Ryan Anderson proves to be "Fair And Balanced" when he notes how some Right-Wing groups have gone too far when hunting down "Spoongebob Squarepants."


   
 

“Give me a break,” by Ryan Anderson

January 25th, 2005

O'Ryan FactorThis week I’ve had enough. I want people to give me a break and I’m not referring to kit kat bars. These people I’m talking about are the far right, more specifically James Dobson. I’ve never had a problem with the guy. However, I believe the far right stepped over the line when he said the cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants was promoting a gay lifestyle. Give me a break.

    It all started when a short video was released. It starred tons of children’s television ‘stars’ including cartoon characters like Clifford the big red dog. What’s the purpose of the video? The video was made to promote tolerance. To be specific: “To help keep diversity a wellspring of strength and make America a better place for all, I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own.". Keep in mind, there’s nothing about Sexual identity in the video itself, but on the distributor’s website (talking about the purpose). I’m sorry…maybe I’m going to get pulverized by my conservative friends…but I don’t think that’s so bad. However, Dobson seems to think the Sponge was “exploited by an organization that's determined to promote the acceptance of homosexuality among our nation's youth." How do we know Spongebob is gay? Well apparently…

  • He holds hands with Patrick Star, his friend
  • In the video, they all sing the song ‘we are family’

…Notorious behavior to say the least. From what I can tell, it’s obvious that Spongebob is the spawn of Satan. He’s obviously bent on turning your child gay. Speaking of the kids, I’m all for protecting them. Dobson must want that too. True as that may be…this video isn’t promoting homosexuality. It’s promoting tolerance of other people. Millions of kids watch this show every day… most of them have no idea what gay even means. So when we go pointing fingers saying Barney is gay because he has a sleepover or Elmo is a racist, you’re not protecting the kids, you’re making it more possible for them to pick that up.

James Dobson obviously seems to be taking a bit too much from this. I’m a Christian, yet the show isn’t giving me any homosexual vibes. It’s a kid’s show. If I said Fred Flinstone was gay because of the way he walked…people would say ‘Wait…what? I’ve never seen him walk any particular way…where’s this coming from?!” That’s exactly what I’m talking about. This is nuts. More crazy than the whole Teletubby thing a few years back. What is it with accusing cartoon characters of being gay? If you truly have a problem with your kids watching Spongebob…what are you going to do when they’re out I this world, finding things you’ll really have problems with.

    Enough with that, let’s get down to the big issue…Dobson thinks these organizations are using the characters to promote a gay agenda of some sort. The Focus on the Family website states:

    “We applaud the ideal of championing to children the value and dignity of every human life as well as respect for our differences.  What we vehemently object to is using these beloved characters to help advance an agenda that's beyond the comprehension of 6 and 7 year-old children”

 

    The problem is the line they object to, from the mission statement isn’t in the video. Like I said, it’s on the distributor’s website. So the kids are being forced to hear this subliminal message that’s not even there. It’s without question issues like this should be introduced by the parents…so if you keep them away from one line on one website you should be safe. In the end, my point is, this is ridiculous. Focus on the Family is a prominent organization that has done some great things…hopefully this isn’t the kind of problems they’ll start undertaking now (crusades protecting kids from subliminal messages they don’t understand, and furthermore, parents can’t find either).

    To this day I haven’t seen anything questionable from any of the cartoon characters in the video. Who knows…perhaps I’m wrong. If that’s the case than feel free to yell at me here: ryan@thefedorachronicles.com

If I’m not kicked off the site for leaning a bit left this week, I’ll see you all next time.

 
   

 

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More articles from Ren can be found here: The Rant Archive