Jump to content

U.S. Christians Issue Gay Warning Over Kid Video


method77

Recommended Posts

spongebob.jpgChristian Conservative groups have issued a gay alert warning over a children's video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon favorites.

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 100 TV cartoon stars. It was made by a foundation set up by songwriter Nile Rodgers after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks to promote the nation's healing process.

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," Dr James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said in a statement on Thursday.

Rodgers was astounded at the attack. "That is so myopic and harsh. 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," he told Reuters.

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

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 was popular with gays. His creator, Stephen Hillenburg, said at the time that although SpongeBob was an oddball, he thought of all the characters as asexual.

It is not the first time that children's TV favorites have come under the critical spotlight of the U.S. Christian right. Tinky Winky, the purse-toting purple Teletubbie, was in 1999 declared a homosexual role model by Rev. Jerry Falwell.

-Yahoo News-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Get a life, Dr. Dobson :wacko: And please take your hate-filled values to another planet :reallymad:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh good Gawd! People like this make me want to commit murder. It also makes me want to go out and buy every f'in episode of the show/s.

I'm tellin you what...The world would be amuch better place is murder was allowed to be legal for 24 hrs. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm surprised they don't take another run at Ernie and Bert. A press release denying their status as backstreet boys isn't enough. Those characters had better get married and have 4 kids each if we're to believe them. Otherwise we can take it as proof that they're tamping the turds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is this the obessesion the religious right has with who is gay and who is not?!? :o

As far as the kids are concerned I doubt anyone has even thought about this until some conservative with repressed homosexual feelings even brought it up. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is this the obessesion the religious right has with who is gay and who is not?!? :o

Repressed sexuality. My guess is that the biggest critics are the biggest hypocrites...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is this the obessesion the religious right has with who is gay and who is not?!? :o

Damn if I know. I don't give shit if someone is gay. Especially women. As much as I like p###y I just can't find it in my heart to dislike someone else that likes it too... even if she has one of her own. :lol:

If any of you peeps want to come out of the closet, that's cool. To me it is no sin to be gay. It is a sin to vote liberal though and I may not be able to overlook that. :)

Unless you live in Californie and then it is understood you have issues so your messed up voting patterns are overlooked. :bigsmile:

And Florida.......we don't even count those votes. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

what wolfie, dude, amber, method and shawn said. these people are fucking insane (and dobson leads the pack, what, he thinks something like this will force bush's hand to further demonise gays? fucking moron).

ps, and what redneck said, until his 3rd 'graph :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:lol:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is a sin to vote liberal though and I may not be able to overlook that.

Awwww, but then they'd be persecuted by electing a religious extremist leadership.

They have to vote "liberal" because it seems to be the only viable option.

How about a compromise; they'll vote for you instead………..or me; I don’t fall into a category to ban.

It that an acceptable “no capping” agreement?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually I kinda like moderates. Unfortunately only extremists seem to make it through the primaries.

I hope no one ever wastes their vote on me. It would be more productive to vote for Yosemite Sam. He is more politically correct too. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is this the obessesion the religious right has with who is gay and who is not?!? :o

As far as the kids are concerned I doubt anyone has even thought about this until some conservative with repressed homosexual feelings even brought it up. :lol:

most of them are scared of gays...secretly, they`d probably like a shot at gay sex themselves... :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Buster' producer axed from TV conference

Eric Johnston, PlanetOut Network

Thursday, February 3, 2005 / 04:28 PM

The Department of Education has canceled an invitation to Carol Greenwald, executive producer of "Postcards from Buster," to speak at a children's television conference in Baltimore on Friday, according to a PBS official.

The move followed last week's criticism by Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings about an episode of the "Postcards from Buster" cartoon that featured two lesbian couples in Vermont.

http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?date=2005/02/03/2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paralyzed Broadcasting System

When Bush's education secretary objected to a lesbian couple in a children's cartoon, PBS instantly caved in. Is the network becoming the White House's lap dog?

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By Eric Boehlert

Feb. 3, 2005  |  On Wednesday afternoon at 5:30, elementary school children and their parents in the Boston area who were watching public television got to see perhaps the only educational cartoon ever forced to fend off efforts to ban it. Given the Bush administration's success in keeping the show off the air -- except in Boston and a handful of other PBS markets -- it might not be the last time, as cultural conservatives and the Public Broadcasting System seem destined to continue to do battle over programming. And considering how quickly PBS conceded defeat this round, that battle may become increasingly lopsided.

The controversy surrounding the children's series "Postcards From Buster," featuring a cartoon bunny who, in one episode, visits Vermont to make maple syrup and meets children from two families headed by lesbian couples, generated headlines last week when incoming Education Secretary Margaret Spellings lambasted the episode as inappropriate. Many observers likely viewed the showdown as little more than another head-shaking episode in the ongoing culture war. (The "Buster" flap erupted the same week that Christian talk show host James Dobson warned parents that a classroom video on intolerance featuring SpongeBob SquarePants "could prompt [teachers] to teach kids that homosexuality is equivalent to heterosexuality.")

But for PBS insiders and longtime supporters, the skirmish, and the speed with which PBS backed down in the face of threats from the Bush administration, mark a new low point for the broadcasting institution and a dangerous development for the public. Low because the content of the "Buster" episode was so innocuous. And dangerous because it highlights the inside-the-Beltway environment in which PBS is forced to operate, in which funding concerns often trump programming decisions, and the fear of upsetting conservatives has become a driving force.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/...ives/index.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paralyzed Broadcasting System

When Bush's education secretary objected to a lesbian couple in a children's cartoon, PBS instantly caved in. Is the network becoming the White House's lap dog?

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By Eric Boehlert

Feb. 3, 2005  |  On Wednesday afternoon at 5:30, elementary school children and their parents in the Boston area who were watching public television got to see perhaps the only educational cartoon ever forced to fend off efforts to ban it. Given the Bush administration's success in keeping the show off the air -- except in Boston and a handful of other PBS markets -- it might not be the last time, as cultural conservatives and the Public Broadcasting System seem destined to continue to do battle over programming. And considering how quickly PBS conceded defeat this round, that battle may become increasingly lopsided.

The controversy surrounding the children's series "Postcards From Buster," featuring a cartoon bunny who, in one episode, visits Vermont to make maple syrup and meets children from two families headed by lesbian couples, generated headlines last week when incoming Education Secretary Margaret Spellings lambasted the episode as inappropriate. Many observers likely viewed the showdown as little more than another head-shaking episode in the ongoing culture war. (The "Buster" flap erupted the same week that Christian talk show host James Dobson warned parents that a classroom video on intolerance featuring SpongeBob SquarePants "could prompt [teachers] to teach kids that homosexuality is equivalent to heterosexuality.")

But for PBS insiders and longtime supporters, the skirmish, and the speed with which PBS backed down in the face of threats from the Bush administration, mark a new low point for the broadcasting institution and a dangerous development for the public. Low because the content of the "Buster" episode was so innocuous. And dangerous because it highlights the inside-the-Beltway environment in which PBS is forced to operate, in which funding concerns often trump programming decisions, and the fear of upsetting conservatives has become a driving force.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/...ives/index.html

post-23-1107500776.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Our picks

    • Wait, Burning Man is going online-only? What does that even look like?
      You could have been forgiven for missing the announcement that actual physical Burning Man has been canceled for this year, if not next. Firstly, the nonprofit Burning Man organization, known affectionately to insiders as the Borg, posted it after 5 p.m. PT Friday. That, even in the COVID-19 era, is the traditional time to push out news when you don't want much media attention. 
      But secondly, you may have missed its cancellation because the Borg is being careful not to use the C-word. The announcement was neutrally titled "The Burning Man Multiverse in 2020." Even as it offers refunds to early ticket buyers, considers layoffs and other belt-tightening measures, and can't even commit to a physical event in 2021, the Borg is making lemonade by focusing on an online-only version of Black Rock City this coming August.    Read more...
      More about Burning Man, Tech, Web Culture, and Live EventsView the full article
      • 0 replies
    • Post in What Are You Listening To?
      Post in What Are You Listening To?
    • Post in What Are You Listening To?
      Post in What Are You Listening To?
    • Post in What Are You Listening To?
      Post in What Are You Listening To?
    • Post in What Are You Listening To?
      Post in What Are You Listening To?
×
×
  • Create New...