Cartoons: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Those nutty Christians are at it again.  They are attacking the sexuality of poor SpongeBob and are completely paranoid about the effect of Bob on their children.  An innocent little video that finally forged a truce among those warring children's characters is being touted as pro-gay propaganda as it warms the hearts of children nationwide with its message of tolerance and non-hate.  Soon they will be holding a large bonfire burning all of SpongeBob's videos as well as all FedEx (the Satanic Corporation sponsoring this atrocity) packages straight back to hell. 

At least what you would think is the case regarding this NYTimes article about the foundation I posted about here.  Blogs such as Volokh, Instapundit, and 3Martini are having fun at Dr. Dobson's comments and the implication that SpongeBob is gay.  Unfortunately, all of these posts avoid the real issue.

First, at the risk of being painfully obvious, the cartoon characters that I let my children watch do not have sex.  Unlike the characters in the Toy Story movies, cartoon do not come to life after the humans leave the room.  For that reason, SpongeBob holding hands with another character is not pro-gay any more than Dora and Boots or Blue and Joe hanging out is a statement in favor of Peter Singer's interesting view of animal love. 

However, I don't believe that is what Dr. Dobson was saying.  He raises an question regarding the tolerance pledge that is on the We Are Family Foundation website, on the same page as the article about the children's video.  How are 3 to 5 year old children to respect (Niles Roger's words) those with a different "sexual identity"?  The fact that the pledge is on the website (and the website is certainly included in the promotional materials for the video) should be explained.  Instead of an explanation, it is far easier to characterize these Christian leaders as paranoid, and recommend medication.  The NYTimes and the bloggers above all fell for the bait.

Furthermore, why does the We Are Family Foundation provide a link to the Human Rights Campaign, which is a pro-same sex marriage group?  Is this an implication that anyone who does not accept the traditional view of marriage is intolerant?  Does the "celebration of our human community" necessarily include the worldview that marriage is a man-made institution that we can change at will?  Is opposition to same sex marriage an example of hate?

These are important questions, and not ones that should be dismissed so quickly.  When Falwell made is comments about Tinky-Winky I cringed.  This is different, and the dismissal of Dobson's view is quite unfortunate.

Update: Say it ain't so, Joe!  Joe Carter adds this:

While I'm admittedly suspicious of the motives behind the "We are Family" video, the attack on Spongebob Squarepants by Dr. James Dobson is laughably misguided. I have a great deal of respect for Dr. Dobson but conservatives – and Christian conservatives in particular – need to stop attacking fictional characters.

I would agree if and only if Dr. Dobson actually used SpongeBob's supposedly "gay" behavior to attack him as a homosexual.  However, without knowing what Dobson actually said (and even Hugh has not seen a transcript), I'm wondering if he merely brought up SpongeBob as an example of the many characters that were included in that video.  I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until we know for sure. 

By the way, I haven't noticed anyone else pointing out the link to Human Rights Campaign on the We Are Family Foundation website.  I believe this link clearly casts suspicion regarding the motives of this video.