"Culture Warrior" - A Movie Documentary Review

When Don Wildmon with his marked Southern accent decided to call to task the television network executives in the 1970s, the entertainment media giants of the time simply dismissed him. After all, this Wildmon fellow was from Mississippi, which meant he "was dumb". And not only that, as a Methodist Minister, Wildmon was a Southern preacher. Which the television network executives of the 1970s took to mean that Wildmon "was double dumb". However, "double dumb", or not, Donald E. Wildmon persisted in his mission to try and clean up the prurient content of the television networks and founded the American Family Association, one of the largest and most effective pro-family organizations in the country.

The story of Reverend Wildmon's birth in Tippah County, Mississippi, a small town in rural America, to his becoming one of the early leaders in what is now known as the culture war is the subject of the documentary "Culture Warrior: Don Wildmon and the Battle for Decency". A documentary that is directed by M.D. Perkins and produced by the American Family Association in honor of their founder who passed away on December 28th, 2023.

With a running time of an hour and forty-seven minutes, "Culture Warrior" is an informative documentary that focuses heavily on the various issues that Donald Wildmon encountered while promoting decency in the American media. His father was a civil servant and his mother was a first-grade teacher. With his mother being in the teaching profession, Donald Wildmon caused his mother some consternation as he frequently got into fights in school as a small child. Nevertheless, he grew up in a happy middle-class home in Mississippi feeling like God had called him for a purpose. A purpose which he found during the Christmas season of 1976.

A married Methodist minister by that time, Donald Wildmon settled down to watch television with his children during the Christmas season of 1976, when the first channel that came on the television featured some people engaging in adultery. The second channel that they then flipped to also contained something entirely inappropriate for viewing with his children. And to compound things, the third channel featured something entirely inappropriate, as well. Finally, Donald Wildmon decided to simply turn the television off, altogether. And then he did something that a lot of Christians think a Christian shouldn't do, he "got mad".

Filled with righteous indignation, Donald Wildmon urged his Church in Southaven, Mississippi to boycott television altogether for a full week. This week-long boycott of the tv garnered some unexpected attention from the press and Donald Wildmon founded The National Federation for Decency. An organization with the purpose of encouraging the most powerful network television executives to promote morally positive family friendly content, rather than the nonstop barrage of inappropriate physical intimacy and violence that was dominating their shows. The organization later changed its name in 1988 to the American Family Association.

Naively, at first Donald Wildmon thought that if he simply gathered enough material to show the advertisers and sponsors of these shows what they were funding, the advertisers and sponsors would reconsider their sponsorships. However, he learned the difficult way, that the advertisers did not care. The only thing that they even remotely cared about was dollar signs. With Donald Wildmon observing that people emulate what they see and that television was impacting human behavior, he then realized that the only way to encourage these sponsors to insist upon improving the content of the shows they were funding, was to boycott them. With his boycotts having some impact upon their advertising, the sponsors responded not by improving the content of their shows as Wildmon had expected, but by attacking the Reverend Wildmon as one step shy of being " a book burner".

Being the target of such attacks by powerful Los Angeles and New York City based executives was not easy on either Wildmon or his family. With Wildmon often feeling the urge to quit. But, he knew that The Good Lord did not intend for him to quit, so he persisted. Learning over the years that his quest to promote decency in television content was part of a larger movement in the fight against a humanist, materialistic, and secularist society.

Noticing that the states with the highest rates of rape were also the states with the highest number of pornography readers, Wildmon then decided to also organize boycotts against magazines such as "Playboy" that depicted women as nothing but objects. Boycotts which were successful in removing such magazines from several convenience store chains nationwide.

In the days before the ubiquitousness of the Internet was foreseen, Don Wildmon also realized that there was a need to bypass the mainstream media to get The Gospel message out. With Wildmon honing in on purchasing several low watt small town radio stations across the country and establishing the American Family Radio that currently broadcasts its programming to roughly 180 radio stations in over 30 states across the United States. With the American Family Radio also streaming its programming and podcasts online through its website and mobile phone app.

Donald Wildmon was fond of stating that it was important to not confuse the Christian Gospel with the American standard of success of being number one in terms of "the richest, biggest" and so forth. But rather to focus on the Gospel calling of being faithful to God. And in the "Culture Warrior", the documentary does not shy away from mentioning some culture war campaigns that they lost. However, there is also emphasis on Donald Wildmon's visionary insight in establishing a Christian legal defense team within the American Family Association which was one of the first of its kind. As Wildmon stated, "There are those using democracy, to destroy democracy."

The documentary closes with a clip featuring Donald Wildmon speaking at a large rally in Birmingham, Alabama. With Reverend Wildmon stating, "I thank you for coming, I hope I've upset you. I hope I've made you mad. But, more than anything, for the sake of those who come after us, I hope and pray that you'll begin to stand up, and speak out in love and determination so that we can have not just a better Birmingham or a better Alabama, but a better society, a better nation in which to live and raise our children."

Those wishing to see the documentary "Culture Warrior: Don Wildmon and the Battle for Decency" are able to do so for free from the American Family Association at this link: https://culturewarrior.movie.

Luisa Reyes is an attorney in Tuscaloosa with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Judson, a master's degree in library science, and a law degree from Samford's Cumberland School of Law. She is also a piano instructor and vocalist.