Christians issue gay warning on SpongeBob video

[BizarroCub]

Christians issue gay warning on SpongeBob video
Conservative groups criticize maker's 'tolerance pledge'

Thursday, January 20, 2005 Posted: 8:19 PM EST (0119 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Conservative Christian groups accuse the makers of a video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon characters of promoting homosexuality to children.

The wacky square yellow SpongeBob is one of the stars of a music video due to be sent to 61,000 U.S. schools in March. The makers -- the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation -- say the video is designed to encourage tolerance and diversity.

But at least two Christian activist groups say the innocent cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.

"A short step beneath the surface reveals that one of the differences being celebrated is homosexuality," wrote Ed Vitagliano in an article for the American Family Association.

The video is a remake of the 1979 hit song "We Are Family" using the voices and images of SpongeBob, Barney, Winnie the Pooh, Bob the Builder, the Rugrats and other TV cartoon characters. It was made by a foundation set up by songwriter Nile Rodgers after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in an effort to promote healing.

Christian groups however have taken exception to the tolerance pledge on the foundation's Web site, which asks people to respect the sexual identity of others along with their abilities, beliefs, culture and race.

"Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity" within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary, but it crosses a moral line," James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said in a statement released Thursday.

Rodgers said he was astounded by the attack.

"That is so myopic and harsh," he told Reuters. "You have really got to look hard to find anything in this that is offensive to anyone. The last thing I am going to do is taint these characters."

Dobson was quoted by the New York Times on Thursday as having singled out the wildly popular SpongeBob during remarks about the video at dinner this week in Washington, D.C.

SpongeBob, who lives in a pineapple under the sea, was "outed" by the U.S. media in 2002 after reports that the TV show and its merchandise are popular with gays. His creator, Stephen Hillenburg, said at the time that though SpongeBob was an oddball, he thought of all the characters in the show as asexual.

It is not the first time that children's TV favorites have come under the critical spotlight of the Christian right. In 1999, the Rev. Jerry Falwell described Tinky Winky, the purse-toting purple Teletubbie, as a gay role model.

[uberclkgtr]

james dobson can suck a turnip.

[Shakey]

this is just crazy

[cleophite]

:lame:

[hypno j]

Fuck James Dobson.
Spongebob rocks....
Focus on this asshole....
FUCK YOU!!!

[BizarroCub]

Mind you...these are the same groups that have enough clout with our President to be campaigning and succeeding in getting them to try to modify the constitution.

Isn't that Grrrrrreat!

[FutonBunny]

*holds head in hands* why can't they just leave everyone alone and spend their lives devoted instead of hating grrrr....

[Pseudo Society]

It's good to see that Americans are focusing on the important things in life. Lets not worry about poverty or the fact that the majority of urban schools are far behind the technology curve of their suburban neighbors. Im happy to see people challenging the morals of cartoons rather than the government and their new ways of getting access into our everyday lives. Way to go America...you're making me more patriotic every fucking day. As our economy suffers, we lose more jobs, more people starve, aid become needed in Asia and elsewhere, etc. etc. etc. you focus on the important things like Sponge Bob and the Rugrats promoting homosexuality. Good thing we have our priorities straight. :jerkit:

Somebody needs to torture this guy via Chinese water torture with and Spongebob wide-eye treatment . :yes:

[Justin Time]

I don't even need to read this to know that its retarded.

[eKiTn]

It's good to see that Americans are focusing on the important things in life. Lets not worry about poverty or the fact that the majority of urban schools are far behind the technology curve of their suburban neighbors. Im happy to see people challenging the morals of cartoons rather than the government and their new ways of getting access into our everyday lives. Way to go America...you're making me more patriotic every fucking day. As our economy suffers, we lose more jobs, more people starve, aid become needed in Asia and elsewhere, etc. etc. etc. you focus on the important things like Sponge Bob and the Rugrats promoting homosexuality. Good thing we have our priorities straight. :jerkit:

Somebody needs to torture this guy via Chinese water torture with and Spongebob wide-eye treatment . :yes:

Big fat :werd: to that.

[nietzsche]

I'm not a libretarian, but stuff like this makes me wanna be.

[BizarroCub]

"A short step beneath the surface reveals that one of the differences being celebrated is homosexuality," wrote Ed Vitagliano in an article for the American Family Association.

So...am I still wrong when I refer to the AFA as ignorant bigots?

Also, I found this part particularly ironic...

Christian groups however have taken exception to the tolerance pledge on the foundation's Web site, which asks people to respect the sexual identity of others along with their abilities, beliefs, culture and race.

They took exceptiong to a pledge about tolerance, because it was asking people to tolerate someone. Riiiiiiiight...

[uberclkgtr]

They took exceptiong to a pledge about tolerance, because it was asking people to tolerate someone. Riiiiiiiight...

Remember Grizz, they hate the sin, not the sinner.

:rolleyes:

[spinal cracka]

http://www.popartuk.com/g/l/lgFP1154.jpg

[DRG420]

Did anyone see the Ali G episode where his gay character I forgot his name
went to a reliqious man who helps homosexuals become straight.
It was to funny

Fucking Quacks

[cleophite]

The thing that gets me is Christianity preaches tolerance. There are many people who follow this and don't have a problem with gays, but the people who pull this not only undermine their own belief system, but make me want to rip my hair out. Ugh.

[LitainCognita]

whodathought the spongster was gay...on second though who the fuck cares? Its a goddamn cartoon for crying outloud. I always thought people were born they way they are, do these people honestly think watching a cartoon will turn their kids gay? Im too baffled for words...

[zartan]

gotta love how modern christianity totally ignores the central themes of the bible and true morality and is used to push a narrow set of objectives focusing on unborn fetuses and guys who screw other guys. gotta give props to the republicans for shrewdly recognizing the power of this appeal and using it to push through a litany of laws that hurt the poor, reward the rich, strengthen corporate power, and damage the environment in patently un-christian ways.

[Wickity]

I guess I'm the only one who finds this absolutely hilarious. I mean, it's not news that people are "myopic and harsh", but I mean/. seriously, someone put their reputation on the line by actually putting in print that they think Mr. Squarepants is a flaming homo lover...


Awesome.

:afterbuzz:

[gabriel]

no self respecting gay man would wear a short sleeve buton down with a necktie...not to metion the sandals, socks and shorts.

come ON

[BizarroCub]

*sigh* I love this man...

SpongeBob, Evil Gay Heathen
How sad to be a right-wing Christian in a world full of homo cartoons and scary nipples
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

And oh my God, you think, how these people's lives must be one screaming firehose of inexorable, nipple-torquing, kidney-stabbing pain. I mean, really.
Because then you read about how James Dobson, the cute little founder of the cute little ultraconservative rabidly Christian happily neo-homophobic Focus on the Family, actually stood up and proclaimed, to the media, to the world, with a straight face, with no sense of irony or shuddering humiliation or an overpowering sense that he was, in fact, contributing quite nicely to the overall violent oatmealy ignorance of the planet, came right out and announced that the wildly popular and much-loved SpongeBob Squarepants cartoon character is, actually and truly, probably gay.

And therefore, of course, SpongeBob is a dire threat to all childrenkind and must be avoided at all costs lest the wee ones watch the cartoons and become overwhelmed with a mad desire to wax their chests and buy a new Miata and drink cocktails made with lemonade. More or less.

And why? Why is the adorable yellow sea sponge suddenly considered to be contributing to the mental and spiritual and genital degradation of millions of innocent children? Because he's a hyperactive none-too-bright short-attention-spanned spazzball of lovable non-sequiturial nonsense who induces rabid devotion among children and gay men and straight adults alike? Why, no. Not quite.

It's because the frantically animated sea creature is now appearing, alongside noted pagan cartoon perverts Barney the Dinosaur and Winnie-the-Pooh and the Rugrats and Bob the Builder, in a nonprofit video sent to 60,000 schools and designed to promote that vile demon called, ahem, tolerance. And diversity.

(Our fair SpongeBob was singled out, by the way, because of his noted popularity with gay men, perhaps given his propensity for flamboyant exuberance and a love of show tunes and his very gayly named pet snail, Gary. Or something).

So then, the cute part: To the vast sentient population of the planet, people like those in Focus on the Family and the American Family Association (the other terrified little group that found SpongeBob to be sexually dangerous) are, well, just plain sad, small, lost in a world where everything is a threat and everything wants to stab at their mealy souls and everything reeks of debauchery and demonism and copious amounts of residual Astroglide.

And we look at such people and we shake our heads and sigh, trying to understand how excruciating it must be to go through life feeling as though you're stuck like a pinned bug to a perverted universe that can't be trusted, one that they desperately hope will be over real soon now, just like the "Left Behind" books promise, so they can forget how miserable and lost and distressed they feel and so they may finally leave their not-so-secret homosexual fantasies behind and drive their big manly SUVs to the Promised Land.

And toward them, we normally just roll our eyes and shake our heads and smile, and feel a fleeting moment of sympathy before shrugging them off like you would a 2-year-old throwing ice cream at a tree.

But now, the not-so-cute part: Much like that other small-minded cluster of clenched nonbrains over at the Parents Television Council, the very tiny but weirdly vocal group that single-handedly managed to hurl the FCC into fits of hysteria regarding naughty swearwords and exposed nipples in the national media, these groups are having one helluva moment right now, one influential and dangerous time in the cultural limelight.

These are the minuscule and shrill groups that, perhaps in a period not seen since the Puritans forbade dancing and kissing and the color fuchsia and all pleasure of any kind, have a shockingly powerful pull on American society and who reputedly helped tilt the election toward Bush and who increasingly have the ear of Congress -- a Congress, it must be noted, that's increasingly crammed with evangelical Christians and homophobic nutjobs and Tom DeLay.

Which is to say, much as most of us on this planet laugh and feel pity and shake our heads at the odd paranoia and dread these cheerless people wallow in on a daily basis, somehow, some way, they have stolen the reins. For the moment.

They now have a semblance of voice, a hook, have warped the ear of the government and embarrassed our national common sense and soiled the clean white sheets of healthy happy debauchery and perversion.

They have jammed a black seed of paranoia and dread into the tired soil of American consciousness, and have made it their lifelong duty to ensure that the seed festers and erupts into a gnarled weed of hate and ignorance and bad missionary-position sex with the lights off.

All of which somehow reminds me of the Spanish Catholic Archdiocese, also recently in the news after undergoing an amazing spasm of lucid awareness in how, for a brief blip in time, the church officially allowed that condoms might be OK.

Did you read that story? About how Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camin, in Spain, announced that condoms are actually pretty good for, you know, controlling disease and inhibiting the spread of HIV? Miss that one? It's understandable. Went by pretty fast. In fact, the astounding stance lasted exactly 24 hours, just enough time for the Vatican to get a whiff of it and for the Vatican's Archbishop of Hateful Sexless Myopia to make a nasty phone call to Spain, promptly threatening the Spanish church with nothing short of castration and excommunication and genital warts.

Whoops, nope, we were wrong, muttered the Spanish church the following day. Condoms were evil all along. Condoms are wrong and condoms don't actually prevent the spread of HIV and we don't care if they save lives or prevent pregnancy or STDs because condoms promote -- what is it again, cardinal? -- oh, yes, "immoral sexual conduct."

Oh you warped and sad little men.

And lo, the Vatican, still viciously influential in much of Europe and Africa but basically dismissed, as far as sex and gender are concerned, by modern believers in the States as an outdated archaic sexist ignoramus, stomped its callused foot and reiterated its deadly doctrine and stabbed at the heart of progressive humanity. Again.

Which in turn reminds me of Bush addressing a cluster of antichoice activists a few days back, touting the vicious and degrading "culture of life," which translates directly as, "We aging sexless white Christian males shall hereby stop at nothing to slap women's rights back to 1955 and chip away at female procreative choice, all while preventing stem-cell research from ever saving the life of a single cancer or Alzheimer's patient. God bless." Ah, progress.

And then, in the next ironic breath, Bush announced that his warmongering administration is ready to request another $80 billion from Congress to further the violent and treasonous and unwinnable war on Islami-- er, on non-Christia-- er, women-- er, gays-- er, decent grammar-- er, dictators who control our oil-- er, "terror."

Aha. Promote the "culture of life" while asking for billions more to assist in the killing of all foreigners who hate us more every day. Onward, Christian soldiers.

Note the connection. Note the blood-red thread of fear and dread and homophobia, the brutal irony throughout all these stories. Shrill extremist sects and small-minded leaders with too much control, saddled with self-righteous and outdated doctrines that refuse to allow the culture to progress, to laugh, to moan in joy and sticky happiness.

Note the people who look at hilarious children's cartoons and see only sinister mind control, who look at their fellow human souls and see only an army of debauched heathens, who look (reluctantly) at their own genitals and see only a gnarled clump of pain and confusion, who look up at the beautiful blue sky and see only a massive canopy of daggers.

How incredibly sad. And, for right now, how very, insidiously dangerous.

[Bioteknik]

So...am I still wrong when I refer to the AFA as ignorant bigots?

Also, I found this part particularly ironic...



They took exceptiong to a pledge about tolerance, because it was asking people to tolerate someone. Riiiiiiiight...

apparently these people didnt' learn much at sunday school..

[binger]

Did anyone see the Ali G episode where his gay character I forgot his name
went to a reliqious man who helps homosexuals become straight.
It was to funny

Fucking Quacks


you wacth the ali g show. fucken a man i thought i was the only one

[BizarroCub]

Tolerance talk flares after cartoon flap

Thursday, February 3, 2005 Posted: 10:58 AM EST (1558 GMT)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Cartoon characters adored by kids seized the spotlight in the latest flare-up of America's culture wars, but the debate itself poses serious questions for adults involving the depiction of gays and lesbians in materials for teaching children about diversity and tolerance.

The liberal camp argues that even young children should learn that intolerance based on sexual identity is wrong, and that gays are as legitimate a part of the national mosaic as anyone else.

"It's about creating awareness and understanding of people who are different," said Joan Garry of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "Why shouldn't that be a good thing for America's young people?"

The conservative camp has responded vehemently: By all means, teach children to respect other individuals, but do not cross the line and teach them that homosexuality is acceptable.

"Tolerance itself can be a very dangerous word," said the Rev. Terry Fox, a Southern Baptist pastor in Wichita, Kansas. "Tolerance gives the public schools an avenue to literally brainwash our kids that every lifestyle is OK."

Separate controversies in recent weeks have raised these issues:

# Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' criticism of an episode of the Public Broadcasting Service children's series "Postcards from Buster," in which the animated bunny visits the children of two lesbian couples in Vermont. "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode," Spellings wrote to PBS.

# An attack by some conservative leaders on a pro-diversity initiative of the We Are Family Foundation that features a video starring scores of cartoon characters, including SpongeBob SquarePants. The true agenda, said Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, "is to desensitize very young children to homosexual and bisexual behavior."

# Some conservatives said last month's "No Name-Calling Week" in many middle schools was too focused on harassment of gays. In Massachusetts, the one state allowing gay marriage, conservatives say students are being indoctrinated to admire such marriages.

PBS and Buster the bunny

Dobson, bristling at mocking commentary about his reference to SpongeBob, has posted a lengthy explanation of his concerns on the Web site of his Colorado-based Christian ministry. The problem, he says, was not the video itself, but the We Are Family Foundation's use of a "tolerance pledge" mentioning sexual identity and its ties to other groups supporting gay rights.

Tolerance and diversity "are almost always buzzwords for homosexual advocacy," Dobson wrote. "Kids should not be taught that homosexuality is just another 'lifestyle' or that it is morally equivalent to heterosexuality."

Dobson and other conservatives were pleased when Spellings, soon after the SpongeBob flap, condemned the "Postcards from Buster" episode.

"For years, PBS has been slipping pro-homosexual messages into its programming," said Robert Knight of the Culture and Family Institute. "Along comes Secretary Spellings, who takes action as a servant of the people instead of a timid, go-along bureaucrat. Good for her."

After Spellings' statement, PBS said it would not distribute the episode to its 349 stations. Boston-based WGBH, the show's producer, is providing it directly to more than 20 fellow stations.

"We consider it the responsibility of public television to give children and parents the resources they need to understand the world they inhabit -- without excluding any segment of our society," WGBH said. "The major goal of 'Postcards from Buster' is to help kids understand the richness and complexity of American culture."

Family categories

Nancy Carlsson-Page, an education professor at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has emphasized diversity awareness in a career spent training early-education teachers. She said Spellings was wrong to suggest that a certain category of family -- those headed by gays or lesbians -- be excluded from images shown to children.

"All children, whatever family composition they have, should see the full, diverse range of families," Carlsson-Page said. "Otherwise, when they encounter a different kind of family, they'll think that family is lesser, that it doesn't count."

Linda Hodge, president of the National PTA, said she strongly supports classroom initiatives promoting tolerance and combating bullying. However, she suggested some programs could backfire if they focus so explicitly on harassment of gays that those students feel singled out and labeled.

Hodge's bottom line: "Every child should feel safe and welcome in school."

For GLAAD's Joan Garry, a lesbian raising three children, the controversies hit home on a personal level.

"There are millions of kids living in households with two moms or two dads, and millions of other kids who know those kids," she said. "I wonder what James Dobson would say to my own children. What would be the respectful, Christian thing to say to them?"