A tolerance pledge which asks people to respect the sexual identity of others along with their abilities, beliefs, culture and race, offends the Christian right.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/20/sponge.bob.reut/index.htmlChristians issue gay warning on SpongeBob video
Conservative groups criticize maker's 'tolerance pledge'
Friday, January 21, 2005 Posted: 6:44 AM EST (1144 GMT)
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea.
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Conservative Christian groups (Ed Vitagliano in an article for the American Family Association and James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family) accuse the makers (We Are Family Foundation) of a (music video due to be sent to 61,000 U.S. schools in March)video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon characters of promoting homosexuality to children.<snip>
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.
<snip>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.