Disney Finale

IT’S ABOUT THE KINGDOM

The last of three entries on Disney

We have come to associate the phrase, “If you build it they will come”, with Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams but the person who really understood and capitalized on that concept was Walt Disney. Fortunately for Walt he had a little bit of an advantage for getting them “to come” you see prior to building Disneyland in California Walt had won an Oscar as well as the attention and adoration of the world through his feature length animated motion pictures. Snow White and Cinderella were loved and adored by most of America so Disney and therefore Disneyland, had a mass of faithful who were ready to experience first hand the fantasy world they had been introduced to in the movies. For this to take place Disney had made a major investment in each of these movies not knowing whether or not anyone would even attend as full length cartoon, he bankrolled everything on Snow White not knowing if it would be a flop or a hit, fortunately for Walt people were blown away with what they saw. This, if you will, was Walt’s version of putting it all on the line for the sake of what he believed. In a sense Walt went out and invested in the “preaching” of his kingdom before he attempted to build anything. Again, once the movie (preaching) was presented it was easy to get people into the Magic Kingdom because they wanted to see firsthand that which they had experienced at the movie house.
America in the early fifties was at the end of twenty years of wars and conflicts, they were tired of what the world had to offer and Walt gave them the very thing they were looking for, a chance to escape the wear and tear of the world and enter into a kingdom of make believe, where each person could participate with others in a “unified” kingdom experience. Disney did a great job of making sure you forgot about yourself by enamoring you with an overwhelming presentation of his kingdom and to everyone’s delight he experience was even bigger and better in real life than what had been preached in the theaters.
In Disney there are very few things within the gates to remind you of the outside world, as a matter of fact they do a great job of causing you to forget about who you are causing you to take an active role in the kingdom you are now a part of, you get to be an astronaut, pirate, or adventurer, if only for a brief moment. Disney makes no attempt to conform their kingdom to yours, they don’t try to make you feel “at home” if they did most people would do just that, stay home. In this Disney isn’t seeker sensitive, they have clearly established what truth is (for them) they throw as much of that truth, in as many forms as possible, directly at you the minute you arrive on the property and never deviate from it. This makes so much sense, if they are presenting (preaching) through their vast media corporation the virtues of a world that’s like no other place on earth (while everybody else lives in the normal world), why would you work so hard to give them a place that’s just like the one they’re tired of and dissatisfied with? There are plenty of places you can visit and vacation where every attempt is made to accommodate you the way you want things to be, places that make you feel comfortable, but Disney says, “Come and experience the world the way ‘we’ see it and the way we’ve made it”, and again I stress, Disney World is the most visited destination on the planet.
People want what Disney has to offer, a place where they get to participate in a place that is promised to be different from the world they live in. Disney would never make it if their time and energy was spent focusing on the issues of everybody who came through their gates, directing their efforts toward the individuals needs. Instead, everything is an affirmation of the preaching that has drawn the faithful to come to Disney in the first place. People want to lay hold of what’s been “preached”.
In the very beginning Walt nailed it, he anchored Disneyland to the rock of his current preaching, the hottest thing going at that time was the movie Cinderella and Walt put Cinderella’s Castle at the very center of his kingdom, and it dwarfed everything within miles, it WAS the focal point of his kingdom, everything led to and from the castle, the kingdom was built around it and it stands as the place of pilgrimage for countless millions.
If Walt Disney had not first preached the attributes of his kingdom through the media of motion pictures things might have been a lot different, sure the park MAY have succeeded to some degree but for the most part it would have been some guy trying to build a personal dream in the middle of an orange grove in some poe-dunk town called Anaheim. Strangely enough this happens all to often in the world today, people attempting to build massive facades around their own visions and mission statements with no proclamation, hoping the faithful will come for no other reason than “it” has been built. Even Disney knew the faithful would only come in response to a proclamation, so every time Disney has a hit movie they build a ride or attraction around it so people can come and experience first hand the reality of what had been preached through the movie.
A few years later he strategically moved into television where he began preaching to us The Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday evening “in living color”. (just after church was over). The more preaching the more revelation, the more revelation the greater the response, and the bigger the kingdom became.
As for Kevin Costner and his field of dreams? He built a baseball field for some baseball players who had died a long time ago, he made everything just right based upon what he thought it would take to “get them there”, he wanted them to have and enjoy what the sport had “denied” them while they were alive and he got exactly what he worked for, a place where he could watch a bunch of dead people play ball, just so long as they stayed within the bounds of the field and made no attempts to go beyond it). Oddly enough he was able to collect money from the “curious” who came to watch dead people play ball and thus was able to keep from losing his farm (for some reason he wasn’t able to make it as a farmer).
Sure Disney’s a global corporation fueled by the desire to generate profits and yes they know how to manipulate and squeeze masses of people through a fantasy experience with little or no money when they come out the other side, but I have to say when you venture into THEIR facades they produce exactly what they preached and more, which is exactly why I wanted to go there in the first place.

I just wasn’t satisfied with buying a set of mouse ears.
(click thumbnail for slightly larger image)

Ordination 90210

I’m going to set the last Disney piece aside for this one offering.
I was really excited to read that Tori Spelling (remember her the daughter of the Aaron Spelling the guy who produced so many of our favorite television shows? Love Boat stuff like that. She was also in Beverly Hills 90210) has become an honest to goodness Reverend. YEAH! Good for her, a few minutes on line and she’s off to officiate over same sex marriages.
I was really jealous after all I’ve been serving God for years, doing the church thing every week (and then some) the church staff thing, working with youth, adults and endless hours of board (bored) meetings. All the while Tori is swooshing around Hollywood being a television star, going to parties, posing for the paparazzi and making a TON of money. After all that SHE gets the certificate of ordination to stick up on the wall of her Beverly Hills mansion!
What the heck!
So I went on line and sure enough I TOO can become a Reverend, Pastor, Clergy, Minister, Etc in just a few minutes of my time (and a really cool account of my statement of faith). It’s almost too easy. Not only that but I gain all sorts of benefits for being a member of the “clergy” community!” Just look at the benefits.

Funerals • Perform funeral services for loved ones
Ceremonies • Conduct religious ceremonies and share your beliefs within your local community
Ministry/Church • Start you own ministry/church to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others
Tax Exempt Status • Apply for the tax exempt organization status with the IRS
Prison Ministry • Gain access to prisons and jails to conduct worship services with inmates
Respect • Earn the respect afforded to members of the clergy within your community (wierd this isn’t first on the list)
Title • Choose your own title which reflects your calling within the ministry (Reverend, Pastor, Evangelist)
Earn Wages • You can charge a fee for the religious services that you offer to help fund your cause.

Some one pinch me!
Not only that, but I also found web sites that show me how to start my own church! And if I’m a busy pastor with no time in the day to write good quality sermons no problem, I can select from thousands of sermons on line, complete with illustrations (and we all know how critical illustrations are) after all my flock deserves noting but the best, that’s why I go on line, (to keep that edge).
Boy! I’m not going to let Tori Spelling get the jump on me, no sir.
Do you know you can even start your own religion on line? YAHOO! (actually that’s taken)
Well, I am just jazzed beyond words. I can hardly wait to start my new and exciting career as a licensed ordained minister, who knows maybe I’ll get my very own television show and a big home in Beverly Hills.
Hey Tori, fire up the grill the wife and I are coming over for dinner!

Disney: The Haunting Theology of a “Theme Park”

The long awaited second offering to a three part series on our visit to Disney World

Let’s say Walt Disney is God, (just as an example) and let’s say Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom is heaven and all the song lyrics they proclaim are scripture used to influence people to believe in the truth that is Disney, got that? Now imagine there’s some guy out there who’s “commissioned” (either by Disney or by his own inclination) to draw people into Disneyland so they could enjoy the truth we just spoke of, to enjoy all the wonderful benefits of a place that had been prepared for “all who would come”. So this guy sets out to Orlando to start a “cast plant” (remember employees are cast members at Disney) where they would “preach the truth of Disney”. Well, let’s make it more accurate, he doesn’t really go out and preach Disney at all but he does rent a school for a few hours on the weekend from where they invite people to come hear about Disney.
He starts by gathering a team of loyal cast members who start planning their strategy for reaching north Orlando with the wonderful world of Walt, but first they must learn how to prepare to be better cast members, mature cast members, cast members who are totally free from the effects of the bad things they did when they were non cast members. They spend their time studying the song lyrics of all the Disney movies and then a few more years going over the Disney operational manual. In the beginning everyone’s enamored with the lead cast member’s insight into the Disney manual. After a while the lead cast member finds himself liking the attention he’s gained by having people look to him for guidance and understanding into the things of the magic kingdom even if some of it has nothing to do with the manual. He however starts to deviated from the actual intent of the guidelines, the focus shifts more towards the cast members, making their needs and desires more important than those established by Walt. They start changing the song lyrics and speak less about the manual so they don’t make any guests uncomfortable with to much Walt. A few people do manage to find them meeting at the school and like the things that are spoken from the manual, and after all they are friendly. But they never get anyone to commit to actually getting on a shuttle bus so they can be delivered to the Magic Kingdom itself. They like having the numbers, it helps make them look like a successful cast member recruitment center. Other people start to come but they’ve already heard of Disney, as a matter of fact they’re cast member recruits who were part of a Disney recruitment effort in California, they were frustrated with just talking about recruiting new cast member they wanted to actually be face to face with real people sharing the experience of knowing the truth of Walt. Needless to say some cast members would leave the recruitment center taking other cast members with them under the banner of “Taking Orlando for Walt”. Off they went to a school of their own on the southside of town where that lead cast member would gather a core group of people unto himself and begin studying the song lyrics and the manual, preparing to begin, to start, to become cast members who would someday ………….
Mean while plenty of people were still finding their way to the Magic Kingdom for there were large numbers of cast members who met with those outside the kingdom presenting the truth of Walt because they loved being a cast member so much they couldn’t quit “being” it even when they punched out at the end of their sunday and wednesday shifts. They kept their cast clothes on and spoke happy Disney talk where ever they went and with who ever they met. They even got together as cast members and would encourage each other in the things of Walt. They loved being Disney so much it just overflowed and when others saw this they wanted to know more about this “Walt” they worked for.
One cast member said this:
“Actually Walt died a long time ago but he had twelve Imagineers that he shared everything with, he taught them what the kingdom (Disney World Orlando) was to be like, he sent them out to continue that vision, and they did exactly what Walt commanded them. So they went out and recruited cast members to come into the kingdom and when people began to work in the kingdom they found how much they enjoyed it and because of that they gained an even greater understanding, love and affection for Walt even though he died before the kingdom here in Orlando was even started, it’s true. It was the twelve imagineers who went forward with the vision, at first they thought all was lost when Walt died but they decided to build on what Walt had taught them and well, here it is. With that many cast members working together for the sake of Disney it’s like Walt’s actually here. Cast members have been sent out to recruit new cast members but we never hear from them after they leave. Once in awhile someone makes their way here to the kingdom and they mention having come across some of those cast members but the vast majority of people who come here are people we invite through the day to day joy of doing what we love to do, for Walt, ….. people like you!”

Disclaimer:
The events, circumstances, theological similarities and people depicted in this story are not real they are fictitious, fabricated for the sake of emphasis.