Growing up in Southern California while most of my extended family lived in the Midwest resulted in my family making a number of trips to Disneyland. Plus, my mother liked Disneyland quite a bit; we made plenty of trips without extended family too.
There were also the Disney movies Snow White, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Robin Hood, The Rescuers. We saw quite a few of those when they were re-released to the cinema. For whatever reasons, between the multiple trips to Disneyland and the fairly steady diet of Disney movies, I became a huge Disney fan. My parents were typically supportive, until my family enrolled in Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute (ATI).
While my parents never outright did forbid Disney stuff while we were ATI, their feelings about it, especially those of my mother, cooled significantly. There were the barbs about it being idolatrous. And when I went on staff with the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), it became apparent that no one openly liked Disney (though sometimes I’d catch someone humming a song from a Disney movie, or quoting something). When Disney was brought up, it usually was condemnation about some particular movie and the immoral lessons it taught. Because I wanted to be “all in,” at some point during my ATI career I threw away most of my Disney movies and a significant portion of my collected memorabilia. Around the same time frame, my mother sent me a postcard and one of the things she said was, “Disney is of no eternal value.” Since leaving the IBLP lifestyle, I have come to view a lot of things differently–including Disney–and with all due respect to my mother, I beg to differ.
The irony is that much of my thought processes concerning Disney these days, comes from things I learned from IBLP. If IBLP can teach its followers Godly character from such things as deer with pivotal ears and baby ducklings jumping from trees, then certainly, I can teach my own children Godly truth from . . . Disney movies.
The Little Mermaid was often criticized by the folks I met at IBLP because, “Ariel was rebellious.” It’s true–she was. And it’s true that IBLP was all about authority. But think a little harder about the story. Ariel’s heart is where it shouldn’t be. She essentially shakes her fist at her father, doing what she wants despite his warnings to the contrary. Eventually she finds herself enslaved to the Sea Witch. Her father, the King, takes her place so that she may go free, and ultimately the Sea Witch is destroyed, the King rules all, and Ariel’s relationship with her father has been restored. I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing some parallels to the Gospel there.
Another movie criticized by folks in IBLP was Finding Nemo. Again, because Nemo was rebellious. Yet, anyone who has seen the movie, knows that Nemo’s father, Marlin, was the epitome of a control freak. He was constantly putting Nemo down and telling Nemo what he was incapable of doing, and this is what caused Nemo to rebel in the first place. While Ephesians 6:1 says, “Children obey your parents . . . “, Ephesians 6:4 offers the warning, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children . . .” The example in that movie has more than once caused me to consider how I interact with my son. In my zeal to protect him, am I smothering him?
A recent entry into the Disney canon, Tangled, follows the story of Rapunzel after she is stolen from her parents when she is a baby, and kept prisoner in a secluded tower by the villain, Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel is unique in that she uses manipulation to imprison Rapunzel, exaggerating the evils of the world outside the tower. At some point, Rapunzel runs away and realizes that while the outside world isn’t perfect, the real danger she didn’t see was Mother Gothel herself. That one resonated with me, when I soberly considered some of the tactics used by ATI to keep us in fear of life outside its cloister.
Finally, and you’d have to read some of my other posts on this blog for the context, the one that has been speaking to me quite a bit lately is the final sequence of the film Fantasia 2000, gloriously set to Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. The imagery in that movie is quite powerful; it starts with Spring sweeping over the forest bringing new life with her wherever she goes. At some point, however, she encounters a volcanic eruption in the form of the Firebird which overtakes not only everything Spring has accomplished but ultimately Spring herself. She is found in the forest wounded, almost lifeless by an elk who encourages her to get back up and get back to fulfilling her purpose. As she does, the forest comes alive once again and new life overtakes all of her past, including the volcano that had erupted in the past and threatened to destroy everything. That imagery has been especially powerful for me in my own life, knowing the grace of God I had experienced in my youth, seeing it nearly choked out by my involvement with IBLP, only to have God reawaken it from the ashes of my shattered life.
Tangled really hit home with me too.
(Wow, it might be a problem that I've discovered Recovering Grace... I might be tempted to comment EVERY day!)
I can SO identify. Grew up with a number of Disney movies (including some of the old classic "college" stories that were filmed in the 60s and 70s) and yes, they did shape my thinking. Since beginning the journey of recovery, I've realized just how "liberal" my parents really were within the ATI subculture. Take, for instance, my Dad's "rule" that we could only watch movies with a redemptive theme. Of course, "The Little Mermaid" was ALWAYS off limits (for the reasons you outlined - and besides, she wore an immodest swim suit!), but one of our favorite family movies (to this day!) is Toy Story 2, which has some seriously good stuff in it.
The other good thing about Disney - the good guy always wins, and the bad guy always loses. Just like in the Bible, huh? Did anyone ever bother to point that out?!
Thanks for the post - made my morning. :-)
You're most welcome, Susanna! You're correct that the good guy always wins in a Disney movie. And you're right about Toy Story 2. I just had to pick a few movie to comment on, otherwise this blog post would have gone on forever :)
I love Fantasia 2000, and I especially love the climax of the Firebird Suite, where Spring covers the entire volcanic mountain with green.
Liked your point and liked your post.
I have recently found your blog. I greatly grieve for what you have gone through, and all in the precious name of Christ. I am so very sorry. Some of these things have boggled my mind, and others I have understood so much because of the legalism we became caught into for 3 years~~~~ but which has haunted us for ten years now.
Gothard has only touched my home in that we know people caught up in it. But....for us it was a family... who had their own pernicious laws, and they became woven into our precious family, eventually stealing away our adult children's hearts into their evil lies, now these ten years. "Their holiness" far above anyone else’s is their thing...they spit on Gothards. It is pathetic. We grieve in agony everyday as we are now labeled "evil".....all in the precious name of Jesus.
I first read "Judging 101". "Then Standards that Divide". And now this Disney piece. Thank you for writing these. I am encouraged that even though you have been so hurt, so damaged, that you can show grace and mercy as you write. In all the things that happen to us...good or evil...it is our response which the world will see. I am thankful you choose to glorify God in your responses.
I could write for over a week on the episodes we have lived through with this other family's control and manipulation. "TV is a pipeline to hell"...unless they needed to watch it. Novels are trash... unless they are approved by the leader ...their favorite: about dead people falling in love (this one almost memorized by them all---YIKES!) But Wizard of Oz books?....evil! trash them!
I am at a loss for words~~~~except that God is still on His throne even when these type of people cause such pain and destruction. May God be glorified in our lives especially.... because we have escaped.
Thank you for your kind words, Jill. I pray your adult children wake up to the truth of the situation soon and in the interim that God comforts you as you wait.
I agree completely about the disney films. Thank you for your insight.
Tangled is great. I think Tangled represents to me what we pray for our children---an escape from Mother Gothel.
is it just me, or did anyone else think her name bore a strong resemblence to "Gothard"? lol
Funny, "Hannah"! Actually, if I'm not mistaken, though, the name comes from the original Grimm Bros. story and is simply the German word for "Godmother."
a shot of Novocaine and a lisp and "mr. gothard" would sound an awful lot like "mother gothel". :) now i know why i liked "tangled" so much! it really is the story of our lives, isnt' it?
"a shot of Novocaine and a lisp and "mr. gothard" would sound an awful lot like "mother gothel"
Thanks, I really needed a good laugh today!
Lol!
I love seeing the analogies in the Disney movies and other movies and literature. They are so very insightful. The recent Alice In Wonderland has really spoken to me lately.
~Sally : )
YES! ALICE IN WONDERLAND: I've lost my muchness...oh how I wish I could find it. :)
I remember that Bill Gothard encouraged parents not to have their kids read C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books. He painted Lewis as some shady character with pagan ideas who can't be trusted. Neither Gothard nor his supporters have really any educated clue about the themes in world mythology, and how some of the great Christian writers from a variety of different traditions have tapped into them to proclaim the greatest drama of all in the story of the Gospel. Your post was a refreshing look at how one might approach fairy tales and mythology in popularized form after a careful look at what ideas the story is actually conveying, rather than dismissing them outright due to a superficial judgement. Well done.
C.S. Lewis is on my list of people I owe a depth of gratitude to. It was through reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe that I first began to realize why Jesus died on the cross. My liberal upbringing had left me ignorant of the gospel. The audacity of that man to condemn C.S. Lewis!
Years ago, my youth group leader had all of us watch "Toy Story" and pointed out some of the wonderful spiritual and life lessons in it. Like Buzz basically being able to do anything he thought he could do. It really stuck with me through the years and totally changed the way I watch movies and read books.
I never really thought The Little Mermaid glorified Ariel's rebellion- she suffered horribly for it!