SpongeBob Gaypants and the Fundamentalist Agenda

[Sandpiper]

Mr. Cranky's Culture War

SpongeBob GayPants and the Fundamentalist Agenda


<snip>

Mark my words -- "Dr." James Dobson will rue the day he woke up and decided to fuck with SpongeBob SquarePants.


So apparently, SpongeBob SquarePants is gay. And should be banned. Then arrested. Then burned to a spongy crisp in the everlasting fires of Christian Hell.

This inference comes courtesy of "Dr." James Dobson, chief ayatollah of the Colorado-Springs-based Christian-wacko think tank "Focus on the Family." "Dr." Dobson once represented the kind of wild-eyed evangelical nutball whose prophetic utterings were relegated to "News of the Weird" columns. Now, he's pretty much the face of mainstream Republicanism.

So expect lots more talk in the next four years about who's gay and who's not. The irony, of course, is that no one in this latest episode is gayer than "Dr." James Dobson himself. This should be stunningly obvious to anyone with even a passing understanding of psychology or human nature. We hate in others what we fear in ourselves.

<snip>

http://mrcranky.com/movies/spongebobgaypants.html

[Warpy]

1. I know family types who said Dobson made a lot of sense

when he first got started in the family preaching business. It seens he didn't go completely nuts until Reagan got elected and handed the party of Lincon over to the lunatics.

I love it when these guys do this stuff. It makes even hardcore fundies wonder what the hell they've been smoking.

[imenja]

2. Viva SpongeBob!

[TheFarseer]

3. The more I see Dobson on TV

the more I think he's just a crazy old man. I wonder if more exposure will be the rope he needs to hang himself, or if people will agree with him. It's sad that I live in a country where I'm not sure which way this will go!

[Sandpiper]

5. The more exposure these people get the better

Most people don't realize just how nasty and hateful guys like Dobson, Falwell, and Robertson really are.

That's why we need these guys to be in the limelight, so they can show the largest audience possible what a bunch of wack job extremists they are.

We need the Jerry Falwell's of the world to be on TV saying things like gays and feminists caused 9/11.

[NAO]

6. He has a HUGE army of RABID followers - been building for 20+ yrs

Dr. James Dobson has a HUGE army of rabid fundamentalist Christian followers. His "Focus on the Family" is a massive, organized, mature, deeply entrenched activism group.

I am now 39 years old, and I remember as a kid hearing constantly about "Dr. Dobson" - he was a celebrity in the fundamentalist Christian community way back then (in the late 70's and early 80's).

He was famous back then for his book "Dare to Discipline", which endorsed beating the crap out of kids, in the name of the Lord.

The Bible verse that was always quoted was Proverbs 23:13-14, which I quote verbatim: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."

At Dobson's urging, millions of fundamentalist Christian parents took that passage literally, and felt they were doing "the Lord's will, as He commanded in His Word" when they beat their children.

So you see why I have hated Dobson ever since childhood.

[The Doctor.]

4. Yes, that is quite clear...

The most violently opposed have become so through their own demons.

Some assholes just never get the idea of introspection.

[undergroundpanther]

7. Dobson is a bully

He is a sick little boy with issuers,he needs to be in prison
http://standardmodel.blogspot.com/2005/01/pet-abuse.html

[NAO]

8. See Lengthy Discussion of Radical Cleric Dobson at this thread at DU

Dobson - "Beat Your Kids, In the Name of the Lord"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3024097&mesg_id=3024097

Dr. James Dobson has a HUGE army of rabid fundamentalist Christian followers. His "Focus on the Family" is a massive, organized, mature, deeply entrenched activism group. I am now 39 years old, and I remember as a kid hearing constantly about "Dr. Dobson" - he was a celebrity in the fundamentalist Christian community way back then (in the late 70's and early 80's).

He was famous back then for his book "Dare to Discipline", which endorsed beating the crap out of kids, in the name of the Lord. The Bible verse that was always quoted was Proverbs 23:13-14, which I quote verbatim: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."

At Dobson's urging, millions of fundamentalist Christian parents took that passage literally, and felt they were doing "the Lord's will, as He commanded in His Word" when they beat their children.

Even as a child, I realized the REAL message of Dobson, which was that children needed to be disciplined, and this sometimes involved physical correction. OK, even with that concession, there are two major reasons I believe Dobson should be abhorred and discredited.

First, Dobson's teachings were/are distorted in several ways that resulted in unnecessary abuse of children. Many parents used his teachings as a justification for their own inherent sadistic tendencies and used 'discipline' as an outlet for their anger problems and rage issues. I SAW this, FIRST HAND, as a child growing up with the children of fundamentalist Christians. Further, some parents felt OBLIGATED to engage in physical discipline, when it was not really necessary, so they would not be seen by God as being 'too soft' or 'too permissive' as parents.

Second, Dobson's teachings are part of an overall conceptual schema (George Lakoff would call it a 'frame') that is the basic structure of the conservative political orientation.

Dobson's paternalistic, patriarchal, strict father, disciplinarian model is the (largely unconsciousness) basis for many people's embrace of political conservatism. That is the most important reason I think this man needs to be vilified, ridiculed, and discredited.

[LostInAnomie]

9. My girlfriend's mother follows his books like they are the Gospel.

She is a whacko fundie who amazingly (to me at least) has never read the whole Bible. Her youngest son is about 15 and is starting to do evil things like question her orders, wearing black clothes, and she caught him looking at nude women on the internet.

To save his soul from hell she has been following Dobson's edicts. These edicts have included severe grounding for minor offenses (two months for talking back), and taking away of the black clothes that they felt were offensive.