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.
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," James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said in a statement released Thursday.
Rodgers said he was astounded by the attack.
"That is so myopic and harsh," he told Reuters. "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."
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.
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 are popular with gays. His creator, Stephen Hillenburg, said at the time that though SpongeBob was an oddball, he thought of all the characters in the show as asexual.
It is not the first time that children's TV favorites have come under the critical spotlight of the Christian right. In 1999, the Rev. Jerry Falwell described Tinky Winky, the purse-toting purple Teletubbie, as a gay role model.
I first read this article last week when it came out in the news (no pun intended) and I purposefully waited a week to post about it, just to see what the public reaction would be. I was pleasantly surprised. I asked friends, relatives and co-workers in varrying stages of conservatism what they thought about it and they all said pretty much the same thing: ridiculous.
First of all, I would like an honest show of hands from the so-called Christian conservative groups - please raise your hand if you've ever sat your kid down in front of the tv and put in a Barney or Bob the Builder video to 'babysit' your kids so you could get some work done around the house? That's what I thought.
Second, this vide was designed to encourage tolerance and diversity. I can't speak for these conservative groups, but in the Bible that I read, Jesus said "Love one another as I have loved you" and "judge not lest you be judged." That's good enough for me. I think this video is wonderful idea; not just because the song is one of the best songs from the disco era - the kids today need to learn that everyone in this world is not just like them, and they need to be more tolerant and accepting of people that they deem as "different": the chubby kid that gets picked last on the playground ball team, the Muslim kid who gets called a terrorist by the other kids, or the kid in a wheelchair that gets called "cripple" or "retard". Shouldn't this be a more important lesson to teach the kids than saying that the Purple Teletubbie is gay because he's purple and carries a bag? I guess that means Barney is gay, too.
I asked my parents what they thought about this. They rolled their eyes in unison. My Mom said "Those conservative groups are just like the Pharisees in the Bible that they supposedly read. They just wait like vultures for something like this to happen so they can pour through it and pick out one tiny part of it and blow it all out of proportion, when they should be concerned with how they are living their own lives." My Dad, sometimes a man of few but powerful words, said it best: "narrow minded."
4 comments:
Even if they were GAY..........the word is TOLERANCE that the word that the moral Right does not Understand..............If you do not believe as they believe then you are Wrong-Period.
As the mother of two young children, I have seen hundreds....no, probably thousands of episodes of SpongeBob, Barney, Teletubbies and Sesame Street (which wasn't mentioned, but I've heard this group is targeting Bert & Ernie as well). I'm pretty sure these characters aren't having sex with ANYONE. As SpongeBob's creator Stephen Hillenburg put it, I would have to say these characters are asexual. They are not promoting sexual relationships with any partner.
I think Barney, Sesame Street and Teletubbies teach children to interact, share, handle angry feelings, etc. But let's face it, SpongeBob is just there to entertain us, and what a great job he does of that!
i think it's bullshit that these people are accusing the creators of Spongebob of this nonsense. All of these cartoons helped me to learn tolerance as a kid. Growing up in a state filled with racisim in the not so distant past, shows like sesame street helped me to understand that i am the same as the next girl or guy no matter the color or race. Of course, my parents helped me with that too. lol. You know it's really funny but last night I was at my parents house. My little sister has mild autism. Anyhow, her hamster just had babies and she was giving them away to her friends. One of her friends, a sweet little black girl, came over last night. After she left, I asked who her friend was. And she told me her name and that she was her friend and that they loved each other. Now this is coming from an 8 year old kid. I thought it was so cute that these two kids didn't think twice about the fact that they look different and that they are best friends. My sister Katherine has watched shows like Spongebob, Sesame Street, and my least favorite lol Barney. Damn I watched that dumb show too much for her sake. lol. Anyway, I believe that shows like those have helped shape our current and future generations of kids.
Courtney
I heard about the SpongeBob hooplah and started watching it. I must say that I thoroughly enjoy it's quirks and wry humor. The publicity will only incite more viewership just as it did with Teletubbies. I think the Christian coalition sometimes goes a little out of the way and sometimes wonder if James Dobson followers question him about this ludicrous accusation. Or simply act gullible and automatically incorporate his beliefs into their persona with cult-like fashion.
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