Posted on 11/30/2008 10:11:04 AM PST by Oyarsa
Disney accused by Catholic cleric of corrupting children's minds A leading Catholic cleric has launched a fierce attack on Disney, claiming it has corrupted children and encouraged greed.
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 9:21PM GMT 29 Nov 2008
Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth in West Sussex, has accused the corporation of "exploiting spirituality" to sell its products and of turning Disneyland into a modern day pilgrimage site.
He argues that it pretends to provide stories with a moral message, but has actually helped to create a more materialistic culture.
In a guide to helping people find happiness, the abbot, who starred in the hit-BBC series The Monastery, warns that society is in danger of losing its soul because of growing consumerism and the decline of religion.
He suggests that many people have become obsessed with work, sex and eating in an attempt to ignore their underlying unhappiness, and criticises corporations and industries that have benefited from promoting false notions of fulfilment.
Fr Jamison, who has been tipped as a contender to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor as the next Archbishop of Westminster, targets the behaviour of Disney in particular, which he says is "a classic example" of how consumerism is being sold as an alternative to finding happiness in traditional morality.
While he acknowledges that Disney stories carry messages showing good triumphing over evil, he argues this is part of a ploy to persuade people that they should buy Disney products in order to be "a good and happy family".
He cites films such as Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians that feature moral battles, but get into children's imaginations and make them greedy for the merchandise that goes with them.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I hate to say it, but he sounds like a bit of nitwit.
There’s plenty to criticize Disney for, but having a happy ending, with good overcoming evil, in “101 Dalmations” isn’t the root of the problem.
Hopefully they’ll find a better candidate for Archbishop. The Church in England certainly needs it.
Disney shows almost ALWAYS show a disfunctional family. Fah on Disney.
Disney deliberately targets tweens. They also get kids interested in magic. Disney is pro homosexual.
Problem is Hollywood in general and emasculating homocentric Birkie cartoons for little kids
and no, I’m not joking
I agree with him. Look at Disney’s t.v. programs. They’re ALL turning into ‘witch’ scenarios. Good witches, mind you.. Just everyday people like you and me, but they all have special powers.
Maybe if this guy made the churches happier places, more folks and children would attend, instead of going to...gasp!...happy places like Disneyland.
I see it as more the fault of the PARENTS how their kids are turning out and what their priorites are. Blaming Disney for this is idiotic.
What’s a Birkie cartoon?
Disney is pro homosexual.
Yep! They have pervert week every year at Disney World.
Thank God I don’t have young children or grandkids cause I would never buy them anything Disney.
They are also anti hunting and anti firearms ownership.
the ones where the human interacting actors or leaders of the show all act like they should be working at a bookstore near an urban college campus or selling crystals at femmelesbo shoppe in Vermont.
that and the males are so gay and soft
and then they show cartoons that are weak and stupid and nauseatingly PC over and over...think Dora the Exlpora or most Noggin
I’d rather my kids watch road runner and see stuff get blown up than be softened into mushy meterosexuals
this is how many under 35 educated middle and upper middle class white boys got like they are...this drivel over and over...it started with Sesame Street
enough of that and one day your’re 30 and skinny as a rail, wearing girl jeans and chuck taylors and a 75 dollar t-shirts and some sort of “save something” bracelet, scared of guns and conservatives and religion...driving a Subaru or Prius and living in a home where your wife calls the shots and has no respect for you and your kids have no manners and think only slaves say yes sir or no ma’am.
this is how it all starts...
lol
***Maybe if this guy made the churches happier places, more folks and children would attend, instead of going to...gasp!...happy places like Disneyland.***
Happy places? Are you postulating that the Church set up theological McDonalds franchises? The Word of God and the Eucharist become Happy Meals?
I know: satan can look like the Hamburgler and God loses the beard and acquires red hair and a clown face. Maybe if this guy emphasized orthodoxy and the Word of God and enforced it in his Church, attendence would be up and the seminaries would be filled. Wait; in those dioceses that do this, they are.
I laughed then but have always felt since that the stupid Disney people were filling these mush brains with anti-gun and anti-hunting propaganda. Maybe it's worse than I thought.
Ah Ha! The truth slips out!
This Christopher Jamison is merely a bitter Marxist who worships Karl Marx instead of God. He is breaking the Tenth Commandment by envying the money that Disney makes on its toys.
Earlier in the day on Free Republic there was an article about Bill Ayers and his friends protesting the advertising of the eeeeevil capitalistic toy manufacturers. Is Christopher Jamison a friend of these people? ( Just wondering)
Ummmm I think Eaker has a save the gay whales for mohammad t-shirt......:o)
All jokin aside yer right ...dead on correct as usual !
LOL......you are a poet, Sir !
I don’t think a Catholic priest should be accusing anyone else of corrupting children.
>
Hopefully they’ll find a better candidate for Archbishop. The Church in England certainly needs it.
I think that's the other nitwit. This is the Catholic nitwit.
You might be interested to learn Bambi is not a Disney creation; it was originally a children’s book written by Felix Salten.
The book is much better than the movie (the book revolving around the Father-son relationship of Bambi and his father, and teaches a lesson which the movie entirely ignores. (Sorry, can’t give away the lesson without spoiling the ending of the book.)
Why not?
Just kidding, thanks for the tip.
I know it’s an old fashioned notion, but greed is in the hearts of individuals....Disney isn’t to blame for the greed of others. Temptations abound, but greed is in the hearts of individuals. It’s foolish to look for someone or something else to blame for our own badness. Looks to me like this cleric is looking for someone to blame.....
It’s also a biblical notion; a pity that the cleric is looking for an external source to an internal problem.
Children would be just as greedy if there was no Disney; see all the pre-Disney children’s literature that explicitly/implicitly warns against greed if you question that. They were greedy before Disney. They’ll be greedy after Disney.
You’re welcome.
:-)
Is it proper to refer to a Catholic as a "cleric"? I always thought the word cleric meant "seer" and was not a Catholic term.
Disney movies are rarely a Disney creation. They take stories from books and re-interpret them into cartoon version.
More prevalent than you think. I was TX game warden for 30 years, we called that behavior the "Disney Syndrome", but take heart, in TX, the hunting ethic is still strong although we are seeing a disturbing downtrend with the younger crowd. Too much PC crap.
l tell you though, you take a kid out hunting (we used to take many children's homes kids on organized hunts), put a rifle in his or HER hands, have them shoot a familiarization course, then work on accuracy, hunter safety, etc., and you talk about enthusiastic!
But that was only the beginning, we required the kids to field dress (at least assist) and process it further depending on how the children's home utilized the kill (and they all did), so they weren't turned into just trigger pullers, they had to see it through from start to finish. There's a big responsibility when you kill game.
This included handicapped, never underestimate a handicapped person, ever. God allowed me to witness some amazing feats done by kids and adults with severe limitations, I don't know if we changed them but they sure changed me.
Who am I to deny the absolute truth of what is staring us in the face.
OF COURSE Disney is corrupting youth. The very nature of the theme parks is evidence of that. Spectres of the imagination, fairy tales built on a fascination with the dark and alluring terrible beauty of evil, the morbid thoughts encouraged in almost explicit scenes of pursuit and capture.
Small wonder that little children are carried weeping and screaming from some of the attractions.
Disney ain’t for the faint of heart.
LOL. Gay and thoft. That made my day.
Disney is C-R-A-P. Walt is spinning in his grave.
Watch the Spike TV or the VS Network on any Saturday. VS, in particular, is really cool on Saturdays. Back-to-back shows sponsored by Winchester and Beretta.
There’s plenty of real men left. My 11-year-old son and I just spent a half hour together pounding on our heavy bag in the garage.
There’s plenty of us. They just don’t put us on lamestream TV. And we don’t really give a flying scheisse to associate or be seen with all those doughy feggalas from the coasts. We should secede and become the FSA. The Flyover States of America. And we could tax the ever-livin’ you-know-what out of them when they want to come skiing in the Rockies. There’s enough guns left in Colorado to defeat the Commies in Boulder.
We’ll give you plenty of warning to get out of the PNW, DC2K.
My wife and I have come up with a theorem that there are 4 types of liberals. Two major types but four overall.
1. The pinhead academics from the coasts that think they have all the answers and should rule the world. Taxation and governmental dependency of the masses are their means to this end.
2. Lazy asses who want no responsibilities and want to live at the public trough.
3. Educated people of little actual achievement who crave attention and make the most noise.
4. Horny college guys who hope to get into the panties of the females of class #3 by being sympathetic to whatever cause comes down the pike.
Thoughts?
I was number 4 once sorta....but not for long.
Ole Miss was pretty conservative when I was there.
“I see it as more the fault of the PARENTS how their kids are turning out and what their priorites are. Blaming Disney for this is idiotic.”
It ultimately is the parents responsibility but Disney is certainly anti-family. Glad he’s making a stand, perhaps this will result in fewer dollars for Disney.
“This Christopher Jamison is merely a bitter Marxist who worships Karl Marx instead of God. He is breaking the Tenth Commandment by envying the money that Disney makes on its toys.”
So its wrong for people encourage consumers to make spending decisions based on the agenda of the corporation?
Its also quite offensive for you to compare this priest with a confessed and unrepentant terrorist.
I was wondering how long it would be before someone threw that cheap shot out.
As the word “cleric” means “a member of the clergy” and “clergy” means “the group or body of ordained persons in a religion, as distinguished from the laity” I do not believe any catholics would protest to the word being used.
A “seer” is “a person who prophesies future events”
Therefore, I would conclude that the terms are non-synonymous.
To my knowledge, the Catholic church does not have seers employed by the church as clerics. But I am not and have never been a Catholic, so I must refer you to the Catholic members of Free Republic.
Cheap shot? It’s the truth.
Yes, that is true of most of their work.
Alice in Wonderland
Bambi
The Little Mermaid
Cinderella
Pocahontas
The Lion King (boldly ‘borrowed’ from Kimba the White Lion, mostly)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Old Yeller
The Swiss Family Robinson
Mary Poppins
Robin Hood
...and many, many more.
Priorities. First resolve how 54% of Catholics voted for Obama The Abortionist. Then we will go after Disney with guns blazing. :)
Its true some priests did, and some leaders did cover it up. Do you paint all men and women that same broad brush? After all some of them have committed terrible crimes.
What about Mother Teresa, wasn’t she catholic?
No, I said the Church in England, not the Church of England. But you could say that they are equal opportunity nitwits.
For a while there were more Catholic churchgoers in England than Anglicans, but then the Catholic bishops blew it, too.
“Priorities. First resolve how 54% of Catholics voted for Obama The Abortionist. Then we will go after Disney with guns blazing. :)”
So never?
Christopher Jamison OSB is a Benedictine monk and Abbot of Worth Abbey in West Sussex, England.
Maybe everybody should live like monks. Not
dysfunctional families,
women as the leaders/providers/protectors,
men as incompetent, arrogant dufuses.
Basically, anything they can do to destroy or denegrate traditional roles, traditional family values, and traditional cultural values.
“Basically, anything they can do to destroy or denegrate traditional roles, traditional family values, and traditional cultural values.”
As ABC says “ a new kind of family”
Looks like Mickey is off the hook.
It seems that they have focused on one particular part of what he said, and distorted it somewhat. It apepars to me that he is really saying that much of modern Disney's focus is on merchandising, so they are capitalizing on the presentation of an arguably moral message by merchandising the heck out of it. They are, in effect, diluting their own message through their promotion of rampant materialism.
He didn't even get into the numerous other problems with Disney, which others have discussed.
Of course, we'd all like His Hermeneuticalness to take the Westminster seat instead.
Yes, I just got back inside from cutting a bit of firewood, and that occurred to me, too. Really a matter of emphasis, and that might have been the reporter, not the prelate. For instance, nothing wrong with getting Christmas toys for your kids, but just don’t fall too far into materialism.
Alice in Wonderland, Bambi, The little Mermaid, Cinderella, Pocahantas, The Lion King,....Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, etc.
That was then and this is now.
Why does the duration of time make a difference? The fact is that history has a long, well documented history of taking stories from other sources and grossly alterting them. They’re not the only culprits, naturally, but they are gross offenders, nonetheless.
The best thing any parent of a disney-loving child could do, in my opinion, is to find the original source and read it with their child, as appropriate (an exception: the original book “The Fox in the Hound” is NOT appropriate for young children. It was written as an adult novel, and the ending is decidedly different; consider yourselves forwarned.)
As an example of the difference between Disney and the original: in Disney, Ariel’s goal is to have her prince fall in love with her and marry her; in the Hans Christian Andersen story Ariel is in pursuit of a soul, not true love, in and of itself.
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