(AgapePress) - The Mississippi-based American Family Association is announcing the end of its years-long protest against the Walt Disney Company. For nine years, the pro-family organization has urged its supporters to avoid anything Disney, but the boycott has now officially come to an end.

Tim Wildmon

AFA president Tim Wildmon says there are a number of reasons for this recent decision, and chief among those reasons is what he calls "a culturally crowded battlefield." The ministry's leadership decided it was time to end the boycott, he explains, "because there are so many other issues we need to move on to and deal with that are taking our time and energy, and we feel like, if you're going to call for a boycott of a company -- if something has become that serious -- you need to have all your resources behind it."

Also, Wildmon and others at AFA believe some of the initial concerns that caused the ministry to call the boycott have been addressed. "We feel like Disney, in many respects, has made an effort to clean up its act in the last couple of years," he says, "especially with the resignation of Michael Eisner. He's been a big problem with Disney. And also, they're getting rid of Miramax Films."

Still, AFA's president says this announcement is not an endorsement of Disney by any means, and whether people choose to start patronizing the company again is strictly a matter of individual conscience. "What we're saying is, if people still have personal convictions about Disney, and they want to continue to boycott Disney, obviously they're free to do that," he notes. "We're just saying as an organization, after nine years of boycotting the Walt Disney Company, that we're calling an end to it officially as a ministry agenda item."

However, Wildmon says AFA will continue to monitor the Walt Disney Company and could decide at a future time to reinstate the official boycott.

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