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<\/p>\nIn a couple weeks, I\u2019m presenting a paper at the American Society of Church History annual meeting in Chicago about Disney World\u2013themed devotionals. Yes, you read that right: you can pray your way around the World.<\/p>\n
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Take, for example, Albert Thweatt\u2019s popular book Disney Devotionals<\/a>, which is dedicated to \u201cfinding grace in the magic.\u201d As the back-cover blurb states, \u201cDisney Devotionals is a must-have for every family who wants to discover more about Walt Disney World while at the same time gaining valuable biblical lessons that will help their family grow closer together.\u201d Inside, Thweatt connects Space Mountain to trusting God in the dark, the Enchanted Tiki Room to God\u2019s care for the sparrows, and Dumbo the Flying Elephant to the elevating power of the Holy Spirit. It\u2019s a comprehensive spiritual geography of the theme parks, a guide to seeing God in every bit of pixie dust.<\/p>\n The common wisdom right now is that American Christians have turned against Disney for being \u201cwoke.\u201d There\u2019s certainly some truth to that, but Thweatt\u2019s book is part of a countervailing trend: Christians who are confident that Disney can bolster their faith. This takes conservative forms, like the new two-volume series Disney and Apologetics, which was reviewed positively<\/a> in Christianity Today. But it\u2019s also common in liberal and progressive circles: I\u2019ve seen more than one mainline congregation incorporate Disney songs into their worship services. (In their defense, \u201cGod Help the Outcasts\u201d is a banger.)<\/p>\n There\u2019s a large group of American Christians, it turns out, who think Disney gets something right about the gospel. And here\u2019s the thing: every once in a while, they\u2019re right.<\/p>\n Each holiday season, Disney presents the Christmas-themed Candlelight Processional show at the America Gardens Theater at EPCOT. The show is, in essence, a flashy but sincere lessons and carols service, complete with choir, orchestra, and some very expensive add-on dining packages. (Yes, my dream job is to play in this orchestra.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s also one of the few explicitly Christian offerings at Disney World. Most of its script comes straight from the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the Christmas carols all have their traditional, orthodox lyrics left intact. To explain this out-of-character sectarianism, Disney invokes the legacy of Walt Disney, who started the show at Disneyland in 1958. Keeping the show Christian is not so much about faithfulness to a particular faith, we\u2019re led to believe, but faithfulness to Walt.<\/p>\n The show runs three times a night from late November through late December: almost a hundred performances a year (plus more at on the west coast at Disneyland). A cast of celebrity narrators takes turns hosting the event and reading the Christmas story: this year\u2019s narrators ranged from Susan Egan (the voice of Meg in Hercules) to Christian singer Lauren Daigle to Luis Fonsi of \u201cDespacito\u201d fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are no surprises in the majority of the show\u2019s script: we get the Annunciation, the birth of Christ, the angels appearing to the shepherds, and the visit of the Magi, all interspersed with elaborate (that is, trumpet-heavy) arrangements of well-known carols. But then, after the Magi leave, the show has to do something the gospel writers didn\u2019t: provide a satisfying ending, a pithy summary of the reason for the season. Here\u2019s what the narrators read:<\/p>\n For all the miracles of Jesus Christ, the prince of peace himself was not only the son of God, he was also a man. And he walked through this world with love. He didn\u2019t have much, but what he did have he shared, and it became plenty: food, water, shelter, and care. He met the world around him with empathy. He saw hunger and shared the food from his plate, he saw thirst and poured for them from his own cup, he saw sickness and offered his time for their healing and soothed them with his human hands. Jesus found it in his heart to give of himself to the people who loved him and even to the people who betrayed him. To all people. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. That a baby in a manger could grow to become a man who taught a world of people what it means to love one another\u2014that is the spirit of the season. And it lives inside each and every one of us. The greatest joy of being human is to love one another. When we share that love, that is the greatest gift of all.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what seminarian-turned-Imagineer (another dream job!) wrote that paragraph, but somehow they nailed it. This is a Jesus who matters not because of his precise role in the mechanism of redemption, but because of his downright miraculous love of others. This is a Christmas story that ends not with a disembodied hope, but with a call to particular, embodied acts of compassion. This is an explicit endorsement of empathy at a time when some very loud and powerful Christians are calling empathy \u201ctoxic\u201d or even \u201csinful.\u201d<\/p>\n As a religion scholar, there\u2019s a lot of other stuff I could say about this show: how it relies on a mythical version of Walt Disney to authorize its Christianity, how it depoliticizes the story by omitting references to Herod, how it subtly reinforces Christian nationalism by being staged in front of the American Adventure pavilion. (All to come in future conference presentations, I\u2019m sure!)\u00a0<\/p>\n But as someone who cares about the Christian story meaning something other than imperialist violence, this show also gives me a tiny bit of hope. Not because I think the Walt Disney Company cares much about empathy: one look at their labor practices makes that clear enough. And not because I think many guests are returning from Disney World more empathetic than when they left: that Florida humidity will boil just about any virtue out of you.<\/p>\n No, this show gives me hope because Disney knows a thing or two about storytelling. And they know that there\u2019s simply no way to make the Christmas story into a story about the evils of toxic empathy or the virtues of rugged individualism. That version of Christianity, however big a platform it\u2019s gotten in recent years, is a bad story.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Luke\u2019s version, Matthew\u2019s version\u2014and, against all odds, Disney\u2019s version\u2014is a good story. A son of God who was born weak and poor and who received the generous care of others before dedicating his life to the flourishing of friends, strangers, and enemies alike: that\u2019s a good story. And good stories get told over and over again.<\/p>\n Even at theme parks.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n You\u2019ve just read, and presumably appreciated, yet another post from the Reformed Journal. Thanks! But Wait\u2026There\u2019s More! gives you three outstanding books sent to you throughout 2026.<\/p>\n Reformed Journal is funded by our readers; we welcome your support. 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