January 21, 2005

  • ** WARNING WARNING ** SERIOUS TOPIC AHEAD.          IF you don't feel like thinking, please turn back. **


    Christians issue gay warning on SpongeBob video.  http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/20/sponge.bob.reut/index.html


    Basically, some Conservative Christian groups claim that the We Are Family Foundation, who released a song with all these cartoon characters (including SpongeBob) singing "We are family" encourages kids to "celebrate" homosexuality.    James Dobson says that including "sexual orientation" in the pledge is not only "not necessary" but also "crossing a moral line".


    Here's the pledge from the We are Family's website:


    Tolerance is a personal decision that comes from a belief that every person is a treasure. I believe that America's diversity is its strength. I also recognize that ignorance, insensitivity and bigotry can turn that diversity into a source of prejudice and discrimination.


    To help keep diversity a wellspring of strength and make America a better place for all, I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own.


    I'll share what I think after I've heard from at least 5 people on this subject.

Comments (5)

  • I don’t see any problem with SpongeBob or Barney or the TeleTubies. Like what the article says, a lot of times cartoon characters are portrayed as asexual. Is Hello Kitty a guy or a girl? The next question is – Does it matter? When I was a kid, I didn’t even think about these things for my favorite cartoon characters. You can argue that nowadays, kids think about sexuality much earlier but the characters are not even human!  They don’t look like human. (SpongeBob is a Sponge that can talk!) They can do things that kids can’t but they have an understanding of a kid – this is why they get popular. It is almost like a fantasy – how kids always imagine lives in dead things and they like to confide in them. If I were a kid, I would love to sing with a purple dinosaur and be taught a thing or two by it. (I would still be fascinated if I can get a chance to do so...) If Barney were a human, like a teacher, the character would totally lose its attractiveness. On the other hand, if the character is portrayed as a human being like the Simpsons. Of course, we need to establish the kind of family structure or sexuality education that we want our kids to know. In sum, I think it is the adults that get too sensitive and get offended for no reason.

  • I think it’s sad. Whereas Jerry Falwell was always way out there, James Dobson used to be relevant. He has drifted further and further right in recent years; and now he’s setting himself up to be the next reason by thinking Christians are embarrassed to call themselves Christian. CNN reported that part of the reason Dobson et al think SpongeBob has homosexual subtext is because it’s popular with the gay community. Criticizing the cartoon just because a group of people like it shows a seriously flawed logic (at best), a reason to dismiss the entire group for being idiots (at worst). Maybe it’s also worth noting that gays in New Hampshire have a lower divorce rate than the Bible Belt. Possibly Focus on the Family will start promoting divorce because monogamy is “in” with the gay population.

    Moreover, by jumping on the gay-bashing bandwagon he no only embarrasses Christians, but he actually hurts us by deflecting attention from real problems. He’s participating in creating an artificial enemy against which the mindless masses can oppose, a superficial unity that makes people forget about real issues like healthcare, education, relief efforts, and the AIDS epidemic. There are over 8,000 people dying every day of AIDS, and they’re complaining about an effing cartoon? There are antiretroviral drugs that can save the lives of parents so we don’t have a generation of Africans growing up as orphans—but we can’t get them to the dying because of patent laws and “market forces”. And they want to talk about the gay subtext of an animated sponge that lives in a pineapple on the bottom of the ocean? They’re going pat themselves on the back for lynching SpongeBob when these so-called religious leaders should be the ones burned in effigy for wasting real resources that could actually help people.

    Isaiah 58: 5-7

    Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

  • yeah, no more parties on tealwood drive-- my parents are going to china... sad. end of an era.

  • the pledge just says that we respect them.  doesn't JESUS go one step furthur and say we should love them?! Shame on you Dr Dobson.  Yeah, my parents are moving near to Sang's parents...

  • OK, so this isn't the fifth opinion, necessarily, but it IS the fifth response, so why don't you fill us in now? Anyway, sponges are asexual, I thought, and so, effectively, are children. ERGO, to say that a children's cartoon is sexual one way or another is imposed by adult observers - why, James Dobson, are you sexualizing children?!

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