((these days it's easy to give up))
(from IMDb.com)
Video Featuring SpongeBob Hit with Gay Warning
A children's video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon favorites has been slapped with a gay alert warning by Christian Conservative groups. The music video, due to be sent to 61,000 schools across America in March, was made by the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation to encourage tolerance and diversity. But Christian activist groups the American Family Association and Focus On The Family say the innocent cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. The video is a remake of the 1979 hit song "We Are Family," featuring 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 to promote America's healing process after the September 11 attacks. Christian groups, however, have taken exception to the tolerance pledge on the foundation's website, which asks people to respect the sexual identity of others along with their abilities, beliefs, culture and race. Rodgers hits back, "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.
I read this story because the headline gave me a laugh, but i'm not posting it because i think it's funny. In fact, as soon as i started reading the article itself my smile faded into unparalleled anger. If you're too important and busy to bother yourself with reading this, let me paraphrase for you:
Christian Conservative Groups are attacking a movie made by the "We Are Family Foundation", a group whose goal is to promote diversity, simply because it promotes diversity. A certain kind of diversity, of course, and i'm sure i don't even need to tell you which; that of homosexuality. It's questionable whether or not the video makes any reference to homosexuality in the first place (these are, after all, the same people who accused a teletubbie of being gay) but it hardly matters. The fact is, these groups are upset because they think there's a video using popular cartoon characters to promote acceptance of other people.
Allow me, if you will, to present my favorite quote from the article:
"...innocent cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality."
Let's analyze this, shall we? Cartoon characters. Being exploited. To promote "acceptance of homosexuality." Am i crazy? Someone tell me, please. Am i the one who is out of my fucking mind? Or is acceptance of homosexuality, in fact, a good thing! Essentially these activists are saying homosexuals are something to be mocked and spat upon, but certainly not accepted! You need to teach your children to beat up faggots just like you did, because let's face it, Christian's of the world, you've never been too big on change. These are the same people who were upset when blacks could no longer be sold and women gained the right to vote.
This is why i don't think i could ever affiliate myself with a religion. They're all based in good things. The Bible, for example, teaches people all men were created equal. But there's always some aspect of it like this that completely invalidates the entire thing. You don't hear too many atheists complaining about homosexuality on tv. The only people responsible for that are the ones whose religion tells them to do the opposite.
Homosexuality offends the ultra conservative christian of america? Well fuck them, because they offend me. And i'm not just saying that to be a smart ass; i'm saying that because it is absolutely the truth. Nothing offends me more than the conservative christian, which, if you haven't already made the connection, is the more politically correct name of the 'extremist, sexist, racist bigot'. The only thing they believe in more than their lord, a man i believe taught just the opposite, is discrimination and prejudice.
It's articles like this one that remind me we've made no progress as a country at all. Homosexuals are just one more name in a long list of scapegoats. With any luck they too will attain the rights they deserve, and then we'll just find another group acceptable to belittle. How does this continue to happen? How can we allow ourselves to hate our own people? It could have something to do with the fact that our president is a conservative christian as well. God bless the usa; not only the largest collection of bigots in the world, but a nation led by one as well.
Video Featuring SpongeBob Hit with Gay Warning
A children's video starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and a host of other cartoon favorites has been slapped with a gay alert warning by Christian Conservative groups. The music video, due to be sent to 61,000 schools across America in March, was made by the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation to encourage tolerance and diversity. But Christian activist groups the American Family Association and Focus On The Family say the innocent cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. The video is a remake of the 1979 hit song "We Are Family," featuring 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 to promote America's healing process after the September 11 attacks. Christian groups, however, have taken exception to the tolerance pledge on the foundation's website, which asks people to respect the sexual identity of others along with their abilities, beliefs, culture and race. Rodgers hits back, "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.
I read this story because the headline gave me a laugh, but i'm not posting it because i think it's funny. In fact, as soon as i started reading the article itself my smile faded into unparalleled anger. If you're too important and busy to bother yourself with reading this, let me paraphrase for you:
Christian Conservative Groups are attacking a movie made by the "We Are Family Foundation", a group whose goal is to promote diversity, simply because it promotes diversity. A certain kind of diversity, of course, and i'm sure i don't even need to tell you which; that of homosexuality. It's questionable whether or not the video makes any reference to homosexuality in the first place (these are, after all, the same people who accused a teletubbie of being gay) but it hardly matters. The fact is, these groups are upset because they think there's a video using popular cartoon characters to promote acceptance of other people.
Allow me, if you will, to present my favorite quote from the article:
"...innocent cartoon characters are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality."
Let's analyze this, shall we? Cartoon characters. Being exploited. To promote "acceptance of homosexuality." Am i crazy? Someone tell me, please. Am i the one who is out of my fucking mind? Or is acceptance of homosexuality, in fact, a good thing! Essentially these activists are saying homosexuals are something to be mocked and spat upon, but certainly not accepted! You need to teach your children to beat up faggots just like you did, because let's face it, Christian's of the world, you've never been too big on change. These are the same people who were upset when blacks could no longer be sold and women gained the right to vote.
This is why i don't think i could ever affiliate myself with a religion. They're all based in good things. The Bible, for example, teaches people all men were created equal. But there's always some aspect of it like this that completely invalidates the entire thing. You don't hear too many atheists complaining about homosexuality on tv. The only people responsible for that are the ones whose religion tells them to do the opposite.
Homosexuality offends the ultra conservative christian of america? Well fuck them, because they offend me. And i'm not just saying that to be a smart ass; i'm saying that because it is absolutely the truth. Nothing offends me more than the conservative christian, which, if you haven't already made the connection, is the more politically correct name of the 'extremist, sexist, racist bigot'. The only thing they believe in more than their lord, a man i believe taught just the opposite, is discrimination and prejudice.
It's articles like this one that remind me we've made no progress as a country at all. Homosexuals are just one more name in a long list of scapegoats. With any luck they too will attain the rights they deserve, and then we'll just find another group acceptable to belittle. How does this continue to happen? How can we allow ourselves to hate our own people? It could have something to do with the fact that our president is a conservative christian as well. God bless the usa; not only the largest collection of bigots in the world, but a nation led by one as well.