Donald Ellis Wildmon (January 18, 1938 – December 28, 2023) was an American ordained
United Methodist minister, author, radio host, and founder and chairman of the
American Family Association and
American Family Radio.
Life and career
Donald Ellis Wildmon was born in
Ripley, Mississippi,
the son of Johnnie Bernice (née Tigrett), a schoolteacher, and Ellis Clifton Wildmon, a civil servant.
Wildmon graduated from
Millsaps College in 1960. In 1961, he married Lynda Lou Bennett, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. From 1961 to 1963, he served in the
U.S. Army. He gained his
Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from
Emory University
Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...
's
Candler School of Theology in 1965.
[Donald Wildmon](_blank)
In June 1977, he moved to
Tupelo, Mississippi
Tupelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1860, the population was 37,923 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, 7th-most populous ...
, to establish the National Federation for Decency (NFD), the predecessor to the modern American Family Association, because after watching television one night in December 1976 he felt that no primetime television program was appropriate for his family with young children.
With a membership of 1,400, NFD's first television advertiser boycott was during spring 1978 and against
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...
for sponsoring ''
All in the Family
''All in the Family'' is an American sitcoms in the United States, sitcom television series that aired on CBS for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, with a total of 205 episodes. It was later produced as ''Archie Bunker's Pla ...
'', ''
Charlie's Angels'', and ''
Three's Company''. Sears withdrew sponsorship of the latter two programs.
In February 1980, Wildmon founded the Coalition for Better Television (CBTV), this time with the help of
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservatism in the United States, conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch ...
and claiming a nationwide membership of 5 million.
However, CBTV disbanded and Wildmon started Christian Leaders for Responsible Television without Falwell's involvement.
In 1986, the owners of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain pulled adult magazines from its stores after a boycott by the NFD.
Campaign for Decency
Throughout the late 1970s, Wildmon actively protested television series that he thought promoted immoral lifestyles. He spoke against such programs as ''
Three's Company'', ''
M*A*S*H'' and ''
Dallas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
''.
''Damned in the U.S.A.''
In 1991, the British television documentary ''Damned in the U.S.A.'', made for
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
's ''Without Walls'' arts series and directed by
Paul Yule, about the then current state of censorship in the United States, chronicled the battle between Wildmon and artists
Andres Serrano and
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...
. The documentary won the International Emmy for Best Documentary, amongst several other awards. Wildmon sued the producers for $8 million in damages after a distributor got the rights to show the film in the United States, stating that he had signed a contract with the producers that prevented distribution in the USA. A federal court found that Wildmon's contract did not support his claim concerning distribution of the film and the documentary was released in 50 cities nationwide.
Illness and retirement
On August 18, 2009, Tim Wildmon released the news via email that his father had been admitted to the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo over the weekend of August 15–16, with what was thought to be a serious case of
meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, intense headache, vomiting and neck stiffness and occasion ...
. After running tests, however, doctors determined that he had
Saint Louis encephalitis, a disease usually contracted from mosquitoes. He spent 121 days in the hospital and rehabilitation, and later underwent surgery for cancer on his left eye. On March 3, 2010, it was announced that Wildmon was stepping down as chairman of the American Family Association. His son Tim was expected to become the new chairman.
On December 28, 2023, Wildmon died in
Tupelo, Mississippi
Tupelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1860, the population was 37,923 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, 7th-most populous ...
, at the age of 85, due to complications from
Lewy body dementia.
Publications
* Wildmon, Donald E. (1975) ''Stand up to Life''.
Abingdon Press.
* Wildmon, D. (1985) ''Home Invaders''. David C. Cook.
* Wildmon, D. (1986) ''The Case Against Pornography''. David C. Cook.
* Wildmon, D. (and Randall Nulton; 1989) ''Don Wildmon: The Man the Networks Love to Hate''. Bristol.
* Wildmon, D. (1997) ''Following the Carpenter: Parables to Inspire Obedience in the Christian Life''.
Thomas Nelson.
* Wildmon, D. (2009) ''Speechless: Silencing the Christians: How Secular Liberals and Homosexual Activists are Outlawing Christianity (and Judaism) to Force Their Sexual Agenda on America''. Richard Vigilante.
* Friedeman, Matt. Wildmon, Donald E. (2001) ''In the Fight: A Mississippi Conservative Swings Back''. Well Writers' Guild.
See also
*
Christian right
*
Culture war
A culture war is a form of cultural conflict (metaphorical " war") between different social groups who struggle to politically impose their own ideology (moral beliefs, humane virtues, and religious practices) upon mainstream society, or upon ...
* ''
Speechless: Silencing the Christians''
*
Mary Whitehouse, seen as the British equivalent to Wildmon
References
External links
Don Wildmon's biographyon the
American Family Association Web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wildmon, Donald
1938 births
2023 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American Methodist ministers
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American Methodist ministers
Activists from Mississippi
American evangelicals
American Family Association
American male non-fiction writers
American nonprofit executives
American radio executives
American religious writers
American talk radio hosts
Anti-pornography activists
Candler School of Theology alumni
Deaths from Lewy body dementia
Deaths from dementia in Mississippi
Methodist writers
People from Tippah County, Mississippi
United States Army soldiers
Writers from Mississippi