What About Mythological Rivals to Christ?

Like my new online acquaintance Steve Sawyer (whose blog post at http://stevensawyer.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/mickey-mouse-is-a-fraud/ prompted me to write this post), I, too, grew up as a Disney fan. A self-identified pastor named Chuck Dettman wrote a rather harsh comment to Steve’s blog post, and that further prompted me to write this response.

If Walt Disney was “a very strong believer” (I presume Chuck means in Christ), why did he side with the evolutionists in his Fantasia film and in any number of his wildlife documentaries? Why did he wink at sorcery, etc. in such otherwise wholesome family entertainment as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, Escape from Witch Mountain, et al? As a clueless child and teen, I was duped by this soft-pedaling of evil masquerading as good. It actually took the news of the Disney Corp. siding with the homosexual agenda by permitting an annual “Gay Day” in Disney World (which they continue to do to this day) to wake me up in my adulthood and realize that this was not the family-friendly company it was portrayed as being.

Frankly, while I haven’t actually thought much about people’s love affair with all things Disney as a rival to Jesus, I can certainly see how that is true for some. I’ve often wondered why professing Christians continue to patronize a company which sponsors such wickedness as homosexuality when God has made His position quite clear on this issue in both the Old and New Testaments. Many of them even attend Disney World on this “Gay Day”!

Just as great a concern for me, if not greater, is how Christians persist in elevating the myth of Santa Claus to be on the same level as the birth of Jesus at Christmas-time. Jesus’ birth is the TRUE purpose for celebrating Christmas. It really bothers me how otherwise sincere Christians see nothing wrong with perpetrating and perpetuating a bold-faced lie to their children about a mythological being with quasi-god-like characteristics (“he knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake”, for instance). Yes, my parents perpetrated this lie to me, too, but I refused to do so with my own children.

I have actually participated in a lot of culturally-accepted sin in my life, but once God points it out to me and convicts me about it, I repent of it. For instance, for years I thought nothing of hosting a community Easter Egg Hunt at the churches where I pastored, until the Lord revealed to me the sordid origin of this practice. The word “Easter” comes from the name of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar (also called the Queen of Heaven; see Jer. 7:18; & 44:17-19 & 25), and her husband (or some versions of the story say her son) Tammuz (see Ezek. 8:14), who died and supposedly resurrected. You can read a very thorough telling of the origin and history of this myth, as well as how it was incorporated into Christian practices, on the Web site of what appears to be a true believer in Tammuz and Ishtar here: http://www.assyrianvoice.net/forum/index.php?topic=8232.0

Every one must be accountable for his or her own decisions in life. Now that you know the truth behind these things, what will you do about it? Will you continue to support Disney, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Easter Egg Hunts? It’s entirely up to you, but be forewarned that God will judge your participation differently now that you know the truth.