Ales Rarus

Ibuprofen? No, SpongeBob Squarepants. There's an entertaining defense of Dr. James Dobson's seemingly quixotic endeavors at Christian Conservative. Michael includes a link to Dobson's own explanatory letter.

So let us consider the evidence. One of the first resources to catch our attention on the foundation's Web site was a booklet that lists a number of organizational "allies," including five of the largest pro-homosexual organizations in the nation: the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, and Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

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If you're planning on visiting the We Are Family Foundation's Web site [www.wearefamilyfoundation.org] to verify the accuracy of the above information, don't bother. In the days since this story broke, the majority of overtly pro-homosexual content has been removed. The founder of the organization, Nile Rodgers, appeared on the "Today Show" and said that we had the wrong site and that they had nothing to do with homosexuality. That was Jan. 21. Two days later, most of the homosexual content disappeared or became inaccessible. I will leave it for you to determine the motive behind the mysterious vanishing of such material by the We Are Family Foundation. Suffice to say that we have clear documentation that these materials were being promoted on the Web site as recently as late January, despite denials to the contrary.

There's a cool website called the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It's sort of a "back up" of a lot of the internet. Here's the link to the archive of the We Are Family Foundation. I'm sure somebody with time on their hands can find evidence of what Dr. Dobson saw before it disappeared. It's time to crack Spongegate. Go to it!

Update 02/02/05: Here's the investigation EmilyE mentioned in the comments.

What did Dr. Dobson see?

The We Are Family Foundation's list of allies on its own Web site today includes: Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAAD), Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

That's from the foundation's own Web site. However, don't bother trying to find a link from the main page to the list of allies; it's pretty well hidden. There is no link from the main page (or from the "101 Ways" list) to get you to that page, and the only way I found it was by digging.

Update 02/11/05: Jeremy "Parableman" Pierce disagrees with Emily's findings.

More Facts on Dobson and Spongebob?

This doesn't touch my criticism of Dobson about the site's allies, because a site can promote tolerance without necessarily promoting everything others who ally with that goal will promote. On the site itself, I saw tolerance issues and pretty much nothing else. When I saw the claim that Google caches had other stuff, I expected it to fall out in the post's defense of Dobson's claims, but it turned out to be just smoke. The site promotes tolerance. Others who ally with the site in promoting tolerance happen to promote stronger claims. That says nothing about whether the site itself promotes those stronger claims.