Disney Accused of Keeping 'God' Out of Their Company? Christian Singer Recalls Similar Experience with Former Label [VIDEO]

Mickey Mouse

*Recording artist and actress Jeannie Ortega is a contributor to BREATHEcast who shares her experiences in the music industry, becoming a Christian artist, life in the public eye, and transforming into a Christian. In 2007 she ignited her way onto the Billboard Charts with her hit "Crowded." Now, years later she is transitioning her way into Christian music. For more information on Jeannie and her music visit JeannieO.com.

Upon reading the news that a North Carolina girl named Lilly was blocked from thanking "God" on Disney's website, it brought back memories about my own personal experience with Disney and God.

Disney came under fire this week after a little girl's message containing the word God was blocked as if it was a bad word from their website.

According to FOX, the little girl, Lilly, loves The Disney Channel and while she was cruising their website she noticed that The Disney Channel posed a question wanting to know what their viewers were thankful for. The young girl typed her answer, "God, my family, my church and my friends."

After realizing that her response did not appear on the site she tried again and noticed a message written in red popped up on the screen. "Please be nice!" the message read. Lilly kept trying again and again and still had no luck, so she told her parents.

Upon being notified, the girl's mother, Julie, retyped the message and the same red-lettered warning appeared.

"We together figured out that the word God was the problem," Julie told FOX's Todd Starnes.

When they removed the word "God" from the post, then Disney approved Lilly's message.

I contemplated whether or not I should share my own personal experience about this matter. Very few people know that Hollywood Records is a subdivision of Disney and because of my time signed to them I did a few songs for The Disney Channel and their soundtracks.

After reading about Lilly's experience it was clear to me why Disney blocked the word God. They don't allow any association of God to be used concerning Disney, that's what I was told anyway. I was about 20-years-old and at the prime of my pop success and was asked to write a song for the 'Jump In' soundtrack. At the time I had just recently given my heart to Jesus and wanted to share God in everything I did.

The song I penned is called "Live it Up" and it was about embracing the positive things in life. The first line of the song was originally "Thank God I made it to another day." I really wanted to send that statement because I now knew that it was because of God that I lived to see another day.

I remember feeling like the wind was taken out of my sails when I found out through the song's producer that Disney does not allow the word God in the songs they put out. Unfortunately, at the time I was not mature enough in my walk with God to stand up, so after some fighting I eventually gave in and changed the lyric to "I can't believe I made it to another day."

I think Lilly's mother taking this to the media was the right thing to do. People should be aware that a channel that is such an influence to so many of our kids does not allow God into what they do.

I share Julie's sentiment when she told FOX, "I'm not at all anti-Disney but to shame a ten-year-old, to tell her to 'please be nice' for thanking God and sharing her faith with others is what is upsetting to me," she said.

"I want my daughter, and all children of faith, to know that it is OK to share God and Jesus with their peers," Julie continued, "I want her to know that she doesn't have to be silent about her faith. I want her to be strong and soldier on."

Disney responded to FOX about the claims with this statement, "Disney employs word filtering technology to prevent profanity from appearing on our websites. Unfortunately, because so many people attempt to abuse the system and use the word "God" in conjunction with profanity, in an abundance of caution our system is forced to catch and prevent any use of the word on our websites. The company would have been happy to explain our filtering technology to the inquiring family had they contacted us."

Watch Lilly and her mom explain what happened during an interview on Fox News below:

Jeannie Ortega
Jeannie Ortega |
(Photo : Albert Djurasevic Photography (PERMISSION))