Inside the church of Disney
One might be tempted to dismiss Memorial University professor Jennifer Porter’s new religious studies course — which includes a nine- day f i eld t rip to sun- soaked Disney World in Florida — as trivial or Mickey Mouse.
But while students fawn over the dancing puppets in It’s a Small World and whip around in the Alice i n Wonderland tea cups, they’ l l be asked to keep daily journals and consider some thought- provoking questions.
In what ways does the park represent America as a beacon of political, historical and artistic achievement — the “divine kingdom?” How are parts of nature — animals and inanimate objects — given souls? What are the religious dimensions of mass consumerism, wherein people buy things to express an affiliation with something greater t han themselves?
“I love studying Disney because it evokes such polarized responses. Some people embrace it, as Christians did with Harry Potter, as a place in which their ideas can be expressed, while others decry it as almost the anti- Christ for undermining their religious values,” Porter said in an interview.
Porter, whose fourth-year course, Religion in Disney Parks, just received approval and will open for enrolment this fall, said her interest in pop culture’s intersection with religion was inspired by her lifelong fascination with Star Trek.
“Once I started to see (religion) there, it was much easier to broaden it out and to look at other things as well.”
Porter began to see religion manifested in traditionally secular places, equating visits to Graceland or Star Trek conventions to modernday pilgrimages. One of her courses examines this notion of “implicit religion” and asks students whether hockey can be a religion or whether raves are just “urban expressions of religious transcendence.”
Several years ago, she started a course devoted to Disney’s animated films. One assignment asks students to argue whether the films’ themes of salvation, sacrifice, angels and demons are pro-Christian, anti- Christian or non- Christian.
It was only natural a course devoted to Disney’s theme parks would follow.
For many aficionados, Disney parks offer more than thrill rides and colourful characters; they’re “sacred spaces,” Porter said. One woman she met from Vancouver Island would go to Orlando several times a year.
“She would tell you Disney World was her happy place. And this is the place where she felt most in touch with who she was as a human person, who she was in terms of her moral values and her relationship to the universe at large. For her, it very much was a religious experience.”
What’s fascinating though is that when visitors walk through the gates, they enter Main Street U.S.A. — a boulevard that is a completely artificial reconstruction of American history, Porter said.
“It’s a construction of a nostalgic past that has been cleaned up and made pretty. Maybe that’s OK. I guess in every religion we have this Golden Age,” she said.
“People go there and embrace this image of the 19th century or the Wild West or the exotic empire. These are not accurate representations of history, but they are ideologically laden representations of history. … In part I think it has a religious motivation wherein they construct the United States as a Promised Land, sort of speak, where these remarkable achievements were attained and now visitors get to go back to this glorious time.”
Disney World spokeswoman Lisa Arney said the park would not entertain any questions about religion.
Mark Pinsky, a former Orlando Sentinel reporter and author of the book The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust, anticipated that would be Disney’s response.
“For them, religion is really the third rail,” he said.
While there is no church on Main Street U. S.A., faith, spirituality and Judeo- Christian values underlie much of the Disney ethos, Pinsky said.
“In those ( feature films), there is what I call a Disney gospel, which is nonsectarian and non-explicit. It’s a belief that good is always rewarded, evil is always punished, that the characters are motivated by faith in faith, rather than in any particular faith,” he said.
The characters do everything they can to succeed but inevitably appeal to some higher power to intervene. It could be a fairy godmother, a star, or a form of magic — but rarely is it church-related.
“You have to try, you have to strive, and then you have to take some leap of faith to get help from above or beyond.”
Porter concedes some critics will question whether Disney theme parks are a valid area of academic inquiry. But Disney is a media titan with $ 50 billion in revenue, she said.
“It’s such a huge factor in people’s entertainment lives. … It’s ( incumbent) on us to pay attention to what this huge media company is communicating.”