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Dobson apparently expects teachers and parents to instruct children to respect and accept those different from themselves while holding up nontraditional sexual identities as characteristics meriting special judgment and condemnation. I’d like to see the children’s music video for that. This is an extraordinarily arrogant and ineffective plan, but this is the plan Dobson advocates when he condemns lessons like the tolerance pledge. His nosy theology is blinding him to the contradictions of his argument. Impatient for God’s judgment of homosexuals, he is imposing his own and using his position as an influential evangelical leader to spread his message.

Dobson and Focus on the Family seem to think that the decline of the traditional two (married) parent family is related to the rise of acceptance of gay relationships and the baby steps our culture has made toward accepting gay parenting. Increased visibility of gays and lesbians in the media and in real life is frightening to them, and they are lashing out.

Herein lies the danger of reducing this episode to an amusing anecdote. Dobson will not police himself, and spreading an inaccurate story simply gives him more material. The web site for Focus on the Family’s political magazine, CitizenLink, posted a response to the SpongeBob controversy on February 1, 2005, accusing the “liberal media” of intentionally transmitting false reports. Dr. Bill Maier, on behalf of the organization, claimed:

Big Media's criticism of Dr. Dobson shows once again that they just don't get it-America's parents don't want SpongeBob, Big Bird and Elmo co-opted in an effort to persuade their kids that homosexuality is "normal and natural." Dr. Dobson sounded the alarm and now the liberal press is taking him to task. By distorting the facts they are attempting to marginalize him and undermine his influence.

To some extent, it is true that the media, liberal or not, inaccurately reported the story. Far from discrediting Dobson, however, this inaccuracy actually harmed his opponents. Few members of his audience—if they believe his claims of liberal a media bias—are likely to pay much attention to media characterizations of Dobson or Focus on the Family, so even if the story makes him look foolish, there isn’t much harm done to him. Moreover, few people outside of his audience are likely to be shocked by a report claiming he made some silly, ultra-conservative comments—because that’s pretty much what he’s known for—so again there isn’t much harm in the false report.

But the inaccuracy of the story, and its perpetuation in liberal jokes and snide remarks about the Christian right, does real harm to the cause of gay rights because it conceals Dobson’s serious, systematic homophobic mission.

Since the video (and the organization itself) in question emphasizes respecting and celebrating diversity among families, it is worth noting that Dobson has not vocally opposed teaching children to have respect for their classmates with unmarried cohabiting parents, divorced, single, or remarried parents. These family arrangements would be considered immoral or morally questionable according to most, if not all, evangelical interpretations of scripture, as would gay parenting. While Focus on the Family advocates traditional marriages and families, the organization does not express a political agenda to make it harder for couples to divorce the way it has mobilized to oppose gay marriage and parenting.

Yet few in the media are pointing out the group's selective enforcement of their beliefs, choosing instead to reduce the issue to the more humorous "outing" of a cartoon character.

Focus on the Family has a much more limited appeal than the organization would like to admit. Some American Evangelical Christians subscribe to Dobson’s brand of Christianity, but many do not. Most Christians are actively engaged in the larger culture, exposed to the representations of the LGBT community in the TV shows and movies reviewed on AfterEllen.com and AfterElton.com, and encountering LGBT people in their everyday lives.

This is not to sugar-coat the situation: the Evangelicals I am talking about may not have favorable views of gay rights or gay marriage, but they are not necessarily as set in their opinions as Dobson’s crowd. Telling the real story behind the SpongeBob controversy can reach these individuals, as well as nonreligious people who are relatively apathetic about this issue.

It is unlikely that anyone will ever convince Dr. Dobson to renounce his positions on homosexuality and gay rights, but it is possible to use his systematic homophobia to make the case against his agenda. While Dobson and his organization are busy working themselves into a frenzy over the idea of accepting people different from themselves, let’s expose their irrational, judgmental, and reactionary agenda.

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