I recently watched the first episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+. When I think Disney, I think of wholesome programming for all age groups; though mostly for young kids. To my amazement, much of the content of this first episode could be considered heretical by contemporary Christian standards: gods (lowercase), demigods (half-bloods) and non-Christian characters and monsters made up most of the cast. And the plot, not totally disclosed (remember only the first episode), but hinted at an apocalypse in the making — good versus evil for sure. But guess what? Not a mention of God (uppercase), Jesus or the saints on how they might play into the narrative. All this without a religious content warning message!

Is it not possible that a youngster, after watching this program, might believe, or at least be influenced to believe, that these gods, demigods, monsters, etc., really exist? I mean, they’re on TV (the big screen!) and with the same lack of physical presence to us on earth as God, Jesus and the saints (none, at least that I know of). Could be tough convincing a 6-year-old one way or the other without any physical proof.

So I call out to: evangelicals, Moms for Liberty and the like, ultra-conservative college students, self-declared patriots and any other groups that have taken up the mantel of censorship to ratchet up your efforts against: members of non-Christian religions, books, liberal guest speakers at colleges, progressive politicians, the internet and commercial/streaming TV. But most of all: Boycott Disney+! No good can come from Percy Jackson and his ilk! Find some other holiday diversion, like a good book. Librarians can help that stuff.