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Nearly a decade has passed since the American Family Association called on its members to boycott the Walt Disney Company, accusing the entertainment giant of having "gone from trusted friend to hostile foe." The AFA was disturbed by offensive adult content in productions from some of Disney's subsidiary companies (including Miramax Films and ABC-TV), and also Disney's alleged support of the homosexual agenda. The Southern Baptist Convention, Focus on the Family and other Christian groups soon followed the AFA's lead.

The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust

The Gospel in Disney: Christian Values in the Early Animated Classics

The impact that this boycott has had over the years is hard to quantify (although the recent attempt to oust CEO Michael Eisner indicates that all is not well in the Magic Kingdom). But it's safe to say that the Christian community and Disney still don't always see eye to eye when it comes to acceptable entertainment.

So it's a bit surprising to see two new books with the words "Disney" and "gospel" in the title, especially one that is aimed squarely at the Christian market.

The Gospel According to Disney is Orlando Sentinel religion reporter Mark I. Pinsky's second exploration of the moral values found in popular culture, following up his successful The Gospel According to The Simpsons. (See Pinsky's CT stories on The Simpsons here.) The Disney book is a more sizable undertaking, however, as he examines over 30 Disney animated films spanning eight decades, from Snow White and Seven Dwarfs to last year's Brother Bear.

The late Philip Longfellow Anderson, who was a minister in the United Church of Christ, has a narrower focus in The Gospel in Disney, looking only at the 18 animated films produced during Walt Disney's lifetime. But Anderson also goes into greater detail on the animated anthologies from Disney ("Make Mine Music," "Fun and Fancy Free," etc.), and also finds life lessons in the characters of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. (It's worth noting that Anderson's book was originally self-published published in 1999; Augsburg Books has since picked it up.)

It's important to note the different definitions of "gospel" in each book.

For Pinsky, who is Jewish, it's "the Disney gospel," which he describes as "a consistent set of moral and human values in these movies, largely based on Western, Judeo-Christian faith and principles. … Good is always rewarded; evil is always punished. Faith is an essential element—faith in yourself, and even more, faith in something greater than yourself, some higher power."

That higher power, according to "the Disney gospel," isn't God, but most often providential magic. When Geppetto wants his puppet to become a real boy in Pinocchio, he adopts a prayerful pose beside his bed, but he's appealing to a "wishing star," and it's a Blue Fairy that grants his request. Cinderella has a Fairy Godmother to help her get to the ball, and when evil forces put Snow White and Sleeping Beauty to sleep, both are awakened by a prince's magical kiss.

Pinsky says Walt Disney's decision to avoid traditional religion in his animated films "was in part a commercial one, designed to keep the product saleable in a worldwide market." When the characters in his stories needed some outside intervention to get them out of a difficult situation, "magic, Disney apparently decided, would be a far more universal device to do this than any one religion."

But that doesn't discourage Anderson from finding messages from God in the Disney films, as he uses these stories as a springboard to discuss themes also found in the gospel of Christ (along with a few forays into the Old Testament), derived from his own "Disney sermons."

"Jesus of Nazareth used allegories, anecdotes, illustrations to teach about the kingdom of God," notes Anderson, who also believes Christians can find plenty of valuable content in these animated classics—"the loss of innocence, the cost of righteousness, vanity leading to disaster, sacrifice leading to resurrection—such are the recurring themes in these films."

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