Donald Wildmon

Donald Wildmon, born 18 January 1938 in Dumas, Mississippi, is the founder and head of the fundamentalist Christian organisation, the American Family Association. Their mandate is a combination of cleaning up the media of violence and pornography, as well as 'healing' homosexuals.

He graduated from Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, in 1960. In 1961 he married Lynda Lou Bennett with whom he has two sons and two daughters. From 1961 to 1963 he served in the U.S. Army Special Services. He was ordained as a minister of the United Methodist Church in 1964 and served as a pastor until 1977 when he left the church to campaign against pornography and violence in the media. He gained his Master of Divinity (MDiv.) from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia in 1965. The National Federation for Decency was founded in 1977, which was renamed the American Family Association in 1987. The AFA currently has a membership of more than 400,000, with over 500 local branches.

In 1987, the same year that he persuaded the FCC to issue a warning to shock-jock Howard Stern, he conceived the idea of the American Family Radio (AFR, then WAFR). They were eventually granted a local FM licence in 1991 in Tupelo, Mississippi and now broadcast to over 20 states.

In 1991, the British film Damned in the USA, directed by Paul Yule was produced, chronicalling primarily the battle between Wildmon and artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano over their artwork ("Piss Christ" - A crucifix in urine, and "Joe" - A photograph of a naked man, respectively). This movie is perhaps notable for a reworking by Lou Reed of his song Walk on the wild side entitled "Walk on the Wildmon".

Incidentally, the battle against the artists was a success, with the Senate passing an amendment to hold funding for the South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC (Piss Christ), and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (Joe). Eventually the punishment was a $45,000 cut in the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) budget - the amount spent on the exhibitions.

Among other individual things against which he has campaigned are Disneyland for admitting gay couples, the film The Last Temptation of Christ, Madonna's Like a Virgin, Robert Clark Young's novel One of the Guys, and Blockbuster Video for stocking NC-17 rated movies.

Wildmon has been accused of Anti-Semitism for his views on the role of Jewish people in the media, and of homophobia for his views on gays.