Spongebob Gaypants
- Wade
Oy.
Read this. (Then come back.)
sigh...
First, let's take a look at that headline, shall we? Christians Issue Gay Warning on SpongeBob Video. Wow. Pretty damning. Christians worldwide did this? I don't recall that as a topic in church last week, although I did slip out to the men's room after the kyrie. Oh-- two paragraphs into the story, we see that it's actually two conservative Christian groups who actually are criticizing the video. Now I fully understand how headlines can only be so long and are supposed to grab the attention of readers... but I think CNN is trying a little too hard on this one.
Anyway, if you didn't read the link, here's a quick summary: a non-profit foundation is releasing a music video featuring prominent cartoon characters (including the supposedly gay SpongeBob and the decidedly butch Bob the Builder.) The purpose of the video is to promote tolerance and diversity. Sounds good so far. The foundation's website contains a tolerance pledge that says we all should respect the differences in others-- whether the difference be ability (fine), beliefs (fine), culture (yup), race (sounds great), and sexual identity.
...
(sound of man coughing in the back of the room)
Well, that's no good. According to the American Family Association and Focus on the Family, sexual identity is not a difference that should be respected or tolerated. Which, to me, means these groups think that people with "non-standard" sexual identity should be persecuted. (And I guess these groups get to decide what the standard sexual identity should be.) Dr. James Dobson, someone I generally like, says that the sexual identity reference crosses a "moral line." I guess I don't really know what that is, but I'd also guess that Dobson wants to decide what differences are to be respected in others, and what differences should not. I'm sure glad he thinks that race and ability are okay differences to have-- otherwise I'd see a headline on CNN about "Christians dislike cripples, Mexicans."
I know I've opined on this before... but I just don't get it. How can you be selectively tolerant? Why does James Dobson get to decide what differences are acceptable or not? (And, why does his viewpoint get to become the viewpoint of all Christians?) Why are conservative Christian groups so intolerant of homosexuality? I guess I know the answer... their viewpoint is that homosexuality is a deviant lifestyle, that gay people are doing something "wrong" and need to be corrected, not tolerated. But I still don't get that. Aren't there worse things for groups like the AFA and Focus on the Family to be worried about?
To end on a lighter note.. I love this line from the story:
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.
At dinner? Does he normally have members of the media at his dining room table? I'm guessing it was supposed to say "at a dinner"-- but the notion of Dobson condemning gays over spaghetti and a side salad and having a napkin sticking out of his collar is a strange visual.
But maybe that's just me.
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