Friday, January 21, 2005

Christians issue gay warning on SpongeBob video

I read in the National Post that one of the reasons Focus on the Family is up in arms over spongebob is because of his pink snail roommate, Patrick, who they naturally assume he has a crush on. It's possibly one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard.

Allow me to educate the masses. Seasponges are asexual. Asexual organisms can't be gay. Patrick the pink snail is a completely different species. So even if Patrick was gay, he wouldn't be interested in Spongebob, and even if he was, Spongebob wouldn't have him. It's a cold cruel ocean for Patrick, but Spongebob is happy just the way he is. That's why he's always smiling.

Apparently it's not only spongebob that Focus on the Family and their friends have an issue with, it's a video featuring Spongebob as well as a number of other cartoon personalities such as Winnie the Pooh, the Rugrats, and Bob the Builder. The video, which will be distributed by the "We are Family Foundation" to about 61,000 schools, is designed to encourage tolerance and diversity. It contains a reference to sexual identity as well as a "pledge of tolerance."

Now, explain something to me. What is wrong with tolerance?? I mean, what are the options. No matter what semantics you apply, the cold hard truth of the matter is that people you don't like or agree with are on this planet, and it's illegal to drown, choke, shoot or dismember them. You can't transport them to a faraway galaxy, and you can't point a remote control at them to make them shut up or disappear. It would seem to me that you have three options.

The first is to rant and rave and be rude and inconsiderate. You can yell and wave your fists and march around with signs and sign petitions or maybe even throw stones and insults. You could communicate your intolerance and drive them all away from your church and your religion. Congratulations. The Great Commission is in the bag.

The second is to tolerate them. After all, they're not going anywhere, and for all your combative "good" works, you're not making any progress. The louder you yell, the more ground you lose, and the more they learn to hate you. You could be grown up about it, and stop picking on asexual cartoon characters.

The third is to love everyone you meet the way Jesus would have.

I say let's not stop with tolerance. Why is it wrong to teach children to treat other people with respect and dignity?

An interesting comment was made today at house church in regards to judging other people, suggesting that when we make our judgements, we are not trusting the Holy Spirit to do His work. Does the Holy Spirit need us to be obnoxious in order to accomplish His work in other people's lives? If so, we will see results. Have we been seeing results??

Another comment was made regarding root issues. Every problem comes as a result of root issues. For centuries we've been condemning behaviour. When will we start addressing root issues? When will we care enough about people to ask the important questions? Like "why" or "how." When will we lose interest in remedial pat answers and stop burning people at the stake without knowing the first thing about them?

Poor spongebob. He's an asexual seasponge who lives in a pineapple at the bottom of the sea, where he thought he'd be safe. It's okay Spongebob. By the looks of things, I'm asexual too. Jesus loves us both, I'm sure of it.

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