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| Interesting distinction: "U.S. Christians".... |
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Thu Jan 20, 7:39 PM ET
By Jill Serjeant | |
| LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Christian Conservative groups have issued a gay alert warning over a children's video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon favorites. | Note the immediate politicization in the misnomer Christian Conservative groups. Grammatically, the first word modifies the second. If they had said Conservative Christian groups, this would have been conveying a characteristic of the Christian group; a Christian group rather more strict in their adherence to their faith than other Christians that may have a more relaxed view. No, the writer is willing to report incorrectly, in order for you to make a political association in your mind. Both the groups reported are Christian groups, not per se political groups. |
| 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. | I didn't have to drill down very far (three clicks) to find that one of the sponsors of the We Are Family Foundation, Tolerance.org, offers a free 5 minute workshop on "Uncovering Attitudes About Sexual Orientation."
Talk about bias, the centerpiece of this effort is to have students focus on two definitions ... wanna guess? Probably something neutral and relevant like "homosexuality" and "heterosexuality", right? Wrong: "homophobia" and "compulsory heterosexuality" ... by the time you're done studying their definitions, the most dyed-in-the-wool heterosexual is bound to feel like there's something wrong with themselves! This is bias at it's most insidious; focus and limit of choices. They're two words ... one has "homo" in it and the other "hetero" but the teaching is not two-sided. These are two terms which both lead to the same perspective: "homosexuality completely ok ... heterosexuality suspect". And this is part of the tolerance pledge by inclusion. Oh, did I forget to mention, there's a pledge to take? First we teach them "homosexuality completely ok ... heterosexuality suspect" then we get them to promise! Now that you know what's in it, consider innocent children most of who's general orientation is to try to do the right thing, pledging to this! OK for your kid(s)? |
| But at least two Christian activist groups say the innocent cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. | Which is to say: two ... but saying "at least" gives the appearance of more. You can bet if there were three on record at the time of this article being written, that number would have been used! And again the misnomer; these are not "activist groups" ... they are not even activist Christian groups; this is not coming way out of left field. These are Christian groups, with a Christian audience expressing an opinion they believe will matter to their audience. No-one is waving banners or marching on Washington. Let me hasten to add that ANY Christian group that looked at the issue would agree. Indeed any group OR person that would prefer their children not be raised into the notion that heterosexuality is aberrant behavior should be concerned (this is not media bias, this is me editorializing)! |
| "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. | It's not the We Are Family Foundation, and it's only one sponsor among quite a few very respected others ... but it's in there, and accurately perceived by a couple of Christian groups, to be a danger to kids. Note, I say Christian groups, not Conservative groups. |
| 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. | Here the media object in question is being described as totally benign; there is no mention of the issue. No attempt to defend it. It's just: "a hit song from the seventies (we all love seventies music, right?)", "Sponge Bob (and other cartoons we love)", and a philanthropist motivated by 9/11. It's not the gays on one side, the straights on the other; everyone knows on which side of that issue they are ... it's three benign icons of our present day culture, what amounts to those of our generation to: "The American Way" on one side, and Christians and Republicans on the other. The opening of the next paragraph confirms this with the word "however". |
| 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. | Exactly! This is like adding a line making the Zinnia the official flower of the United States, as a footnote to a defense spending bill. |
| 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. | That's the point, the kids won't notice a thing (just take this, little kid, it feels good ... the first one's free!). It's the parents' job to "look hard" ... and it was the hard look that raised the issue. Rodgers is denying that he would re-cast how the cartoon characters behave, so as to be explicitly and apparently either homosexual or heterosexual. Noone accused him of trying to do this.
It's your affiliations, Nile. Does your organization have any standards? Or is anyone willing to give money, "in the family"? Rodgers needs to look at who is along for his ride. When he does, he'll see that tolerance.org, despite their name, is teaching intolerance. |
| 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. | Well you have to consider the source, here. Dobson taking on Sponge Bob is a little like Happy Gilmore trying to duke it out with Bob Barker. This is the same kind of insidious bias mentioned above: "focus and limit of choices" ... in falling over themselves to make Dobson look ridiculous, they don't even report the story which is that this video is going out to 61,000 schools. Your kids will see it and probably be guided into taking the pledge before you even realize it. And you will have had no awareness of what this controversy is all about if all you read is the New York Times! |
| 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. | This and the next paragraph are just making sure you finish the article remembering that this is Christians against cartoons, and that there can't possibly be any serious issue here. |
| 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. | |
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