Bill Donohue wrote to the Walt Disney Company Board of Directors about the November 8 episode of the Fox TV show, “Family Guy” (Fox entertainment is owned by Disney). This episode featured a scene where two Catholic sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion, were mocked. It also maligned priests and disparaged rabbis. The offensive scene involved a Christening.
Meg (The Daughter): “Where’s the priest?”
Lois (The Mother): “Oh, the Church ran out of priests months ago because of all the diddling. Now they just have a rabbi fill in.”
The scene then cuts to a rabbi at a baptismal font where he makes this comment while doing the baptism.
Rabbi: “Welcome to the Christening. Now, before the child goes in the water, has it been at least 20 minutes since she ate?”
Joe (Father of Girl being baptized): “Yes, rabbi.”
Rabbi: “Let’s dunk this kid like a doughnut. I hereby Christen this child in the name of Jesus Christ, who was killed by we-don’t-know-who, it’s not important. The last thing we want to do is point fingers.”
After the Baptism, the rabbi makes a joke about the Eucharist.
Rabbi: “Congratulations, sweetie, you’re a Christian. From now on, every Sunday you get to eat a hard cookie and pretend it’s a guy.”
Donohue asked Mr. Robert Iger, the Executive Chairman of the Walt Disney Company, and the other members of its board of directors, to answer several questions.
Donohue asked him to “call off the dogs,” pledging that “If I have to write again, the content of my communication will be strikingly dissimilar.”
