Methodist Church Uses ‘Lion King’ Sermon Series To Reject ‘Hakuna Matata’ Mindset About LGBTQ Exclusion, World Central Kitchen Deaths by Israel
Preston Hollow Church is a United Methodist Church deep in the heart of Dallas, Texas. Led by Impastor Tom Waitschies, this liberal, gay-affirming church is in the middle of a sermon series on the “The Gospel Found in Disney” which will culminate a in concert called “Crazy ‘Bout The Mouse”
During the Lion King sermon, which sees the choir and worship leaders performing several songs from the film, Waitschies condemns the “Hakuna Matata” mindset that leads to personal selfishness and ambition, contrasting it to the early church who shared everything.
Insisting that “We can never forget who we are” he recounts the lessons that Mufasa taught Simba, offering:
“If we listen, God is preparing us to live in community with one another. Now; that means taking into account the needs of everyone else. It means caring as much about what is happening to another as we do about what’s happening to us. That’s not always easy to do, is it? We get so self-focused in today’s world, we really have allowed so much focus to be on what we want, what we desire, what makes us comfortable. Do we consider those around us when we make remarks that are focused on race or gender or orientation or nationality or personal attributes? Are we doing so at the expense of someone else’s identity and someone else’s self worth?”
Later, comparing Simba’s abdication of his responsibilities during his temporary exile where the princely Lion forgot he was King and the negative ramifications it wrought, he insists that Christians have done likewise with equally devastating consequences.
We forgot who we were last week when the world Central Kitchen volunteers were killed…It’s easy to vilify others because they’re not like us. You know, we’ve got our own little group over here and they’re not like us so we exclude them, and so we treat them differently, and we push them further and further beyond the margins of life.
It’s easy to degrade another person because of who they love or how they love. It’s easy to neglect the needy and those who seemingly don’t matter in our great scheme of things.”
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