduced into the wild. The parents, oddly enough, were more concerned about their offspring’s welfare than the cat’s and ordered the kids to stay put – which means they went running about Africa, having wildly dangerous adventures.

After several frantic days, the cheetah is saved and the family reunited. The new mother in me hoped to see these two disobedient cubs grounded for the rest of their minority but expected, at a dramatic minimum, some justifiable expressions of indignation from the adults. Unbelievably, however, it was the parents who apologized contritely. The tectonic plates of moral sensibilities were shifting.

Fast forward a few decades to Disney’s current foray into educational entertainment. The company is producing a Nature Series, the first titled Earth, which opened on Earth Day (cute) 2009. Reminiscent of older Disney nature films that followed animals about the daily drama of living a feral life (greatly enhanced by a narrated script), Earth tells the “story of three animal families and their amazing journey across the planet we call home.”

In conjunction with the Disney movie, one can download a Christian discussion guide for the film produced by Flourish, an environmental ministry, of sorts, to help “churches, families, and individuals seeking to live out authentic, Christ-centered lives with a faithfulness to our stewardship mandate.” [flourishonline.org]

Several of the founders of Flourish met while working for the Evangelical Environmental Network and another “shortly after he began to envision the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative,” which is now a partner with Flourish. They publish a quarterly magazine and all sorts of “church materials,” including Bible studies, guides, and DVDs…and Church Starter Kits in-a-box, including “everything from energy audits to saving water to growing a churchyard garden.”

There’s a Flourish National Church Leaders Conference on Creation Care, a Flourishing Church Project stewardship program for Christian churches, Flourishing Communities that do development outreach in urban environments, “including community gardening, watershed restoration, reforestation, job training, and home energy and health audits.”

There’s a fellowship program, Flourish Institute, and there’s the Disney discussion guide for Earth.

The discussion guide is a fairly modest set of four questions followed by the popular hymn “This is my Father’s world.” The first question focuses the Christian creation’s revelation of “God’s invisible qualities” [Rom 1:20] as depicted by the film – “How would your non-Christian neighbors interpret the same visual experience?” the guide queries.

Question two asks about a personal experience of creation and how that compared to the cinematic experience; question 3 quotes some sections from Job about God’s enjoyment and knowledge of creation, the point being that God has a relation to (and cares about) non-human creation.

Question four pulls this all together. “Often we mistakenly think about creation as something God has ‘given’ us. Yet Scripture is clear that ‘The earth is the Lord’s’ (Ps 24:1-2). Ownership resides with the Creator, and humans are given a delegated dominion in Genesis 1:28 and 2:15. People are never shown and are rarely mentioned in the film Earth. What does it mean for humans to ‘rule over’ (Gen 1:28) such a [sic] immense and awe-inspiring planet? What does it mean to ‘work it and take care of it’? (Gen 2:15).”

There’s a eco-friendly “Green Bible” to go with this, made of recycled paper (what else) and using soy-based ink. It contains essays, a personal green Bible trail study guide, study guides, an appendix with information on further reading, how to get involved, and practical steps, and other resources – and has “verses and passages that speak to God’s care for creation highlighted in green.”

Yet another moral seismic event in Christendom.

Stephanie Block is the New Mexico-based editor of Los Pequenos and a founder of the Catholic Media Coalition.