Pro-Family Leader Says Media Using SpongeBob Controversy To Hide Truth

By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
January 27, 2005

The leader of a pro-family group said the mainstream media is misrepresenting the facts surrounding the controversy over a pro-homosexual video featuring the cartoon character Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Stephen Bennett, who serves as the executive director of the Connecticut-based Steven Bennett Ministries as well as Special Issues Editor on Homosexuality for the American Family Association, says he is concerned that the attention has been unnecessarily placed on just one character out of many featured in a video entitled "We Are Family."

In addition to Sponge Bob, other characters featured in the "We Are Family" video include Arthur, Barney, Bear in the Big Blue House, Between the Lions, Blue's Clues, Bob the Builder, The Book of Pooh, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dora the Explorer, Jimmy Neutron, JoJo's Circus, Kim Possible, Lilo & Stitch, Madeline, The Magic School Bus, The Muppet Show, The Proud Family, Rugrats, Sesame Street, and Zoom.

Produced by Nile Rodgers, "We Are Family" is scheduled to be broadcast on The Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and PBS on March 11, 2005 to promote "tolerance and diversity," which some have said will promote the gay lifestyle as normal.

As a former homosexual who is now married with two kids, Bennett said he is perplexed that Sponge Bob being gay became the centerpiece of this controversy.

"No, Sponge Bob or none of the other cartoon characters featured in the video are 'gay,'" Bennett said in a statement. "The video itself does not promote homosexuality, but no doubt will open the door to a secondary discussion of accepting homosexuality as natural and normal."

Bennett said in addition to the television broadcast, another 61,000 "We Are Family" videos will be shipped to public and private schools in the United States along with a teacher's guide about discussing tolerance and diversity in the classroom.

ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings reported last week that the We Are Family Foundation had promoted the pro-gay books "Heather Has Two Mommies" and "Daddy's Roommate" as recommended reading in the teacher's guide to the "We Are Family" video.

Interestingly, downloadable supplements to the teacher's guides that discussed combating "homophobia" and "compulsory heterosexuality" as well as incorporating "gender neutral" language were suddenly removed from the We Are Family Foundation web site after this controversy hit the mainstream media last week.

Admitting that the "We Are Family" video does not promote homosexuality, Bennett said the "We Are Family" web site, which provides content from pro-gay groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and Tolerance.org, explicitly presents a strong pro-homosexual worldview.

In fact, Bennett states, several Christian and pro-family groups are listed as "hate groups" by one of these pro-homosexual web sites promoted by The We Are Family Foundation.

A Tolerance Pledge for children to electronically sign is posted on the We Are Family Foundation web site asking them to respect and tolerate "people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own."

This takes you to another web page that gives you the option to print out the pledge.

Bennett said his group has been able to retrieve and print out most of the pro-homosexual material that has been removed from the We Are Family Foundation web site over the past week that proves they are attempting to hide their intentions.

As a result, Rodgers and the We Are Family Foundation have threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against Bennett and The American Family Association over these accusations.

DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE IN THE FORUM