Posted by Watcher Well, whatever the Bible says or doesn't say about being gay, I really think that the sin of Sodom was somewhat worse than that. After all, San Francisco (just for an example) has a large gay population, and it has not yet been annihilated in a rain of fire and brimstone. Therefore I rather think something much worse was going on.

There's a joke in there somewhere about if God doesn't smite Hollywood with fire and brimstone, he owes Sodom and Gammorrah an appology.

I'll confess that I have never watched SpongeBob and have no idea what his sexual orientation is, or if, being a cartoon character, he even has one.

I have. The youngest loves the character. It's mostly mindless fun and silliness. Spongebob has friends, not dates. The closest he ever came to having a sexual orientation was to raise a scallop until it was old enough to "fly" with his buddy Patrick. Even that was poking fun at traditional child rearing roles and seperation of work.

Posted by Valiant Dancer The youngest loves the character. It's mostly mindless fun and silliness. Spongebob has friends, not dates. The closest he ever came to having a sexual orientation was to raise a scallop until it was old enough to "fly" with his buddy Patrick. Even that was poking fun at traditional child rearing roles and seperation of work.

About what I thought it would be. There's always someone overreacting to stuff on TV. Sounds like just another harmless kid's show to me.

Spongebob is the only commercial cartoon character I personally endorse. I like his politics.

Any time a CARTOON CHARACTER can raise the ire of a pack of sanctimonious fun-killers, it gets my support.

First it was Ernie and Bert, then it was Tinkie-winkie, now it's Spongebob.

These people need to get into therapy or at least concentrate on bake sales and Tupperware parties and leave children's entertainment alone.

The more these right wing Christian fundamentalist leaders (from the televangelists to the Pope) open their mouths without thinking, the more I appreciate being agnostic.

Posted by apprentice The more these right wing Christian fundamentalist leaders (from the televangelists to the Pope) open their mouths without thinking, the more I appreciate being agnostic.

Religious fundamentalism of any stripe...with the possible exception of fundamentalist Buddhism...is dangerous, narrow-minded, myopic, and socially wrong-headed. I just finished reading a pamphlet that argues against evolution. These people would have us believe that humans walked with the T-Rex...odd, given that T-Rex's are famous for eating things smaller than themselves, odder still that humans are much smaller than T-Rex's, have shorter legs and would have been very low on the food chain...meaning that humans managed to wipe out bisons, mastodons, saber-tooth tigers, doo-doo's etc...but we somehow failed to drive dinosaurs to extinction (or maybe we did and that's why there aren't any dinosaurs)...anyway, the author of this pamphlet teaches Sunday School to pre-schoolers, so I guess he's used to working with infantile imaginations.

Oh...besides preaching creation as THE ONLY theory worth knowing, they also dislike homos to such an extent that some of them advocate capital punishment for CONSENTING ADULTS who engage in 'unbiblical acts' of sexuality.

These people vote. Scary, no?

Please take note of the forum you're posting in. This is an open discussion of religion from many different people and backgrounds. We've been having some great discussions and have managed to keep them from being too heated by being fairly respectful.

Posted by katwoman Please take note of the forum you're posting in. This is an open discussion of religion from many different people and backgrounds. We've been having some great discussions and have managed to keep them from being too heated by being fairly respectful.

Agreed. If anyone is interested in trading opinions viz. a viz my earlier posts, please email me and we can have a discussion in private.

I didn't detect any disrespect..... please explain this heated disrespectfulness that has offended you so.

Posted by Captain Midnight I didn't detect any disrespect..... please explain this heated disrespectfulness that has offended you so.

I didn't detect any sort of disrespect either. And I suppose I shouldn't bother to worry about what offends and what doesn't. If someone is offended by anything I have posted on this site, that's their right, and I would never interfere with someone's right to be offended.

On that note...let's talk about religious fundamentalism lurching into the dark and insidious realm of religious totalitarianism. Or even Fundamentalist Christian Fascism. That sounds like fun. Anyone interested?

We can discuss how a well-placed Christian group threatened a massive boycott against Proctor and Gamble because P&G supported a gay pride parade. Or how Evangelical Christian activists threatened similar actions against Microsoft because it extended health plans to gay and lesbian employees.

Let's talk about sanctimonious bullies, their self-righteous back-slapping President, their charge into moral absolutism and their denial of basic civil rights to people who happen to fuck differently than they do...which by all accounts means once a month and only for the purpose of filling Earth with more of their flock.

Oh...okay...that sounds a bit disrespectful. Sorry. I take it back.

Ah, good to come back to some interesting topic-age.

While I am certainly going to kick ass and take names of anyone who purposely offends others etc etc etc, I also think that, in the correct manner, this can be an interesting topic. An important topic. Because it is people like those mentioned above that give Christians everywhere a bad name. These people are the reason that when I mention that I am a Christian, others give me a funny look and quickly change the topic. Or try to tear my beliefs apart. These people do, in fact, make me angry.

So if this can be done in a civil and somewhat respective manner, I like where this can go.

But I do think it should be its own topic.


EDIT: I can't puntuate today!!

Posted by Captain Midnight ... please explain this heated disrespectfulness that has offended you so.

Posted by Katwoman ...have managed to keep them from being too heated by being fairly respectful.

As stated above, I haven't seen anything too heated or disrespectful.
I could feel a storm brewing, though.




KublaKahn,
Who exactly, or which group, wanted death for homosexuals? Crazy; I didn't hear about that.


Also, of course creationists believe only in their theory. That's not a surprise. Heck, evolutionists, too, preach evolution as "the only theory worth knowing." If someone has a strong belief, that typically means that to them it is the only theory worth knowing.

Posted by katwoman KublaKahn, Who exactly, or which group, wanted death for homosexuals? Crazy; I didn't hear about that.

Actually, it wasn't a group per se, it was some cracker commenting for a magazine article I read...Harpers, or some such. Also, abortion providers. Kill the abortion providers.

I'll go way out on a totally ridiculous tangent and suggest that, like homosexuals, radical fundamentalist Christians are born that way. That is, born with a burning lust for sanctimonious moral vengence.

Which is, if I am to remember my own Sunday school lessons correctly, strictly the domain of God.

Kidding, of course. I kid. It's all about the kidding. Really.

Also, of course creationists believe only in their theory. That's not a surprise. Heck, evolutionists, too, preach evolution as "the only theory worth knowing." If someone has a strong belief, that typically means that to them it is the only theory worth knowing.

Just like my theory that if I ignore my bank's relentless phone calling, they'll eventually forget about my massive student loan debt.

Seriously. I'm being serious here. Really.

And I totally agree that the radicalism, the severe right-wing fundamentalists who currently have the attention of Bush and key members of his administration, are generally responsible for the treatment of other, more moderate...dare I say 'liberal' members of the Christian faith by non-Christians...or even people who are basically tired of having to listen to the hyper-ventilating television preachers, red-neck Nascar parents who keep their guns next to their bibles, etc. etc...

Just like a few assholes have made Muslims everywhere the brunt of Western hostility.

Fundamentalists ARE the problem with ALL religions.

Posted by katwoman Please take note of the forum you're posting in. This is an open discussion of religion from many different people and backgrounds. We've been having some great discussions and have managed to keep them from being too heated by being fairly respectful.

Ya know...it just ocurred to me: this is a discussion about a cartoon character who advocated tolerance (whatever that means) of diversity, be it sexual, cultural, religious. It is a discussion of a cartoon character that came under attack of Christian Fundamentalists who opposed tolerance of diversity.

In a nut, this isn't a discussion of religious issues per se. It is about whether a cartoon character is gay (whatever that means) and the reaction that one particular episode generated, specifically by Christian Fundamentalists.

I just wanted to get that off my chest.

Posted by KublaKahn Ya know...it just ocurred to me: this is a discussion about a cartoon character who advocated tolerance (whatever that means) of diversity, be it sexual, cultural, religious. It is a discussion of a cartoon character that came under attack of Christian Fundamentalists who opposed tolerance of diversity. In a nut, this isn't a discussion of religious issues per se. It is about whether a cartoon character is gay (whatever that means) and the reaction that one particular episode generated, specifically by Christian Fundamentalists. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

From what I understand, one cartoon character is being singled out by Dobson out of many which appear in a video which indirectly advocates diversity to the tune of "We are Family".

Smacks of the Tinky Winky debacle.

You are correct. The discussion is about one cartoon character whom a Christian Fundamentalist group takes offense at. Not religion per se.

"The business of saving souls at high speed has never been dull-but there has nonetheless been a feeling of angst and unfulfilled dreams in recent years, among even the most serious Jesus People, as more and more of them have come to suspect that God's all-powerful will might be better dispensed-and made even more powerful, for that matter-if his servants lived in the White House, instead of some dingy church in Moline."

--Hunter S. Thompson
June 9, 1986

That's from Generation of Swine, a collection of his columns from various newspapers. He was right of course, even then. This is almost 20 years ago, and it's clear that the man had the powers of a keen-eyed political mystic. HST predicted the rise of the Christian Right as the new face of global fascism.

And now we're seeing cartoon characters coming under attack for advocating what many (including myself) see as a very Christian virtue: acceptance and celebration of diversity.

These people represent what I'll call here American Talibanism: religious extremism with absolute political clout. Left unchecked, this rise will continue, spread, and in another 50 years, we'll ALL be bowing before the alter of Christian Fundamentalism.

Picture that world and tremble with fear.

EDIT: I removed your post content, because it was impossible to see, and also because I feel this doesn't contribute to the conversation in any way. I also feel that this thread has been done for some time now. Teh locked. -Irishlady