"Christians" issue gay warning on SpongeBob video

[Q]

Christians issue gay warning on SpongeBob video

Conservative groups criticize maker's 'tolerance pledge'

Friday, January 21, 2005 Posted: 10:26 AM EST (1526 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.

Continues: http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/20/sponge.bob.reut/index.html

[DrGonzoLives]

1. Fuck James Dobson and fuck all his clones

as well as his compound...er, "church" in Colorado Springs that needs to start being taxed into the stone age.

[Q]

10. Notice the headline: "Christians" give warning...

...the implication being that this is a message from all Christians and not just the Fundy rantings of far-right radical groups like those operated by Dobson.

Practicing, true Christians should reject these hate-mongering groups or risk being identified with them.

[DrGonzoLives]

27. I do - to anyone who listens

Dobson is an insane asshole whose organization must be destroyed.

[paineinthearse]

35. Headline editors are human, too

Google the string "Conservative Christian groups accuse the makers of a video starring SpongeBob" and you will see that there are MANY different headlines for the same story. What you see in each paper is dictated by the local headline editor. Examples of other headlines for the same story:

Conservatives' Attack Stuns Video Producer - San Jose Mercury News,CA

SpongeBob doesn't have gay agenda, creator says - AZ Central.com, AZ

SpongeBob's Recruitment Drive? - E! Online, CA

Will Spongebob make you gay? - MSNBC

Christian groups protest ''SpongeBob.'' - Entertainment Weekly

Christian group wrong about SpongeBob, video creator says -
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN

Christian right against 'pro-gay' sea sponge - The Age ), Australia

These are my favorite: "SpongeBob makes group Krabby" - Arizona Republic & "Yellow and Porous and Outed" - LA Times

So this issue is with CNN, not the story's writer.

[bullimiami]

2. Is Sponge Bob a loofah?

Thats kind of a "tease thing" then, Right Bill?

:)

[Inland]

9. HAH! Sponge Bob better stay away from Bill, all right!

[Warpy]

3. Uh, maybe we should start a campaign sending Dobson

all our retired kitchen and bathroom sponges with a request that he tell us which ones are gay.

[kcass1954]

23. Send 'em now!

Focus on the Family, ATTN: James Dobson, 8605 Explorer Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

[bunkerbuster1]

Throw in a bunch of used tampons and napkins

Dobson can personally check to see if any "unborn children" are present.

[sui generis]

4. whenever I hear that it sounds like gay is a modifier

anyone?

Let's hear YOUR best gay warning.

(merciless stereotypes allowed)

Sista girrrrrl, did joo heah? I think that sponge is gay.

[politicaholic]

5. Yup, CNN says ALL christians issue gay warning...

They just don't think or research before throwing a headline on their site.

Plus, notice, they don't name the organizations making the accusations.

Friggin' CNN, just absolutely horrible reporting.

[Jo March]

6. Okay - I don't remember such intolerance preached in the Bible

Does anyone else? Anyone?

Didn't think so cause IT AIN'T THERE!

These people make me so mad!

[kentuck]

7. Anything to keep their hatred of gays in the conscience...

of their supporters. Keeping their trigger fingers exercised for the next election.

[BattyDem]

8. WTF are they talking about?

Olbermann showed the whole video last night. There is absolutely NOTHING in it that has anything to do with homosexuality.

I saw a story about this on my local news today. They reported that Nile Rodgers is saying his organization has nothing to do with sex and is being targeted by mistake. It seems there's another organization with a similar name.

So basically ... the RWers heard that SpongeBob was in a video for the We Are Family Foundation, which they mistakenly thought was a gay rights group, and they started bitching about it without even seeing the video! They couldn't have seen it because if they did, they would have known that it contains no reference to sexuality of any kind and SpongeBob is barely even in it! :eyes:

[clydefrand]

11. This is so ridiculous! I'm sure some of you saw it as I did

last night on KO's show. There wasn't a thing in there that I could see that has anything to do with sexuality of any type. I do hope some more of the "news" shows will show this film and show the idiots in this country who are ready to embrace any and every lie that some in the Christian Right want to perpetrate.

[0007]

12. CNN readers say, "Christian are full of poo poo"

According to a CNN poll, which is still open for voting BTW.

http://www.cnn.com/

Created: Friday, January 21, 2005, at 10:34:08 EST
SpongeBob SquarePants is:

Promoting the acceptance of homosexuality
10%
9021 votes

Promoting tolerance and diversity
18%
15159 votes

Absorbent, yellow and porous
72%
62258 votes

Total: 86438 votes

[Zebulon]

13. Wait until they find out

that Towelie promotes the devil weed.

[barackmyworld]

14. LOL I love the CNN picture caption!!

It makes the whole thing look SO ridiculous:

"SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea."

[liveoaktx]

15. Countdown showed the vid last night-made a clip

Link

Olbermann also pointed out that Dobson didn't even see the video before opening his yap.

[kweerwolf]

19. OMG! Those fundies may be onto something!

I watched that video and when Jimmy Neutrino appeared in his rather phallic-shaped rocket I had this incredible craving for bratwurst. I also had an urge to giving Jimmy a makeover so I could do something with that "helmet head" hair-do.

This latest flap about SpongeBob is even sillier than the mini-flap about "Shrek 2" when Wildmon and some of the other loonies in the reglious right claimed the movie promoted crossdresser because of the bartender and a brief scene with Pinochio apparently wearing a thong. ... sheesh!

[GarySeven]

16. I watched Spongebob very carefully last night ...

and saw no signs of clandestine homosexual symbology or radical proselytizing. However, today I have had constant cravings for a Krusty Krab burger.

[Skidmore]

18. Chuckle.....

As Liz Winstead says, "You can make anything sound dirty if you say it with the right inflection".

Krusty Krab cakes, indeed!

:)

[Skidmore]

17. Remember those giant inflatable Spongebobs that were being

stolen from the roofs of fast food stores for a while? Now we know who was taking them. Them there folks was tryin' to save us all from sin.

[kweerwolf]

20. Can we expect SpongeBob to show up ...

... as the next spokesperson for the "ex-gay" movement?

I hear Dobson and his Focus on the Klan ... oops! I mean "Focus on the Family" group is looking for a new spokesperson ever since James Paulk, their former ex-gay poster boy got photographed in a Washington, D.C., gay bar a few years back.

[tjdee]

21. That's a bunch of bullshit, and I'm a Christian.

I'm livid to hear this.

That is some bunch of false, completely untrue bullshit.

[ArtVandaley]

22. Advise to "Pro-Family" Groups: Try actually spending time with your family

The term "Pro-Family Groups" is in my opinion the sickest way to mask groups that promote nothing bigotry, hatred and ignorance. If these people were so "pro-family", then spend some actual time with their kids instead of crusading against SpongeBobSquarepants's alleged homosexual tendencies. For God sakes, get a life. How the hell to they find the time to pick fights like this?

[kweerwolf]

26. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes ...

"You know ... whenever some yahoo talks at me about how he hates the
fact that Gays took a Perfectly Good Word and ruined it, I reply that what I hate is the way some people took a Perfectly Good Word like 'Family' and turned it into a code word for intolerance."
- Bruce Garrett, artist and software engineer

[htuttle]

24. Sponges are asexual

Idiots. Idiots....

[Jade Fox]

25. Is Sponge Bob dating that Teletubbie who carries a purse?

You remember--the last children's character who had these idiots shorts
in a knot.

How come no one ever got upset about Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble
shamelessly having a "gay old time"?

[cags]

28. God forbid, we should teach tolerance to children, what are we thinking.

Some people make me sick

[rman]

29. for what it's worth

the mainstream media in The Netherlands picked this up.
newspaper frontpage, small article.
people here will most likely think "it's those silly americans again" (not all americans though)

[KoKo]

30. Another issue to "sidetrack" us.. ..and make us all "fearful."

That's what I thought when I read about "Sponge Bob." I sort of looked on it as the "Telly Tubbies" thing.

Another RW "ISSUE OF THE MOMENT" to get us DISTRACTED by causing outrageous anger at something folks LOVE...being attacked and distorted and maligned by the Bush RW Operation.

It's disgusting...

[kweerwolf]

31. "Takes one to know one"

I was watching ABC News tonight and the spokesperson for the religious right was Stephen Bennett. I thought that the name sounded familiar so I googled him and came up with his web site:

http://www.sbministries.org/

There's a lot of "stuff" (for lack of a better word) about "coming out of the homosexual lifestyle" and "gays can change" crap ... and, lo and behold, amid the pictures of his family, there's information about how Stevie used to be gay, but was changed to God-approved heterosexuality by his faith.

Hmmmm ... no wonder he knows so much about SpongeBob's "lifstyle." Apparently Stevie's not so straight that his gay-dar no longer works.:evilgrin:

[kiraboo]

33. He was gay?

That is priceless! I saw the same clip and said to myself, "That guy's a potatohead, and he is clearly gay." I can't believe I was right (about his homosexuality. The potatohead thing is my personal opinion.)

[Jackie97]

32. But yet....

fundamentalists wonder why we're calling them idiots.

Not all fundamentalists are like this though.

[kweerwolf]

36. Very true

And we do a disservice when we bunch all the fundies together under one "SpongeBob Squarepants is a big sissy!" umbrella.

Sometimes I think all the wild claims made by some of the more extreme fundies are to throw us off the track. We see them as buffoons (which some of them clearly are) and while we are poking fun at the silly Bible-thumpers about questioning the sexuality of a cartoon character, it gives the more insidious among them free reign to set their plans in action to make this a "Christian nation."

[CatholicEdHead]

34. Talking point repeat:

Back to Oct 2002:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,65225,00.html

[Debs]

37. They can't be serious

They must be trying to see just how muddleheaded and nonsensical they can get

[Vektor]

38. I am terribly concerned about the mental state...

...of anyone who looks at a sponge weairing lederhosen, and identifies that with sex. That is a reach that only a depraved mind would be able to make.