Religious Discrimination from Disney? Actor Claims They Mocked his Christian Faith

One of the primary tenets of the Disney brand is its inclusivity. From ensuring different cultures and peoples are well-represented to working on its LGBTQ representation in recent years. Even in the Disney Parks, we’ve seen this to be true with EPCOT’s various pavilions and the celebrations of different festivals, including Dia de los Muertos, the Candlelight Processional for Christmas (among other holiday festivities), and more. However, recently one constant complaint that has been becoming more prominent over time is the one of Disney being discriminatory toward followers of the Christian faith.

Representation in Disney movies

When it comes to Disney movies, the Walt Disney Company has been in the news a lot for its representation (or lack thereof). Many feel the Mouse House could do more to serve the communities it represents, and many feel Disney is being “inappropriate” with its content. Outside of the widely covered casting decisions (Halle Bailey as Princess Ariel) in The Little Mermaid and Disney’s LGBTQ representation (whether in Elemental or others), there was also the backlash against The Proud Family earlier this year.

Disney and its discrimination against Christianity

However, alongside this, many claim Disney has lost its way or has been disrespectful towards Christianity. Most recently, though this didn’t have to do directly with the Walt Disney Company, a Christian hairstylist was fired over her Disney opinions.

Now, an actor from a recently-released movie has added more fuel to this fire. Actor Jim Caviezel from The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), shared that Disney “both mocked his Christian faith and tried to remove references to Christianity when the film was being produced.” He shared this during a recent video to promote his new film, The Sound of Freedom. 

As reported by The American Tribune,

Speaking about the situation, he first referenced Disney’s desire to remove the God references from script, saying, “When I did The Count of Monte Cristo, they wanted me to remove the ‘God’ from all of the script. True story. All of a sudden, I’m reading the script — what happened to ‘God’?”

Continuing, Caviezel said that he stood up for his faith when pressed by Disney, saying that he told the company, “I had to say no, I can’t do this. Right is right, wrong is wrong.” Disney didn’t like that. According to Caviezel, the Disney personnel involved in the film’s production said, when he told them to keep the God references in the script, “So, you’re one of those?”

Caviezel reportedly stood his ground, and Disney “backed off,” but the instance has made waves as a continued example of Disney “pandering to woke audiences.”

Jim Caviezel says that Mel Gibson wept when he saw the Sound of Freedom, that Hollywood is becoming irrelevant, and Disney/the propaganda media tried to stop the Passion and prevent him from talking about God.
"Mel was weeping. In a fair world, (Sound of Freedom) would hands down… pic.twitter.com/Oaul7vPSUn

— Green Lives Matter (@Ultrafrog17) June 24, 2023

Many shared their frustrations about the incident:

A sad reality many a screenwriter knows all too well – that certain subjects are not allowed in mainstream media and entertainment. Human Creativity has been stifled at the highest levels of society

— Louie Olivas (@LouieOlivas) June 25, 2023

Another fan pointed out Disney’s recent losses, attributing it to the company’s “wokeness”:

Disney Co. has lost $890M on its last eight studio releases, including Little Mermaid and Elemental. Stay woke my friends. 👍

— 🇱🇷I AM ROCK 🇱🇷 (@WeAreAllBack) June 24, 2023

Sound of Freedom was initially supposed to be distributed by 20th Century Fox years ago, however, after the Walt Disney Company acquired the studio, the movie was put on hold. The filmmakers spent years pursuing the reacquisition of the distribution rights, and now the film has been released.

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