ERLC trustees ask SBC messengers just say no to Disney visit in 2000

by   Dwayne Hastings                                                                                                                             Vol. XII, No. 10, Nov/Dec 1999

Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission urged messengers "to support our Convention's boycott of the Disney corporation's theme parks" in a resolution adopted during their Sept. 14-15 meeting in Nashville, TN. Trustees acknowledged the proximity of the 2000 convention site might make it tempting for some convention-goers and their families to make the short drive down the interstate to the Magic Kingdom and other Disney attractions. In adopted their resolution on Disney, they noted that the 1997 SBC resolution calling for a boycott of the entertainment giant has not been rescinded. Messengers to the 1997 Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas called for a boycott of The Disney Company and its subsidiaries in a resolution on moral stewardship.

ERLC President Richard Land, in his address to the trustees, said there has never been a time of greater moral crisis than what America faces today. The church faces a "daunting task" in bringing the hope that Christ embodies to those in the culture who while living in a time of material prosperity are without spiritual hope. "There has never been a time when our nation needed Southern Baptists to be what God has called them to be any more than today," Land stated, saying too often the command in Deuteronomy to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" is forgotten.

The ERLC board of trustees also gave approval for the agency's public policy newsletter, Salt, to be transformed into an "electronic-broadcast fax" document named E-Salt. Now bi-monthly and delivered via the postal service, the publication will be published monthly and be distributed via electronic mail and facsimile machine. "The technology has overtaken us," Land told the trustees, indicating the new format and mode of delivery will bring cost savings and provide more timely information to subscribers. He said the change will allow the agency "to fulfill the original intent of Salt" -- to communicate news on pending legislation and the culture to Southern Baptists quickly. [BP]

[Note: E-Salt will be available in 2000. You may watch the ERLC website <www.erlc.com> to sign up for a free subscription, but subscription is not possible as of 15 November. TCP]