The Sun Newspaper Online – Sponge Bob Story
While never actually saying Sponge Bob was gay, James Dobson stupidly created a controversy by claiming Sponge Bob was promoting the gay agenda. (I’ve been looking for a copy of the gay agenda, by the way. Can someone send it along. I’m wondering what’s in it. Who authored it?)
Now see what I just did? I mocked this guy as apparently everyone in the country is doing since it’s irresistible. That’s what bothers me. I’ve tried not to jump into this with my pile of jokes. Here are my lame thoughts if I was going to do a column on this:
First of all the guy doesn’t watch sponge Bob because he’d know that Bob has a girlfriend, Sandy. Not only that but since she’s a squirrel and must remain in a “bubble” is obviously chaste. If anything Sponge Bob is a good Christian boy, er sponge. If Dobson was on the ball he’d go after the real gay threat: Catdog.
Rimshot please.
That said, it’s apparent that the reverend is obviously generalizing from the male friendship, common to most normal guys. Dobson wouldn’t know because who’d want to hang out with him. He obviously won’t go to any sporting events. “NFL? All those men showering together? Gay!” “Baseball? Where are the women? Gay!” “Basketball? Men running around in shorts bouncing a ball? Gay!” He won’t watch TV with you. “Late night shows. Men hosts, men in the band, men sidekicks. Gay! If there’s a female it’s Ellen DeGeneres. Gay!” Survivor. Gay!” Sixty Minutes? An old black guy with earrings? Gay!”
The media, of course, gets a big hoot out of this and gives prime time coverage to the issue. I finally got irked by seeing it highlighted on the MSN homepage.
In fact it’s a vain and lame attempt to mock the Christian right which is so influential in the Bush White House. Instead of doing any real journalism to inform the public about real current affairs, this is oh so much easier. Find a dingbat minister, mock him and his eye-rolling assertions and say, “See! They are all crazy!”
There are literally thousands of articles about this all incorporating various gags. How proud the journalism community must be for blowing the lid off this one.
Related links:
Arguably one of the best reasoned arguments here.
All Cartoon characters, gay? Nice essay here.
Uh, maybe you should try reading what Dobson actually said, not the NYT interpretation of what he said. His point was that he objected to the homosexual population hijacking symbols of childhood. Sponge Bob being one example.
He goes on the say that the actual video was not objectionable but material on a website that the video directs the 6 year olds to was problematic.
Well, JB. Dobson’s still a crackpot fundie who doth protest too much. He should just come out of the closet and get it over with.
Currently the assault on Christian values and beliefs is part of the “gay agenda”, simply because to be a Christian you can not be a praciticing homosexual, no more than you can pracitice adultry and remain a practicing Christian. It should be noted that these groups are trying to force people to accept and condone actions which go against their personnel beliefs. What I’ve heard from Christians is that they want to raise ‘their’ children with traditional Christian beliefs.
I haven’t heard any criticism of Muslims, in regards their beliefs and they do currently practice stoning to death gays. Most people are affaid of criticising a Muslim, simply because they really may come to your house and kill you. Instead, they atack Christian leaders for trying to issue warning to their fellow believers. I’ve been to the different sites and have read what was really said. I’ve also gotten some quotes from the “We Are Family” site such at this gem; “the assumption that women are naturally or innately drawn sexually and emotionally toward men, and men toward women; the view that heterosexuality is the “norm” for all sexual relationships.” and “The institutionalization of heterosexuality in all aspects of society includes the idealization of heterosexual orientation, romance, and marriage,” the guide states. “Compulsory heterosexuality leads to the notion of women as inherently ‘weak,’ and the institutionalized inequality of power: power of men to control women’s sexuality, labor, childbirth and childrearing, physical movement, safety, creativity, and access to knowledge. It can also include legal and social discrimination against homosexuals and the invisibility or intolerance of lesbian and gay existence.”
Like any group that is in rebellion and seeks only to pleasure themselves, they resent being told that somethings is wrong and what they are doing goes against a set value system. After all, who want to go to hell alone. It’s not enough to simply have their actions remain legal they must have partners and they must be gratified that what they are doing is not wrong. Every individual has an inborn value system that tells them that theft, murder and sodomy is wrong. The homosexual lobby should remember that tolerance is not acceptance. If they really wanted to expand their personnel freedoms, they should go to a more open minded culture like Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Indonesia, or China and campaign for the freeing of their “gay brothers and sisters” and see how long they keep their heads above the tide of popular sentiment.
People who say they “haven’t heard any criticism” have to start looking over the pale around their brains.
John, the greater topic you nudged into is, of course, lousy journalism. You bump into the tiniest mentions of critical issues — because American “journalism” is really entertainment; therefore, you wish to offend the smallest number of “viewers” — whether that be print, TV, radio or the Web.
In the past 2 days, I noted —
Example 1: The number of “insurgents” now claimed as killed or captured by the Pentagon now exceeds the number of “potential” insurgents claimed by the Pentagon a year ago. Sound like VietNam to anyone? Is your local TV station or newspaper talking about this?
Example 2: The Social Security Administration admits to about 9 million annual filings and deposits coming from illegitimate social security numbers. Even if half of these are just screw-ups who can’t get their numbers correct, that still leaves several million illegal immigrants filing on the numbers of their forged or stolen documents. The SSA won’t release their addresses to the Department of Justice!
Example 3: Sexually-transmitted diseases in the United States are triple the number/capita of any other industrialized nation. At a minimum. Am I the only old fart out here who thinks this reflects the weight of Dark Ages politics kissing the butt of Organized Religion — and, therefore, doing a mediocre job of educating our kids?
How much discussion is taking place on these issues within the purview of our courageous journalists? I have more fingers than choices — when it comes to the national networks, national-class newspapers and their websites.
I don’t mind religious beliefs as long as people keep it to themselves and stop trying to force other people to follow theirs.
I’m sick of these bible thumpers attacking homosexuals. So they want the same rights as everyone else. What’s the problem. Who does that hurt. Nobody. These religeous groups seem to be more about hatred and oppression than love and compassion.
I’m really, really tired of of posts like the first and third above. “Practice adultery” how does one do that? Don’t you get it right the first time? Can’t be a gay/fornicating Christian, presuming it seems to speak for all 2 billion or more Christians on the face of the planet. Some churches accept openly gay people. Christ found no fault in the woman accused of adultery and it’s a rare church that has any sanction against “adulterers” any more. Even the RCs have basically given up on that one and they were one of the last to bother trying. One poster needs to become acquainted with the definition of sodomy because as a heterosexual man I can tell you that most of us are born with a value system that sodomy is very right indeed! Also only “6 year olds” are directed to this website? Wow they must have some kinda sophisticated filtering going on there! “Ok sweetie you just go and surf the web without supervision. Mom has to do her nails!” This is what happens when people just regurgitate things they’ve heard/read without thinking.
#6:
“Christ found no fault in the woman accused of adultery and it’s a rare church that has any sanction against “adulterers” any more.”
Actually, Christ told the woman “Go and sin no more.” Sinning is by definition “disobedience to God”. Christ definitely told her what she was doing was wrong. To say He “found no fault” is just plain inaccurate and wrong.
The Bible makes it very plain that adultery is wrong. If churches allow or ignore it, they are not following their own foundational teachings. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to practice adultery. BTW, one practices adultery by committing it. Pretty straightforward.
Actually, for comment #6, Christ did find fault with the woman caught in adultery, after all, he told her to go and sin no more.
If anybody’s interested in what actually went on rather than just reading a headline such as “Gay SpongeBob Redux,” take a look at what Dobson’s account of the story: http://tinyurl.com/6hfq5. To summarize: he was illustrating how an organization that promotes acceptance of homosexuality as acceptable behavior is distributing materials to schools and using children’s icons. If you look at it the way it happened, it’s not very exciting. But “Man says Sponge Bob is gay” is much easier to sell to the editor.
In the end, of course, Dobson is only speaking to Christians who are like-minded with respect to the Bible. If you aren’t why even be concerned?
The target audience of the video was six and seven year olds.
As for your other point, Jesus forgave the adulterous women and told her to “go and sin no more.” Hardly signifying approval of sin.
There still many churches who uphold the Lord’s Commandments. Pointing out that some churches fail to do so is more a comment on their lack of authority than an indication of God’s approval of sinful behavior.
The Gay Agenda.
Well let’s look at what I said about the Gospel in question and what was said by others on here about it.
The 2 verses encompassing what I said and the rebuttal of the other posters:
“John 10-11
10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
So an advisory to not sin but a refusal to condemn. Condemn meaning to find guilty. She wasn’t guilty but was at fault? Ooookayyyy. Otherwise Jesus could have said that he found fault but she was not guilty or that he found fault but it was ok, or that she was guilty but a stoning wouldn’t be necessary. Instead he says he doesn’t condemn her and to leave her life of sin without even mentioning what the sin was. Hardly black letter law applying to adultery. And the usual puerile argument that if someone is forgiven what they did is condoned.
But hey let’s say Jesus did condemn her and/or that no practicing Christian can be an adulterer, as at least one poster argues, just for fun! Jesus says if you feel lust for another you have committed adultery, even if you don’t act on it. Is there a church anywhere that asks anyone in attendance to leave immediately if they have felt aroused by someone since they’ve last been to church? Do these same churches refuse to let divorced people attend because Jesus said they are all adulterers too? Those, if they exist, would be the only churches who can pass the test of not letting adulterers be practicing Christians.
As to the ten commandments. Virtually every practicing Christian on earth breaks a commandment on a regular basis. We attend church on Sunday! The commandment reads “you will remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” Sabbath does not, cannot mean Sunday. It means from Friday night to Saturday night. Jesus might have done work on the Sabbath but there is nothing where he says or implies to move it to another day of the week so we can still go to the feast of a pagan God! Which is exactly what happened .Nothing in the Bible says either that 1 commandment is more important than another or that we can change them to suit the feast of Saturn (Saturday) and the sun god’s day (Sunday) as we have done. In fact changing the day of the Sabbath because of the feast of Saturn and the day of rest of the pagan sun god has probably broken another commandment!. The church council that did this didn’t even bother to quote the Bible to justify it! This not so incidentally is the message of Jesus at the attempted stoning, not to condemn others because you are just as bad. Again all these high and mighty types with their selective enforcement In fact they enforce the breaking of a commandment, probably 2!
Also I had no idea so many fundamentalists, for lack of a better term, read John’s column. I’ve seen this on a lot of chat boards and blogs these days. It seems that there is a small but committed group trolling out there armed with uncannily similar posts and quotes that appear when every time something like this comes up. Perhaps they get US federal grants? Perhaps they just hope they will?
The gay agenda is the same as the black agenda was in the sixties: to be accepted as diginified human beings. I think people don’t like gays because they don’t know gays and don’t understand homosexuality. Homosexuality only means sex between the same sex, NOT the same GENDER. They are different. Sex between two *straight* men *does* appear to be “disgusting” and thus “wrong” BUT this does not happen (if you are not gay, would you have sex with another man? or woman if you’re a gal). All gay couples have a female/male gender relationship just as straight couples do, except that the straight couples’ sexual anatomy coincides with their gender. Rampant sex among gay men which is seen as immoral is only what would happen in the straight world if any woman (even the beautiful “10” ones) you approached said yes to sex with you without question. Come on, wouldn’t you poke through a glory hole if you knew there was a Britney Spears look-alike on the other side (and zero possibility of disease–and for you religious right out there: zero chance that anyone would find out, and God was taking a nap)? I wrote about symbols before, and how we mistaken it for *actually being* what it was meant to represent (true reality). Man is the ultimate symbol. If you look in the mirror and think that is you, you have a ways to go.
If sponge Bob is gay, so be it.
SpongeBob Gay Pants!
“no more than you can pracitice adultry and remain a practicing Christian”
Ha! About 1/3 of Christians are hypocrits: they put on a nice “front” and wrap themselves around the Bible, meanwhile banging whores and stealing from old people when they think no one is looking like Jimmy Swaggart.
Am I saying Christians are bad people? No. As a whole, I’d say the average Chrisitian is slightly more moral than the average non-Christian because some portion of non-believers have an “anything goes” attitude towards right/wrong.
But get real. Last time I checked, Christians were people and any population (N) contains good eggs and bad eggs.
” I’m sick of these bible thumpers attacking homosexuals. So they want the same rights as everyone else.”
Hey Joe … don’t forget that part of the gay agenda is that homosexuals desperately want to be scoutmasters in the Boy Scouts. All that fresh virgin boy-meat is irresistible to the sodomites.
So … all things being equal … the gay agenda isn’t about the same rights as everyone else.
Equal rights for homosexuals? Yes. Pedophiles having free reign to molest children? No freaking way. And that means no adopting children either.
Last time I read the statistics on pedophiles…..the adults considered themselves STRAIGHT. In fact, most pedophiles are in **normal** relationships…i.e. married, often with kids, often preying on friends of their kids and THEIR KIDS, or other family members.
Gay does not mean pedophile.
Sheesh!
As for the “gay agenda”…..I seriously…. people wanting to be seen as humans (aka — aside from gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation) does not seem to ME to be an “un-christian” thing. But, then again, having some man dictating what other people should think, rally against, and what’s evil….seems like the very thing that the bible warns of: …”false gods” . Men are corrupted by power…plain and simple. Pushing fear, finger pointing, condemnation, and hate … were never the teachings of Jesus, seems to me, that’s what the bible says he perished from.
Live and let live is not in the current “christian” thinking. Nor is tolerance, or acceptance.
It isn’t us v.s. them, it’s just US. The religious policies currently in this country are trying to divide the nation, the people, and unravel the fabric of democracy. It’s just men wanting power and people to OBEY them.
I think morals are morals, and they have nothing to DO with religion. The ones touting the bible are immoral in advocating hatred, fear, and trying to push aside people that are simply other people. There should be room for all of us…..different opinions, lifestyles, and customs.
What bothers me is Hitler said that god was on HIS side, and he quoted the bible just as Bush, and the evangelicals do now. He was cleansing the country in keeping with gods words, according to him, why?…….to protect the “right thinkers”.
Are we doomed to repeat the past?
uhhh..Shannon…..I’m totally confused by your argument…
Christianity and Islam have the same roots…..right?
Do you know anything at all about this?
Allah makes known his will through the angels…the chief angel is Gabriel (just as in Zoroastrian angelology), and the Devil is called Iblis ( a contraction of Diabolos , or Shaytan …in Hebrew Satan). He is an angel who fell to evil because of pride. He and his assistants busy themselves on earth to obstruct the plans of Allah and to tempt people to go astray. (Hmm, sounds strangely the same as the old testament…doesn’t it?)
As to the last judgement, Muhammad’s revalations contain phrases resembling those of Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian apocalypticism. (Skys open and awful things happen…essentially. )
During the judgement itself, the books in which each person’s deeds have been recorded will be read, and eternal judgement will be passed accordingly…. (source: Islam)
So, now….if Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all from the same source: “Zorastrian”. Why is it you ignore that and say “oh no one is criticizing muslims….” What is a muslim to you? Some one who follows Muhammed’s views of God, right?
“Muslim” (“One who Submits”) has a dominating, vengeful god thing. But, the god is fair, and just, and based on the same principals as the Judaism and Christian. It’s just another concept, a branch of the same basic thought and belief system: Zoraster. So, if this were a family tree, they’d be Christian’s COUSINS.
The Christian offshoot of Zoraster evolved into a gracious god. One that embraced all, and there were to be no exceptions to the law of love, it was to be interracial and international. And accepting god. Those were the teachings of Jesus, in a nutshell.
Seems that somehow, somewhere the gods have become confused…. can any “christian” explain this to me? Why is the anti-gay mob turning their backs on their gracious, accepting god, and embracing a vengeful, dominating one?
Well he does “live in a pineapple under the sea”, and he wears square pants…………Oh wait, doesn’t that mean he has no fashion sense! Sounds like the making of a (shudder) TV show. “Queer Eye for the Straight Sponge”
That Gay Agenda was written by the same people who wrote the Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
There is a saying that history repeats its tragedies as farce. Let’s hope this Gay Agenda thing stays farcical.
Ode to Sponge Bob
or
Are your sponges gay too?
Thanks to the righteous right,I now am aware,
of the intent of the sponges that have been in my care!
Use a Loofah on your baby,as there,strong,abrasive and straight,
while sponges are soft, pliable and can change your kids fate!
Its no wonder that there’s so many queers,homos and gays,
go look and see ,how many “different” sponges are on display!
Thanks to the religious,thanks to the right,
I’m now aware ,of this unwholesome plight !
Quick, burn those yellow sponges ,right away,
it could be today ,that your kids decides to be gay!
Think of the children ,who’ve not yet decided,
whether to be straight ,or may like to be derided!
We don’t want our kids hated, laughed at or hurt,
because there’s gay sponges with agendas that flirt!
So thanks for reporting ,what sponges can do,
especially if named Bob, they can harm quite a few!
Evil is among us ,as we now see
thanks to the vast, left wing ,gay ,conspiracy !
Oh shame on those sponges,shame on them all,
shame on the leftist queers for making the righteous fall !
Right now there named Bob, but that’s not all,
what if a sponge named Barbara appears in the fall?
Little girls might change too, as the boys obviously did,
if a sponge comes near them ,and its agenda was hid!
So give your kids strong love ,and not a sissy sponge
clean them with loofahs ,and at gays they will lunge !
Stand up America and get rid of those sponges,
you know the ones,with leftists political grudges !
Now there named Bob ,and there yellow,
but don’t be fooled ,don’t be mellow!
Just like you decided one day to be straight,
I’m sure you remember the time and the date?
Act right now ,and take care of your kids today,
or they might decide ,after using a sponge, to be gay!
So please,please educate them about your fear,
of sponges named Bob ,who can make them queer!
as for the comment about muslims’s and their views on homosexuality. I find it amusing that someone will criticize someone else for not comments on a different religions views. That I know of there have not been mass amounts of Muslims going around the US killing off gay people. There HAVE been murders of people by good “Christians” . Regardless of whether you believe being gay is wrong or not. The basic principle of Christ’s teaching it to Love one another, and Judge not, lest ye be judged. As far as i’m concerned no other person as the right to tell me who i can or can not sleep with as long as it is between two consenting adults. We that person comes before the Judgement Seat, and “God” (insert whatever supereme being you worship here” will judge that person according to their actions. As for the Gay Agenda, the gay agenda is pretty simple, Let me live my life, Love my partner and treat me with the respect I deserve as a HUMAN being.
MY BOB IS NOtGAY!!!!!
he’s just happy
sponge bob is not gay …Sergio is
Brunn, I am an atheist, god is a lie, just like the holocaust, however I still think there was a real jesu….
Which is fine. Pacifying the innocent, preparing the sheep for the slaughter, emboldening criminals? motives, making the world safe for crime: it?s a social scientist?s veritable utopia….
Asia…
nearly everyone I have showed this to has enjoyed reading in it! Much Kudos to you!…
Incorporating Your Small Business…
Having a self-sufficient business is probably one of the most common of dreams. Even more so incorporating small businesses into big businesses with larger perspectives and larger visions….
nearly everyone I have showed this to has enjoyed reading in it! Much Kudos to you!…