For many of us, some of our best childhood moments likely involved watching Disney flicks. Today, however, some parents are hesitant to allow their children to watch Disney’s newest feature, a remake of Beauty and the Beast. Why you may ask?
Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon explained that the movie includes an “exclusively gay moment,” as noted by the Daily Mail. Many parents are thus hesitant to expose their young, impressionable children to the movie since homosexuality is at variance with the religious values of many Americans.
In response to the film, Patheos reports that owners of a drive-in theater in Alabama are refusing to play Beauty and the Beast for religious reasons. Some Christians are also making their voices heard through a petition launched by LifeSiteNews to boycott Beauty and the Beast. The petition has since received over one hundred thousand signatures, as reported in USA Today.
Evangelist Franklin Graham also commented on the issue via a Facebook post, according to Time magazine. In the post, Graham states:
Disney has the right to make their cartoons, it’s a free country. But as Christians we also have the right not to support their company. I hope Christians everywhere will say no to Disney.
In a rather typical Hollywood fashion, celebrities have criticized conservative Christians for freely expressing their religious beliefs. One such celebrity is Beauty and the Beasts’ own Ian McKellen, who stated that the owners of the Alabama Theater are “stupid” and “prejudiced” for refusing to play the film, according to CBN News.
Would these celebrities say the same about those of other faiths, such as Muslims? Very doubtful.
In majority-Muslim nation Malaysia, it’s a well-known fact that homosexuality is a crime punishable by whippings or imprisonment for up to twenty years. Malaysia only permitted release of Beauty and the Beast in theaters after the country’s Film Censorship Board cut the gay scene from the movie. BBC reports that Disney would not authorize such cuts to the flick. Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon expressed Disney’s feelings by affirming:
The studio is sending out a message that this is normal and natural – and this is a message that will be heard in every country of the world, even countries where it’s still socially unacceptable or even illegal to be gay.
Not a word of criticism has come from liberal celebrities such as McKellen regarding the bigotry in Malaysia. Had McKellen made the same remarks in Malaysia and directed his comments towards Muslims, he likely would have been imprisoned. As McKellen believes, Christians are the stupid and prejudiced ones. Really?
Time to wake up and take a hard look in the mirror, McKellen. Such hypocrisy from the left in their treatment of conservative Christians is evidence of the increasing intolerance towards people who follow the gospel of Jesus Christ in the U.S., as noted by Liberty Nation’s Jeff Charles.
The situation in Malaysia is grossly different from that of the U.S. In Malaysia, it is not private businesses and individuals expressing their beliefs on Beauty and the Beast, but the nation outright banning the display of homosexuality in a positive light in films. In Malaysia, all citizens have no choice but to keep their true selves “in the closet.”
Just another example of leftist hypocrisy.
